I joined a really interesting discussion group last month about a non-western perspective on autism. The host was Jewish & explained how grateful he was for being born into a tradition that encourages rocking & swaying as part of their daily prayers/ rituals. Also, many cultures consider making direct eye contact to be rude!! Some cultures seem to be naturally less stressful for autistic people. It was a really fascinating discussion!

My wonderful partner of 6 years was diagnosed several years ago (long before I met him) with "moderate to severe Aspergers." His stimming takes the form of incessant leg-bouncing in situations (church, formal concerts, etc.) where it is important to sit quietly and sit still. I am a church musician and a harpist, so we find ourselves in these situations often and Paul swears that he wants to come with me to enjoy my music. He likes watching me perform. I used to find his fidgeting embarrassing, but now if someone glares at him, I just glare back! He's a wonderful man - how dare you give him a dirty look?!

Jesus. Scalp picking is something i've been doing since I was a child and i've never been able to stop. It's something i've kept hidden out of shame for decades. I also chew my fingers to where they become raw. I've only been looking into the potential for me being autistic over the past couple of months (thanks to you, and a couple of others). I've been feeling immense relief at having a potential explanation for my 'bad habits', and some insight into why I was bullied so much growing up and why I was frequently ousted from friendship groups.

for me, stimming is putting on my headphones and blasting the same song over and over again while maladaptive daydreaming, hand flapping, and making weird noises for an hour.

I recently found out I'm in the spectrum this week and I've been reeling at how much of my own behaviors make sense now. I've been stiming the while time but I've always tried to force my self not to because I thought I was resisting going insane! I've been paranoid, especially the last 5 years of my life, that I was just about to snap and lose my mind for ever. Turns out there was never anything wrong with me! I'm just Autistic! I just turned 35

I’m an autistic adult, and I already knew what stimming was, but I think you’ve given the best definition of stimming that made me go from mostly understanding what it is to understanding what it is.

I have had a "blanket" (silky piece of fabric) since I was a child, I am now 47 and still, always have to have something with me, especially if I am heading out, and I know it will be stressful. It really does help to regulate me. Thanks for this post ❤️🤗

My son stims very overtly he hand flaps, toe walks, head bangs, etc. I stim more subtly. Realizing a lot of my "bad habits" was me stimming made me feel less shame. I'm trying to redirect it to less self destructive behaviors. I have a spinner ring that helps a bit with the nail biting/cuticle picking. Great topic, Orion!

I have been a skin picker for as long as I can remember and it was classified as self harm before autism was recognised, Thanks for saying there's noting wrong with it!

Recently self-diagnosed at age 36 and seeking official diagnosis. 90% of the time I laugh at a joke, it's forced and I don't think whatever is being said is actually funny. I laugh because I don't want hurt the person's feelings and I know it's expected of me. However, since becoming involved in the Autism community, I am genuinely laughing regularly for the first time ever. The bit about stroking your phone has me in tears! Also, I loved Inspector Gadget as a kid (because Penny is awesome). I am working my way through all of the videos on your channel and enjoying every moment. Thank you

The neurotypical majority conveniently forget that EVERYONE stims. They just have look at people's anxiety levels of when people stim.

I listen to favorite songs on repeat, too! Late diagnosed here. Never knew that was a stim until recently. I also HAVE to sniff certain smells. Done that my whole life! Thank you for shining the light on these lesser known stims, Orion! You rock!

I've been picking the skin around my fingers since I was a teenager and now I'm 25... I'm so glad you talked about it because I was just looking at harm minimisation fidgets before I clicked on your video. It's hard not to feel shame for it. I have the same thing where it's damaged beyond repair and I know it sounds bad when I say it out loud but I find it really hard to fight the urge, and a lot of the time I don't realise I'm doing it.

17:11 so I was literally dressing a wound I had made on my knuckle as you hit this part. Thank you 🙏🏻 for helping us know this is not a dirty little secret- it definitely can get ugly though. One thing I have found is that having all the tools (including tweezers, manicure scissors, skin cleansing spray, tissue, healing oil, and fabric Band-Aids that I don’t react to) close to hand helps me to be more focused on helping my skin than harming it. So another form of stimming I guess, trying to substitute the helpful one instead of getting too far into the harmful one

Such a great video! I was diagnosed at 59 and you can imagine how much of my life I spent trying to repress my stimming! Now at 64, I find it difficult to let myself go and stim...but I'm learning. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for helping me feel comfortable about stimming and that I'm not alone. I really think I use the repetitive rhythmic nature of knitting and crochet to provide a "grownup" means of stimming. I also find the texture of the yarn and stitches therapeutic as well, and I am constantly feeling and admiring the completed material while I do this.

