ADHD & Vocal Stimming
Why didn’t I know about this!?
I discovered something new about one of my many inexplicable behaviours the other night. It was around 1am and I was doom-scrolling (bad, I know…) on Facebook and found a reel about vocal stimming. One such stim is sighing. A lot. For no apparent reason. Cue lightbulb moment 💡
Why didn’t I know about this before?!
Well, probably because I’m really bad at researching and even worse at retaining information when I do. It’s also possible that I assumed stimming was only related to Autism and not ADHD. I was wrong.
So, what is stimming?
The interweb directed me to The Mini ADHD Coach which has a lovely, easy to read article on ADHD and stimming if you’d like more in-depth information, but I’ll do my best to provide you with the main points below:
*Stimming, aka ‘self-stimulating behaviour’, is a repetitive movement or noise we might make for no apparent reason.
*Often done to relieve boredom or stress, it can also be triggered by sensory overload or under-stimulation.
*Stimming is basically our brains trying to calm themselves down when they’re overloaded.