#Stimming with various sensory items that soothe

[dont-blame-it-on-the-kids]

I read a lot that Lin has trouble expressing her feelings and is poor at communicating... what if Lin has autism? maybe she doesn't even know she has it, but Kya may notice when she gets together with Lin. It's just something that's been going through my head recently... do you have any thoughts on that? (hc)

Hmm I don't think I'm at all qualified to coment on Autistic Lin hc. I personally could see it but I don't have enough good information to make good hc. But I would love to see people who have that information talk about it!

Personally I think it's a mix of rad and ptsd

Rad because from the get go she had broken realationships with her dad not in the picture and then Izumi only visiting every once in a while and then tenzin and the others traveling seemingly suddenly cuz she wasn't involved in the planning of their vacations. Without the structure of a mom and Toph letting her do as she pleased she would have sought foundation elsewhere but her aunts and uncles had lives of their own and came and went. Even Suyin wasn't steady she was always running around and getting into things and Lin from a young age was on her own.

That feeds into the ptsd and then with the bloodbender on The loose I think she was scared or hurt and remembers it too well. Then ontop of that the ptsd with suyin and then again with Amon and the spirit evil avatar that showed up and destroyed her town then the red lotus (for the second time it sounded like they were the ones who caught them the first time too) THEN Kuvira ontop of the fact that everyone around her never was on her side or there for her or listened to her

like woman's got problems and we are all free to hc and play around with it. Again I'd love to see more hc about it! But I'm not too comfortable making my own.

#my cousin is autistic #but I don't know the family too well #my understanding is #not knowing social queues #loud noises startling them #Stimming with various sensory items that soothe #repeat motions #comfort items #it's all pretty basic understanding #I don't think I'd be able to do it justice #ask #anon #hc

[mindingmyownbrain]

What is stimming?

This is going to be a long post.

Stimming is a slang term in the autistic community derived from the medical term self-stimulation, although the term can be used for a wide variety of self-soothing behaviours as well. The term is used widely in the autistic community and can refer to more obvious stims like hand-clapping or more subtle ones like muscle clenching. 

Autistic people may stim either deliberately or automatically. Sometimes you’re not even aware that you’re doing it. Some stims might even feel like they happen to a person rather than are done by them, such as when they’re associated with zoning out or if the impulse is very difficult to suppress (if this is the case, it might even feel akin to OCD).

Some stims are very pleasing to engage in but other stims may be unwanted by the autistic person for a variety of reasons. For example, they may be harmful or perceived to be socially inappropriate. Unwanted stims can include jaw clenching, tooth grinding, hair pulling, skin picking, finger biting, and others. Sometimes these urges are there and can be avoided by switching to another stim, but other times they can cause problems for an autistic person.

Some autistic people are proud of their stims, and may even feel sorry for non-autistic people for not being able to enjoy the sensory experience of stimming as much as autistic people do. However, due to social stigma, other autistic may feel embarrassed or ashamed of their urge to stim and may suppress it or only do it in private. 

Stimming, in general, is life-enhancing. Many autistic people consider it essential to their mental health. Stims can provide an escape and act as a coping mechanism. 

Stimming can include any of the senses:

Sight: Visual stims might include zoning out while watching shadows of light on a wall, looking into a light source, rapidly blinking, and so on. 

Sound: Auditory stims can include listening to sounds, making sounds, or repeating them (such as repeating phrases or words over and over).

Taste: Eating spicy foods can be an enjoyable stim for some, or eating food with specific textures or colours.

Smell: This might include smelling “smelly” things like essential oils, or smelling different items like the sleeve of a jumper you are wearing, and so on.

Touch: Touch is a very common stim as it can be very subtle, such as tapping your fingers on your leg or holding your own hands, or touching things around you.

Temperature: Feeling hot and cold things, or making yourself either hot or cold.

Proprioception: This is the sense of self-movement and can involve running, rocking, pacing, spinning, jumping up and down, or dancing (even when there is no music!).

Pain: Pain can feel pleasurable to someone regardless of whether they are on the spectrum or not. The difference is context, quality, and amount. Examples of pain as a benign stim include gently biting your lip, pinching your skin with your fingernails, hair pulling, or eating a very spicy chilli pepper. 