Wow. Orion really lays his soul to bare. Thank you for being so candid with your own experiences. This helps so much when trying to educate myself about my son’s autism. I was also shocked to realise I myself have stimming behaviour. I write words in the air and picked my lips bloody when younger..so, so insightful xx

I finally got my diagnosis in 2021 at age 50. I was raised by abusive parents and have been masking even at home since childhood. I also don’t seem to have any stims…until you spoke about music/songs…and I swear you described me! When I really like a song, it will repeat for hours. And I feel so happy and calm then! I hand wring in extreme stress and whenever I was around my parents in adulthood. Thank you for helping me to understand myself better so I can make the most of what I have left of this life.

One verbal stim I have is "I want to go home." I say it whenever I start to think about things that make me sad or upset. Problem is I use it when I'm at home. Once while stepping out of the shower to start my day and just the other night when I was in bed, trying to fall asleep for the night. It works, yes, but even I wonder why I'm saying it at times like those ones.

Thank you for bringing up skin picking! It is so difficult to explain to people how it is comforting.

That was the best explanation of stimming that I've seen. You had me chuckling away both with how relatable it was and how you presented it, awesome stuff 😺

Thank you for this. As a late diagnosed autistic, just ove ra year ago, I'm now at the point where I'm trying to actively focus on stopping the act preventing myself from stimming. Slowly as I let myself do what's natural for me, I'm finding I start to feel a little more regulated. It's nice. This video was helpful in reminding me that there's nothing wrong with me for my skin picking stims. I keep trying to have fluffy objects around like teddies and popping bubble stim toys for when my skin pickings worse so I can try to divert my stimming focus when it's getting bad and I'm aware of it. Though it doesn't always work. Now I'm much kinder to myself about my skin picking than I used to be as I realise it's just something I have to live with and accept

One that I do a lot is internal stimming. Sound, rhythms in my head or songs on repeat in my head. I also stim in layers- there might be internal stimming going on as well as smelling pleasant scents and jiggling my foot. It ramps up and down as needed.

I'm so glad that you made this video, coz now I know why I do these and don't know how to stop. My dad used to tell me off for pulling my hair and jiggling my leg all the time. I literally do everything on your list. I've watched Muriel's Wedding over 10 times and I can repeat all the words, I never get bored, I find it as exciting as the first time I watched it. When people talk to me or even when I watch KZfaq or tv for some reason I repeat all the words in my head before it even comes out of their mouth. I've been doing this for years.

Hi, I’m a 49 year old man living in Australia. I was diagnosed with autism this year. After watching your video I’ve realised I’ve been stimming in lots of different ways all my life. I have been picking at my scalp so much lately that I have a large bald patch, this also happened when I was at primary school. Thanks for your video, I don’t feel quite so guilty and strange anymore.

Calm down, stop tapping your legs, theres no need to be anxious. This is how i calm down and now im more anxious because you're pointing out that im anxious and now i need to supress my way of dealing with being anxious

I’m a BIG ROCKER. Done it all my life. When I’m tired and/or stressed. ALSO-always rocked myself to sleep.

I'm glad that I clicked on this video because you helped me to learn more about myself. Now I know definitely for sure that I am on the spectrum and to be honest it's a sigh of relief 😊

I pick at my face . Like squeezing the sebum out of my face. And I also tock back and forth. I fidget with my dreadlocks so I have been putting them in btaids to avoid messing with them all the time. The repetitive patterns that I stim through my drawings. I still have not received a diagnosis for Autism Spectrum Disorder and I just turned 50. . I like to feel different textures. That's why I enjoy making fabric dolls. And I use to spin when I was a child. And as a young adult when I went out dancing I will spin in a circle. Thank you for this video❤

without having finished the vid, i wanna mention that stimming isn't always negative. sometimes the disregulation comes from feeling positive emotions very strongly! so it helps us deal with that as well :3 orion definitely know this, but some other people may not so i figured i'd comment

I feel seen! I also pick at my fingers and scalp. I recently got myself a set of rings with freely rotating chains on them. That way I have something to stim always accessible right on my hand. It really helped me not pick at my fingers too much anymore.

A few weeks ago i had a stressful time, so i listened to the same song for two weeks in a row.

Rocking chairs and porch swings are the best. My dad is a leg bouncer and pacer. My grandmother was a hand wringer.

Thank you for validating the experience!! Plus, my apologies Orion: I "shudder" my eardrums. It's some combination of flexing the muscles in throat jaw and ear that are engaged while yawning, and some resistance that requires my eyes closed for full power. Makes a brief pushing sensation and gentle hum/shush sound not originating from the movement of air. Helps me move head conjestion. Also: petting or moving finely machined parts, piling or pulling up a piled chain, singing, that couch-pushing whole body engagement your kid enjoys, and trying a balance board. I am rotten at it, but I like it.

You should do a topic on the importance of a pet. The best stim is a soft haired dog/cat. I could pet my dog for ages.

