By Third-year History student, Jem Knight.
If I had a pound for every time I was asked by friends, family, and other students “would you stop bouncing your leg?” I’d have enough to fund my undergrad degree! But what is stimming and why is it so stigmatised?
Stimming, short for Self-Stimulating Behaviour, is something autistic people (and other neurodivergent people) use as a self-regulation tool typically when over or under stimulated, stressed, or bored.
You may recognise stimming as looking like:
· Knee jiggling
· Hand flapping
· Finger tapping
· Whistling, humming, or singing
· Hair twirling
· Repetitive joint cracking
· Pacing
· Rocking
· Doodling
· Listening to the same song/set of songs on repeat
And many more!
It is something that even neurotypical people do (ever been bored in a meeting and start drumming your fingers against a desk?) but stimming is also heavily stigmatised and still viewed as a “bad” thing by many in society.
Stimming is a positive behaviour that helps autistic people to keep focus, stay calm in overwhelming situations, release energy and tension they may have built up in their body, and just get through the day. It is not something that we should have to hide because it makes people who don’t understand it uncomfortable.
People who don’t understand stimming find it uncomfortable for that exact reason. They don’t understand. If something is occurring, like an autistic person snapping their fingers to a beat while they are reading a book or talking to a friend, then for many this finger snapping may seem an illogical action. But if you look at it from an autistic person’s point of view then you may understand it as a tool that could be helping them keep focus, or a way to express excitement at what they are doing, or a way to keep calm due to stress, or another reason!
Just because you don’t understand doesn’t mean it is a bad thing!
Stimming for me
Without stimming, I would be in a near constant state of being over or under-stimulated and get nothing done. If tapping my fingers and shaking my legs helps me keep focused when I need to, like in the library where I need to do research, or in a seminar where I need to be prepared to speak up in front of a group, then it is a great thing!
(I’m currently stimming while typing this!)
There are of course stims that can be harmful, such as headbanging, but the way to deal with these stims is not to have someone mask them, it is to help them find another stim that is as self-soothing without being damaging. For example, I stim in multiple ways, most of them harmless to myself but a couple that are not. Rather then deny my need to stim and push myself into a meltdown, I have noted what stims come out in what situations and have found a way to use harmless stims, such as music repetition and leg jiggling in place of stims that could be harmful to me.
Stimming is great!
Stimming is a great thing and isn’t something to be ashamed of. It is a way to fulfil peoples sensory needs and his brings with it many positive benefits. It can help to release endorphins which makes us feel good and if autistic people suppress stimming when they need to, because of social pressure, then it makes us feel uncomfortable, both physically and mentally.
So, the next time you are sitting in a lecture and see a course mate jigging their leg, fiddling with their hair or tapping their fingers against their legs, just say nothing! It is free, easy and harms no one if you just say nothing and get on with your own work. But commenting on someone’s stim or asking them to stop can negatively impact someone who is just trying to do the same work you are.
If you genuinely find a person’s stims distracting, or you are worried that a stim may be harming them then instead of saying “would you stop that” ask if there is another action that they could do. There are plenty of “discreet” stims, such as chewing gum, using tools like a tangle or fidget spinner, even blinking, that can work too as a stim for some people. But think about this before you ask. Is it distracting or do you just not understand it?
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