Balance: Standing on one leg, spinning, walking on tiptoes are all examples of balance stims.

Vibration: Humming can cause one’s lips to vibrate, electric massagers can vibrate muscles, and so on.

Various internal stimuli: some autistic people might allow themselves to feel hungry or thirsty, or hold their breath.

There is also the sense of time, but I think you’d have to be another kind of being altogether to use that as a stim... that’d be, like, The Highest Level Autistic: Able to Stim With the Concept of Time.

Anyway, I digress. 

Non-autistic people “stim” as well, but not to the intensity as autistic people do. If you are reading this and thinking, “Well, everybody does that...” you’re partially right. Non-autistic people should be able to relate to some stims but won’t necessarily be able to relate to how important they are to autistic people. This is partially evidenced by non-autistic people telling autistic people to “just stop it”. Autistic people need to stim.  

Autistic people stim to regulate emotion, to express emotion, to focus, to tune in or tune out, to help us socialise, to ward off a meltdown, to regulate sensory input, or simply because the urge is very hard to resist or because it feels good.

Autistic people each have their own preferred stims. One person’s favourite stims might not do anything for another, or they may even seem unpleasant or strange. The feeling might be mutual! This is because autistic people are all individuals. As we often say in autistic advocacy, when you’ve met one autistic person you’ve met one autistic person.

Stimming can involve simple behaviours or they can be a more complex series of behaviours, even rituals. Stims may “hide” in daily life if they become hobbies like singing or riding a motorbike (the speed! The feeling of movement! The vibration!), or by becoming part of a routine such as having a cold shower at the start of the day or snacking on particular foods specifically for a sensory release.

You can also involve other people in your stimming such as by having them provide touch for you, or listening to their sounds. 

Again, everybody stims to some extent but stimming is incredibly important for autistic people. For me, resisting the urge to stim is deeply distracting and uses up a sizeable amount of willpower to resist doing it. It can also be very stressful to not stim.

Stimming tells me where my body is. Someone putting their hand on my back can calm me down right away because I suddenly know where I am. Everything is always somewhat overwhelming even when I am not doing very much, and I need to stim for the release. 

I also find it hard to realise my own feelings a lot of the time, whether that’s an emotion or feelings like hunger. Stimming helps me to tap into these feelings (literally so sometimes: tap, tap, tap, tap, tap...).

Even writing this I keep pausing to dig my nails into my fingers, rub my hands together, or run my fingers over the keyboard to feel the texture. 

Stimming is stigmatised but it seems that stigma is in direct proportion to a lack of awareness of stimming. Again, everybody stims! It needn’t be thought of as such a weird or worrying thing. 

Some parents try to stop their autistic children from stimming so that the children appear “normal”. They feel disturbed when their child keeps dancing at “inappropriate” times when there’s no music. Some therapists have even gone as far as to tie the hands of autistic children down, or brace their legs to stop them walking on their tiptoes.

Most stimming is harmless, though, and even beneficial. Some stims can be distracting for others and might require compromise. Other stims, like headbanging, can be an expression of distress. It is usually much better to address the source of the distress than to merely stop the stim that is expressing it. 

Before I was diagnosed with autism I didn’t think I stimmed. When I read about it I had an assumption that it must be this weird, odd, obvious thing that autistic people did (that’s the stigma. If it’s “an autistic behaviour” then it must be weird, right? And if your stim isn’t weird... “you can’t be that autistic”. That’s also a stigmatising thing to say). I saw a few videos and recognised some of the stims as things I frequently do. When I logged off the computer, I observed myself over the next few weeks. I realised that I stimmed almost all the time.

What I now realise is called stimming, I called “body fiddles”.

As for most autistic people, my preferred stims change over time. As child I loved spinning and jumping. As an adult my stims most commonly involve fiddling with my hands, fingers, squeezing parts of my skin, and hair twirling. 

Even though this post is now very long, there is still more to say, especially about gender and stimming - but that is a subject for another day.