Hi Orion, my name is George and I am a recently diagnosed adult with autism and coincidentally, I have a son with autism, whose first name is Orion. Your videos have changed my life so much for the better. I am from America and I’m unfortunately going through a difficult divorce and the topic if you ever have the time that I would appreciate your input on this discrimination against autistic people in the court system and being miss labeled as mental health issues just because my normal is different from what neurotypical peoples normal is. Obviously laws and civil rights differ from country to country. However, I have to imagine this is a common problem in many countries if not all. Thanks again for your hard work. You are changing the lives of many people, so I want to congratulate you and tell you I am proud of you. Take care

I'm 50 and am awaiting official diagnosis (unfortunately I live in England and have already been waiting a year for my referral). I pluck the hairs from my neck with tweezers to the extent that I only have to shave my face and not my neck. Making patterns with my tongue, touching 4 specific teeth is another. Also watching films and series over and over. I must have watched all Blackadder episodes, hundreds if not thousands of times. I also have a single playlist of songs that I only listen to. I would never have guessed these were stimming or even knew the term until very recently. What an amazing channel this is. Thanks Orion!

Looking back, as a kid- teen I would sometimes stim by spinning, E.g laying on the floor and spinning myself around on laminate flooring . Or I would have myself lay on the couch, but with my head hanging over the seat edge so I was "upside down", or, at least visually, the room was flipped. I found it relaxing to just look at the room and observe it from another perspective. Probably visual stimming. Until it would make me feel nauseous from being upside down with my head for a while lol

I am a late diagnosed female with autism. Relearning to and allowing myself to stem has been a game changer!

My son stims with labels on his clothes and moving, but when it’s windy then he loves hand flapping and he will just stand there a flap in time with the wind movement and I actually love seeing him do this. He has a ball chair at home and uses that to bounce on and that helps, but it’s when he just walks round and round you that we generally have to intervene, as I end up feeling dizzy, but he could keep going. We’ve learned to accept whatever Matthew does and see autism as part of his cheeky personality.

Oh wow 😳 I have to say a huge thank you yet again to you Orion, I used to pick my nails and skin around them to the point that my nails and skin around them were always sore and bleeding. I still do it to some degree but because of the many years of criticism and out right cruel comments I have definitely stopped doing to the degree I used to. My thumb nail has been picked to the point that the nail never grows in correctly. Honestly I think somehow I just replaced the finger nail/skin picking with another potentially self harmful behavior.... so I appreciate the fact that you are willing to share the things that might be a little bit personal or even embarrassing so that others can relate and not feel so weird or defective. Love the inspection gadget reference!

my stimming is knee shakes. its actually a movement that originates in the ankles and mid foot muscles, but results in my knees bouncing. sometimes just one knee, but often both legs shaking just to be able to concentrate.

When you brought up the finger picking thing, I realized I have the exact same problem on one of my thumbs just like yours, but I would always think about it and explain it to other people through the lens of just anxiety. Funny how common shared experiences are like this for autistic people. It's crazy to think such specific things could be innate to autism.

Videos I can play while knitting and crocheting. Red Dwarf, Good Omens, Sherlock Holmes. They stimulate and soothe at the same time, even calm me to sleep. I’ve played them dozens of times and I’m never bored. 😊

Haha I love it - I'm a professional space cadet! I LOVE spacing out, and I love how you said 'like we had a leash on our mind in the first place' and how 'our minds are absconding - so spot-on! Though I said I love it, it is also an escape during tough times, so those moments are tough, but once immersed in that faraway place, there is peace and I love that. I love peace, don''t we all! Another great and educational video, thanks as always.

Thank you for putting yourself out here on KZfaq. I can relate to almost everything you said in this video. Especially listening to the same song (in my case) for the whole day. Stimming helps me focusing, but doesn't prevent me from spacing out.

I kept thinking, 'I don't stim!." I have absolutely NO tolerance for repetitive behaviors, pencil tapping, pen clicking, foot bouncing or any other mechanical squeaking or rapping. I would never do THAT myself. :oD Then you talked about other kind of stimming. When I get really anxious or almost overwhelmed, I do word puzzles, or card solitaire games to calm me down and help me re-focus. I thought that was what anyone would do. I have a computer next to my work computer that I kept various puzzle games up. When I can't solve a problem with work or I get stuck, I go to the games for a bit, then come back to my work. And here I thought I was shirking. Thank you for not putting us all in the Rain Man box. I used to bite my nails and pick or bite my skin around my nails, but I've worked to not do that as much. So something else takes it's place.

