Stimming
“Self-stimulatory behaviour, also known as stimming and self-stimulation, is the repetition of physical movements, sounds, words, or moving objects.” That’s what Wikipedia says.
Nearly everyone stims. Tapping your feet, playing with your hair, fidgeting, etcetera. Most people do it in ways that aren’t so frequent or intense. Some people do it more often and more noticeably. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
I stim a lot. I think a lot of people around me know that. I used to do it a lot less obviously, but I’ve learnt to be more comfortable stimming bigger. So yeah, that includes sitting on the floor swaying from side to side. Don’t worry, I’m not traumatised. It just feels good. It feels comfortable.
I tend to have more physical stims. Bouncing, swaying, rocking, pacing. Tapping my feet, shaking my leg, flapping my hands, playing with my fingers. Bouncing on an exercise ball, twisting staples, playing with buckyball magnets, stretching rubber bands. There are a lot.
I don’t really understand how people can just… not want to do it, to be honest. It feels good. It feels so good. Like when you’ve sat in a chair for the last two hours, how do you just not feel the urge to get off the chair and sit on the floor and bounce to your heart’s content? Or when you’ve watched something that makes you happy at 1am, how do you not want to get up and jump around the room, flapping your hands and smiling?
I stim when I have a surplus of energy. I also do it when I have too little. It’s weird that way. I think I spend more time stimming than not. Sometimes, for me, stimming is a conscious decision and sometimes it’s not, but either way, it feels necessary.
Stimming makes me happier. It feels freeing. A release of emotions and tension and energy, like a compressed spring being released. You see me on the floor, eyes closed, swaying from side to side. Maybe you think I’m weird, or crazy. But to me, it feels like I’m a bird soaring in the sky, like waves crashing on a beach, like the night’s sky in the countryside. It feels free.
Image description: an orange sunset from the beach. The sun is at the horizon over the ocean. At the bottom of the picture, some sand from the beach can be seen
I am not an expert in this and this isn’t like the most comprehensive, so I highly recommend checking these out:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CREQTETM4Eo/?utm_medium=copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNvhH0EHNIC/?utm_medium=copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CScdvqcn2Pq/?utm_medium=copy_link
