realsocialskills:

I see this defense of stimming a lot:

• It’s wrong to train autistic people not to stim
• They use it to compensate for overload
• Or to focus
• Or to compensate for other problems
• Or to express distress

All of this is true. But it also misses the point. Stimming isn’t just a coping mechanism. It’s much more than that. Stimming is a positive part of autistic experience, not an unfortunate-but-functionally-important thing we have to do.

Imagine if facial expressions and tones of voice were considered wrong, and someone defended them this way:

• It is wrong to teach children to adopt a flat affect
• Children need to be able to frown
• Children need to be able to indicate through the tone of their voice that something is wrong
• Children need to be able to cry. That’s a way of coping with pain and overload

All of those things are true. But if that’s all defenders of tone and facial expression said, it would be horribly misleading. Body language and tones are more than that, and they are good.

Stimming is like that too.

• Stimming is not just necessary. It is also natural, and good
• Flapping in response to a nice texture is not fundamentally different from smiling in response to the smell of a flower
• Rocking in response to someone saying something offensive is not fundamentally different from frowning in response to a slur
• It is ok for autistic people to have autistic body language

homojabi:

What is stimming?

In it’s most simple form, stimming is a repetitive body movement that self-stimulates one or more senses in a regulated manner.

What types of stims are there?

• Visual Stims
• Flapping hands, blinking and/or moving fingers in front of eyes, staring repetitively at a light, pressing on closed eyes to create visual effect [pressure phosphene], …
• Auditory Stims
• Snapping fingers, tapping on objects, listening to the same song on a loop, rolling Rs, “cat noises”, repeating words, putting hands over ears, singing, clicking tongue, humming…
• Tactile Stims
• Scratching, rubbing the skin with one’s hands or with an external object, pinching the skin, putting thumb inside fist, sucking thumb, rubbing hands/feet together, petting preferred textures, tying knots/twirling string, twirling/stroking hair…
• Vestibular Stims
• Moving body in rhythmic motion, rocking front and back or side-to-side, spinning, pacing, walking in circles, walking on tip-toes, jumping up and down…
• Taste Stims
• Licking body parts, licking an object…
• Smell Stims
• Smelling objects or hands, smelling other people…
• Rhythmic Stims
• Tapping on surfaces/objects/self, clicking fingers, making repetitive vocal sounds, bouncing legs, foot tapping, hand flapping, clicking pens, …

There are a lot of other stims as well that don’t necessarily fall under the category of “repetitive” such as pressure stimming, which are still just as valid. Basically if what you do serves the purpose of the stim, you can call it a stim.

Why do people stim?

People stim for all different kinds of reasons. They may stim when they are happy or excited, when they are stressed, as a part of their normal body language, as a way of communication, as a punishment, as a response to something internal or external, as a compulsion, to focus, to self soothe, etc. Stimming can be a coping mechanism, but it can also be so much more! No matter what reason someone has for stimming though, it’s important to remember that all stims are natural and normal.

Who stims?

Anyone that finds stimming useful, whether consciously or subconsciously, can stim. This includes neurotypicals, but mainly stimming is seen as something that neurodivergent people do and it occurs most frequently in:

• the autism spectrum
• sensory processing disorder (SPD)
• Tourette’s
• schizophrenia
• OCD
• people that experience mania/hypomania
• people with ADHD/ADD
• people with anxiety
• etc

Where can I find stim toys/jewelry?

• Stimtastic
• TherapyShoppe
• AutismShop
• SensoryUniversity
• OfficePlayground
• RuthDoodle
• FidgetLand