My boyfriend really needs to wrap me in his arms, which sounds romantic but he does it so he can stim on me. I have to move his hands around so he won't rub the skin off because he gets stuck on one part of my arm or leg. It's confusing, we're at cross purposes. He really takes his hair apart and and yawns hugely in the middle of a conversation, it happens before he shuts down and has to take a nap. He's 65, has a grown autistic son and has not yet been diagnosed himself although he's willing to be. Thank you for helping me to understand these activities, I recognised that he was on the spectrum shortly after we met but without the diagnosis, I struggle with understanding and communicating clearly with him. Love at first sight. He's so kind that he's easily taken advantage of, so intelligent that he gets lost in his work and so innocent that it's like dating a fourteen-year-old boy. A boy who can't read the room. I'm subscribing.

Orion, I was waiting for the number 1 stimming habbit that I have : mental stimming. It always comes with some music: a short, repetitive melody which usually comes from memory, a TV add or a song. During a burnout, i will be on high alert when it begins ... at one point during covid, I had piled up so much stress that I was having these 3 or 4 notes on repeat mode in my head like ALL DAY LONG. It was a sign my burnout levels were going through the roof . In a way, it's like a protection trick to go through a lot of BS situations. But in the end, you realize it is actually making you go nuts.

I was an auditory stimmer. I sang to myself, repeated catchy phrases, and talked constantly growing up. I talked to myself. And I danced. That's tough because my siblings shut down any dancing/talking/singing behaviors with teasing that to me felt pretty merciless. Which made me do all the behaviors more. It was a bad cycle. Like one time they were hanging out in the car, talking, and caught me singing to my dog. They honked and scared the living daylights out of me. And teased and teased and teased me about it afterward. I was a pretty oversensitive kid and I was afraid to do anything after that because I was worried they were always just around the corner. 😊😅 I have a door opener/closer. When we go out, it is often all he wants to do. It is a challenge. Maybe I can teach him to push forward instead since the back and forth motion with an exercise of force seems to be something he enjoys.

OH MY GOD!!!!!!! I thought I was stupid for not being able to stop picking - and that I was the only one so strange and stupid!!!!!!! THANK YOU FOR BEING HONEST!!!!!!!

He’s so cute. I love this guy! My family calls me Mr.Fidget. I literally can’t stop moving my hands or playing with something in my hand until it’s destroyed lol.

Thank you Orion, again another good video. Thank you for making us that do these things feel normal. I can look back at my whole entire life and see how I've been doing these things all along. I'm 61 years old now. I did not know I was autistic all these years. I have twelve grandchildren and almost half of them are autistic. I see these things in all of my grandchildren.❤

Thank you for talking about skin picking. It helps so much to hear other people talking about it.

Thank you Orion I recognize now multiple visual stimming my boyfriend does This is huge eye opener for me and the need or understanding why stimming occurs Have a blessed day Orion

I pace around like a 🦁 lion when a 📞telephone conversation becomes 😬 stressful.

It may seem a little irrelevant but I love your shirts, always interesting. All the best Joseph

“Our mind isn’t wandering, it’s absconding” true statement…. My mind is AWOL (absconding without leave)

I've only recently started to think / believe that I am likely high-functioning autistic after I was diagnosed with ADHD and it was suggested to me by someone that there is quite often a link between having ADHD/ADD and simultaneously being on the ASD scale in the case of many autistic people so I thought it wouldn't hurt to look into it. I found your channel a while ago and thought pretty much every time I have watched your videos "My God I am exactly like that, I've done that since childhood and I never noticed / realised / thought of it as 'not normal behaviour' or even knew that these are autistic traits/stimming!" etc. I've been looking into things more and more ever since, and I'm realising that it's now pretty much a certainty that I am an undiagnosed autistic adult and in that light-bulb moment - suddenly as if someone turned on a light in the darkness or unblocked a dam - bucket-loads of events from my past came flooding in; like memories of people telling me I'd been rude / come across as "harsh" or sarcastic / nasty when I spoke to people without me ever meaning to be / thinking I was being rude or abrupt etc, how I am always being told I'm 'loud' (despite as a kid I never noticed my voice being any louder than anyone else around me, I was still always told to be quiet or stop shouting), as an adult friends often have had to remind me to be quieter or "stop shouting" / calm down when I get excitable about something we're discussing! Stimming though is something I was not even thinking about / aware that I was doing - yet I now understand the hair-plucking "self-harm", skin picking (yes I do it too), hair-smoothing, certain faces I pull, sounds I make, phrases I use, voices I've learnt to put on or say random phrases in etc are all likely forms of stimming for me as an adult, just as they were in childhood, but I had never looked at these habits / tendencies as things I was doing to "stim" or regulate etc! I just did them...well...because! To me I didn't have a reason, but thinking about it now the majority of the things I do that qualify as stimming are things to help regulate myself in some way or other. Hell, when you mentioned the foot-bouncing / leg-twitching I just now remembered how an ex told me that she hated the constant foot-tapping I do subconsciously whilst I'm sitting on the sofa or on the floor under the table when I was eating in a restaurant with her or sat at my desk playing games etc. I always put it down to just having too much energy / needing to burn off nervousness, but the likelihood is it's one of my many stims too! It's incredible how many things I've realised about myself from just having watched your videos, Orion - and, having taken some initial online screening tests recently for autism and scoring towards the higher end of the "likely to be autistic" scale on all of them, I am now going to push my doctor's surgery for a referral for proper assessment and diagnosis of potential autism. I've struggled with so much - so many different things - for my whole life and never understood why things seem so much easier for other "normal" people and why I, despite always trying to fit in or be part of the crowd or to educate myself on things or learning how to "mask" as best I could by emulating/mimicking friends who were "normal", I just couldn't get on or fit in, in life - I would always end up being thought of as "weird", "odd", "random", "strange" and so forth by 'normal / popular people' and friends who I now understand to be neuro-typical and that I am, in most probability, neuro-divergent and high-functioning autistic spectrum. This kind of thing throughout my whole life has lead to me internalising my ADHD (whereas when I was a child I was hyperactive, so I'd have been running around constantly on the go and not really thinking about much, per-se - rather than now as an adult living a pretty sedentary life my ADHD is internalised and instead of using energy to play games or be active, my thoughts are the thing flying around at lightspeed in my head instead) and things spiral really badly for me some days which often revolves around constant catastrophising, reliving PTSD from childhood, general anxiety and depression and as a result I'm never able to maintain relationships and I struggle with friendships / relationships / just holding down a job for any extended period of time etc. Before finding your content and looking more into it, I didn't realise that so many of my difficulties in life are potentially down to me having gone undiagnosed as neuro-divergent for so long, but now I am trying to find the help and understanding that I need in order to take my life back and start moving forward again and I want to thank you, Orion, for continuing to make this content - as hard and difficult as it is at times for you - it's massively appreciated and I have been sharing your videos with my close family and friends to give them insight into how my mind works differently to theirs and what a potential diagnosis of autism may mean for me!

This is a wonderfully real and comprehensive piece on Stimming. I was of course only half listening the first time while doing a hyperfocus fine detail task. Still, you prompted memories of me stimming different ways through my life. And how I'm stimming now, at this point in my life. The visual stimming just shocked me, I had never considered what I do as stimming ...... But it so clearly is ❤ So now obvs I will be watching it again and diving deeper into understanding myself ❤ Anyone else? 😂 *edited to capitalize the lower case i's.

I am so glad you brought up the paradox of skin picking. I can't stop it, and I've done it since I was a child. Most of the time I have no discernible fingerprints because of the constant cycle of picking and healing. It is validating to recognize and understand HOW my present distress levels parallel the time spent and amount of damage done to my skin. This is quite embarrassing to discuss, but I'm so grateful to have the opportunity. Being that it's not exactly healthy and can be dangerous to do, now understanding it, I'm trying different hand held fadgets to satisfy the urge and keep my fingers busy. The fact that I also remember periods of time as a child when I had noticeable eye and body movements makes so much sense. I was in a state of high anxiety, always, at school. That's when I was "called out" for my behaviors. It's shameful that I was made to feel bad about it, knowing now what it signified.

Rare form today, Orion! You had me laughing so hard at some points, especially with the phone stroking! I also didn't realize my leg bouncing was stimming though I should have known. I know my finger thing is stimming but to see you actually do it was quite something. I so understand being able to listen to a song for hours but I thought it was just because I am a musician. I had a dance/electronica/disco compilation that played constantly in the car when me and my kids needed to drive somewhere. It was a routine and a pattern we all enjoyed together and this sheds new light on us bonding in an autistic way that I quite enjoy. Thank you so much, my friend! I always learn something new about myself and my children watching you and that value cannot be understated. You are awesome!

I am watching this video while swaying, holding my hands together while playing air piano, tapping my teeth, and biting my cheek.

Oh my lord, not the thumb patch. The one on my right thumb is especially bad. I scratch and pick at it with the fingers on that same hand, sometimes my other hand, I also bite at it and tear off bits of skin and eat them for some reason??? Jesus. I have been watching your videos and IANW?'s videos and so, so, SO many things are making sense to me now.. and it would make a lot more sense for me to be on the spectrum than to have so many of these past misdiagnoses and now currently diagnosed with tons and tons of other random things.. it'd be all-encompassing and actually make SENSE for all of them. Your content has been so helpful to me. Thank you for doing what you do.

Thank you for this vid. Closes the loop on my being undiagnosed autistic for 80 years!!!

My go to stimming is rubbing my index finger over my thumb, I do it when everything is a bit too much. I also pull/twist the skin on my chest and/or troat whenever I feel stressed. I twirl my fingers through my hair when I try to concentrate but this also leads to me pulling indivdual hairs from my head which sometimes hurt a lot but I keep doing it. I bite off skin from my lips, but only if my lips are dry, which leads to bleeding and blisters. I like to chew on hairbands that are "twisted" and I tap my feet alot or "spin" them around. I also like watching lava lamps or shake a snow globe (as a visual stimming). I could go on but I'm gonna stop.

I have Asperger’s, OCD, & undiagnosed, ADHD, so don’t take it the wrong way when I say, you are a total spaz, but I absolutely love it. I love watching your channel & listening to you. You make me laugh. It’s extremely difficult to encounter anyone that understands me you set my 3 Perfect Babies who I see on weekends & my girlfriend & the occasional family member who I grew up with of which there are dozens but they’re all in the USA.

In the movie “The sixth sense”, the psychologist reaches a point where he has to reevaluate the events in his life, knowing he was not the person he had believed himself to be. As a 64 year old just diagnosed last year, I have looked back at scenarios from my past, seeing it from my new autistic viewpoint. I understand the misunderstandings now.

Stimming can be viewed as a type of bio-hacking in the context of self care and as you say, self regulation, emotional regulation, to maintain homeostasis.

I had just commented on that, in one of your other videos. When my son had therapy, when he was little, I would have to intervene sometimes, when they would coach him to stop the stimming. If it helps him and if he doesn’t care what people think, then why do I care?! A lot of it he naturally outgrew, but definitely still does it. Some will change or go away and some he will pick up again. There’s only one, that will bother him, when he’s more stressed and we work that out and give him another way to release that and relax him. We have to pay attention to not try and make autistic people fit into society the way we fit…because Jesus, look how we’re all doing in society as neurotypicals….IT IS A MESS OUT HERE!! WHO THE HELL ARE WE TO SAY?!

Wow, such an immense amount of validation! Thank you so much! ❤

The more I watch your videos, the more autistic traits I identify with that I never noticed. I didn't even think about the possibility of being autistic until last year and I'm trying to get testing as an adult (which is really difficult). Thank you for all of the videos you have and the education you give. It's really been enlightening.

I have struggled with skin picking mostly on my thumb cuticles since forever...Nail cuticle picking... Also nostril flaring, teeth clenching, tensing neck muscles. Good times. I'm sorry you also struggle with this. ❤

Hi Orion, I am naughty, I smoke, I use my cigarettes and my lighter to stim with, I already have an English accent, but I will use Stewie from Family Guy as an example to make my English accent sound even posher, so I will adopt the way Stewie speaks which helps me to regulate myself, I do the music stimming aswell, I will quite happily listen to a specific line from a piece of music over and over again and never get bored with it, that's how I would stim, anyway another great video, thankyou Orion ❤XXX XXX ❤😊

I listen to the same play list .I don't like hearing the same song twice though

I am 37 and just figured out I'm autistic. I've picked my fingers (index finger and thumbs) and I've also bit at my cheeks too my whole life. My pediatrician when I was super young got onto me for the biting of cheek, my dentistdid later too. I never was able to stop. Now, since I learned about autism, I know why.

As an adult I carry 2 different kind of light switches & a door pull ony key chain. It is cheaper than buying fidget from a store.

As a late diagnosed adult, exploring my natural stimming behaviors (long masked) has been such a great experience.

I stim I have all sort of different stims. Finger flicking, hand twisting, stroking my face, twisting my hair, making choo choo noise, picking my head, etc etc etc. sometimes it’s to keep me focused, other it’s because I’m stressed, or because I’m happy, or because I’m concentrating, or because it feels good. When really distressed the stims can be self harming in a minor way. There are different stim some that sooth, some that help focus, some that celebrate my excitement they tend to be the verbal noises I make. Before my very late diagnoses I hide most behind closed doors or I’d disguise them like twiddling with my scarf or something. I’d also shrink them so instead of flapping my hands I’d use a smaller finger movement that was not noticed. I’m so glad you did this video. I no longer hide my stim to the extend that I used to, although in a public place I do hide a lot because I don’t want to be ‘locked up for being mad’ I fully agree stimming is a very important part of the Autistic life and one that we should be free to use for many many different reasons. Brilliant video! Loved the Phone ringing hands!

I haven't been diagnosed. But when you started tapping your fingers I felt so seen. I 'm still struggling not to start crying.

Thank you for the thorough explanation, I'm almost 40 and was just diagnosed for autism in March of this year and I'm still learning about all of this, I had no idea the repetitive things I do actually had a term associated with them. The part about music rings true for me, I will loop a single song for hours across many days until I'm utterly sick of it. But there are specific whole albums I love to go through start to finish which I think stems from only having cassette tapes as a kid (man, I'm getting old). I really didn't like rewinding and fast forwarding them constantly and wearing them out so I would just listen to both sides all the way through.

The phone part had me rolling Thanks for these videos. As someone who recently discovered they’ve made it all the way to 38 before knowing I was autistic… this video is pretty enlightening

What about stuff like knitting(or other repetetive craft stuff) and doodling in order to sit still and be able to listen? If I can't do any of that, I have to force myself to sit still and I might completely zone out at some point.

I am generally fascinated by stimming. Before i knew im autistic i definitely had those patterns of go-to calming things. I talked about them like my personal hacks, i sing a specific song in my mind to calm me down, always this song. And i use other triggers to get my mind in the right mood to do tasks. When in pain i would always rock back and forth, and then my partner pointed out that i do it when im really tired too. I find stimming interesting because it seems so natural to do, but its so shamed. Like animals do it, you may not think of animals as the go-to when you think about stimming but animals and children naturally do this to soothe themselves. I think a lot of NT adults do it too, but they dont realize its stimming and are also shamed for it / ashamed of it. Which i think is such a stupid social thing. Like we have the means to self regulate (im talking people in general) and you let a social construct that YOU make make you feel shitty instead. People create the most stressful situations and then act like they arent stressed and everyone tells you to not be stressed, and to self regulate, but takes away all means of self regulation. Make it make sense! What i meant to say is, its a totally natural thing animals do to calm themselves and it WORKS too. It helps to soothe the brain. My primary stimming is music on repeat, and playing the same game on repeat - when i can. But if im really stressed i will rub my nails against each other until there is an irregularity at which i will scratch until my nail is painfully short. Its not even pleasurable, its just annoying but i cant stop it and it ruins my nails. I suppose itsnot the worst thing but i like my long pretty nails and i like them having a perfect shape. So i get kind of OCD about my nails being short and the sensation of short nails HURTS. Luckily, i never got into hurting myself by picking skin. But i do get how pain can be a way of stimming. If i get really worked up i would stab my finger with a pen or my thigh with a pen or something along those lines. I totally agree with you in regards to the fidget toys. I wish there were more good ways to stim too btw. I found that i hate biting unless im angry. And that i hate most fidgety toys but i decided i need to sit down and find one for me! I want a fidget toy that goes click-clack ideally with that sound. I realized for myself i hate most materials, with the exception of metal. Plastic can be ok but is usually not perfect and sturdy enough and i start picking it apart. I seen a metal fidget toy like a coin, and i want it so bad but i forgot where one could buy it and cant find it. So if anyone knows please let me know. For me personally those infinity fidget toys do not work. I need a click and a clack, something proper, sturdy, final. I need two (or more) fixed options and switch between them. I go absolutely insane if a toy does not have a fixed position like those twirly rings and so on. i seen like a slider wiht a button in the middle but you cant buy that one?? So im really open for ideas. And also again, everyone has their own needs so try and find what works best for you and dont get intimidated by the social media hypes. I honestly most often play with my keys or coins or whatever i get my hands on and i ruined so many many hairclips by going click clack but its also a GREAT way to stim for me

As a Autistic person I absolutely love media stimming 😊 Just watching the same, or my most favourite ever TV show scenes over and over again. I've being doing.... ..that for a long time ever since I was a teenager 😃 I love to watch certain scenes from fictional shows, then I daydream about them later=) I also really love.... Watching the same KZfaq channels, only watching the video once but often watching similar videos daily. My most favourite of all content is on Autism.. Neurodiversity and seperately family- KZfaq channels.. I also love constantly learning and immersing my brain in knowledge, so watching..... Real- life individuals whom are content creators and, where I can relate to them is so very awesome and, I'm so grateful to creators.. Like yourself as us Autistics can always learn, so much from each other too said with respect and kindness ☺️😊

I really enjoyed this one, you definitely had me giggling at points lol. I have so many stims. Swaying is my main one, hair plucking, chewing the skin around my nails, one odd one that I stopped doing as a child was a type of hand flapping where I let my hands and wrists go completely limp, and use an up and down motion with my arms. I remember I stopped doing that one because I was looked at weird. Once I realized as an adult that I was autistic and started learning about stimming, I remembered this one, and now I've gone back to using it from time to time. It's a good one, a lot of sensory input. Listening to music and dancing is a fave of mine, and when I'm really stressed I sing Disney songs, or sing talk. For me, floating in water regulates me immediately. I swam like a fish as a kid.

Thank you again Orion for helping me to feel better about my oddities!

Thank you Orion for explaining the reasons why and giving examples of stimming! I learned so much from this video! The part where you stroked your phone and the hand wringing bit made me LOL thanks for that! And I'm so happy you're still making videos!!!

that was filled with valuable info, Thank you Orion! i do so many of these stimming things, some i wasnt aware of. the scent thing is HUGE for me. i have 2 candles burning every day from wake up to bed time. i mop with essential oil mixed with hot water. ive been using clove recently, it reminds me of my Mom cooking a Ham on Sundays big dinner. (not that my childhood was that bloody pleasant ~ha) im constantly touching something, my arm, something smooth & cool to the touch is nice. Its reassuring to know im not the only one. the more i learn from you, the more i recognize this behavior in my siblings. Oh my, they could & would NOT want to accept that info. Queens of denial in so many areas. music on repeat, i have done this for years. there are songs that i know every sound & note & lyric etched in my fragile brain. Thanks again. Plus, im really digging your book! You freaking rock! Oh, by the way, i rock too, and i sway! Stim on everyone.

Last October 2022 I watched a KZfaq video from you mentioning spotting autism in adults; that was my late life wake up call to autism. At 62, I’ve struggled through social interactions. Tried alcohol which didn’t help in masking. And like you, when this mind blowing reflection of myself KNEW I was not alone. I might be the odd man out in a room but now know I’m not alone. Thank you Orion.

I have a topic suggest. Video games and ASD. Video games for me is a major special interest & I've kind of been thinking about what certain types of game genres I enjoy & if it's because of my ASD.

I loved Lego when I was a kid and passed on a big box of them to my kids. Every single tire they found in the box had been chewed to some extent by me. On top of that, when I was a kid I used to chew paper like gum. It drove my parents crazy. The interesting deviation from some of your examples is music. I can't stand listening to things over and over and over. I need new sounds and textures so I rarely listen to anything with frequency like you describe. Instead I often go through a period where I have to hear everything that artist has recorded. And when I've hit the wall, where I just can't listen anymore but don't have something else lined up, I feel lost for a bit. But soon I'll pick up on some other artist and go through their stuff. I will eventually return to a lot of these artists and albums but not like most people, I find. I tend to listen to what I listen to for specific sounds and, especially audio textures.

Thank you so much Orion! This is the best description of stimming I’ve found - I have so much clarity now. I’ve also just found your podcasts on Spotify - love them! Thank you for all you do and for making me laugh x

31:50 I personally have a cheap advertising pen that I love to carry around because it: - Is very easy to disassemble and reassemble repeatedly. - Has a satisfying click. - Is the perfect size for me to spin it in one hand. - Is blue. - And I've gotten used to carrying it so I guess there's no stopping now.

As a late diagnosed woman in my 50's, I guess I have always stimmed but I hid it from society my entire life. Since my diagnosis, I am starting to stim in public and become more comfortable with who I am as a person. Before, I was always worried at what other people where thinking but now I really don't care anymore. I'm tired of the mask. I am starting on researching and finding out more about autism. These videos are very helpful and encouraging. Thank you for sharing.

Hey Orion. What a spot on topic to cover. 😊 As a not yet diagnosed adult, I connected well with a number of these stimming habits. Thank you for going into detail about this. BTW one of my special interests is collecting fragrances (a frag head) which I have 30 of, but can also see now as a stimming habit.

Thanks for talking about this important topic. Since my burnout I have been rocking back and forth more often which made me feel ashamed for a long time, even around my husband. It's so freaking stereotypical. But it really does feel good and soothes me. It's great that you are telling and showing people how normal and how useful stims like these are for autistic adults.

You touched on visual stimming ... and you mentioned your form where you basically draw the infinity sign with your eyes over and over ... here's something for you. I've done this, most of my life. Always in this pattern ... and another thing too - stimming with my eyes by playing 'pong' on the ceiling ... bouncing off each wall and back to the next ... I was sure I wasn't the only one who did this, but when I was a teen others would see me doing this and kind of get on me about it ... that was back in the 1980s though as now I am a Gen X-er in his 50s.

I laughed out loud at the “grow up” comment regarding arousal bc yeah I totally went there 🤣🤣🤣🤣 love your videos Orion especially after a hard day at work. Thank you for being you

I don't think I'm autistic (maybe an HSP) but this video resonated a lot. I do a lot of these behaviors, like all the time, every day, ever since I was a kid. Nail biting and picking, hair pulling, cheek and lip biting, foot bouncing, fidgeting with tactile objects like pencils or erasers, mind wandering several hours a day (especially at work when my hands are busy), comfort shows I watch over and over when sad. I got a lot of flack about eyelash pulling as a kid. I wish my family had just let me be. I don't want to pull out my eyelashes, but trying to stop made the compulsion so much worse. I know some of these things probably make me look weird in public (like the eyelash fidgeting and foot bouncing) but it calms, or helps me concentrate/focus, or releases excess energy, and I'm over forty now so I care less. I think lots of people stim, autistic or not. Thank you for bringing awareness to this. I hope stimming can become less stigmatized and more understood and accepted.