#autism #actuallyautistic #my writing #stimming #stim

[theaspieworld]

Autism sensory issues can impact your life or someone on the spectrum even when you don’t realise it. Here are 3 reasons for that!! SOUNDSORY: 10% off your Soundsory purchase 👉 https://ift.tt/2YlJlft VIDEO CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 5:30 Clutter 6:49 Stimulation Items 8:38 Colours & Calm 10:37 Outro Having autism sensory processing disorder can have a huge impact of various aspects of your life, from shopping to visiting family. Lots of the time we understand and realise that autism sensory triggers can come from things like, bright lights in the supermarket or loud noises at a family gathering. One of the most interesting things is that we never look at the other hidden factors that could be impacting your ability to be calm in your home. For instance you room could be causing you stress and even depressed feelings. Here are 3 ways to reduce sensory overload in your own room to reduce your stress, overloads, depression and meltdowns at home. 1.Clutter: Having clutter in your home is one thing but clutter in your room, the place you go to relax and sleep calmly is another level. Having clutter in your room can cause a sense of incompleteness and a ‘job to do’ feeling on your mind that can keep you awake at night as it is ticking away in the back of your mind. Clear the clutter and increase the calm. 2.Stimulation Items: Although it’s nice to have the things you love in life surround you in your comfort there are lurking issues that many don’t understand or notice. If you have items of stimulation like, iPads or sensory toys or brightly colour posters or art in your room, these can trigger a stimulation response to your brain whose job it is to engage with these items, thus creating a non relaxing and stressful experience when you are trying to relax in your room. Reduce this by removing anything that could be stimulating you. 3.Colours & Calm: No problem often make this mistake especially with children’s rooms, where they want to make the room a fun and play friendly environment but forget that the person needs to sleep and be calm there to. Lots of colour and miss match chaps in a room can create a stimulation responses form your brain and keep you wired all night so you don’t get sleep and become stressed. Reduce this by reducing the bright colours and swap them for muted tones in the room. Please let me know what you think of the video in a comment below, I read and respond to every single comment. Follow @TheAspieWorld for more autism content. HASH TAGS: #sthash #Autism #AutismSensory LINKS: Shelly R. Richard - Sensory Soothing Visual Therapy: https://youtu.be/xir91dOrO64 SAND - Autism Sensory Soothing Magic Meltdown Remedy™ Second Edition: https://youtu.be/2RvXsdtPv_4 Services - National Autistic Society - https://ift.tt/2Rkk5Ca 📘50% OFF AUTISM PARENTING MAGAZINE → http://bit.ly/AUTISMPM 💼 WORK WITH ME → [email protected] 👕MY MERCH → http://bit.ly/TAW_Merch 🔴SUBSCRIBE ➤ http://bit.ly/AutismYouTube 📹 WATCH MORE OF MY VIDEOS → http://bit.ly/Watch_More_TAW 📹SECRET VLOG →http://bit.ly/2FHuaor 📲PATREON → http://bit.ly/TAW_Patreon ⚠️AUTISM ESSENTIAL MUST HAVES 👇🏼 ----------------------------------------------------------- → AUTISM ALERT CARD → http://bit.ly/AutismAlertCard → CBD GUMMIES UK → https://ift.tt/2XbEjnh → CBD GUMMIES USA → https://ift.tt/2LizUHU → [15% OFF] AUTISM STIM TOYS / GADGETS → http://bit.ly/StimToys → NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONES → http://amzn.to/2goVuKf → CHEWABLE JEWELLERY → http://bit.ly/Chewable_Autism → ELASTIC SHOE LACES → http://amzn.to/2gnWm1L → MY BOOK → http://amzn.to/2D7XvDf FOR MORE FOLLOW MY SOCIALS ⬇️ -------------------------------------------------- ► INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/TAW_Insta ► TWITTER: http://bit.ly/TAW_Twitter ► FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/TAW_FaceBook ► SNAPCHAT: http://bit.ly/TAW_SnapChat ► TIKTOK → http://bit.ly/TAW_Tik_Tok ► MY BLOG → http://bit.ly/TAW_Blog ► MY PODCAST → http://bit.ly/TAW_Podcast 🎧 MUSIC I USE → https://ift.tt/2pQAST5 ———————————————————— Tags: #Aspergers #ASD #Autism

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[stimtoybox]

What exactly does stim and stimming mean?

I’m going to assume that you want a community-authored answer that goes beyond that offered by a Google search for the word “stimming”, since my first result is a reasonably decent, if extremely minimal, 101 explanation.

“Stim”, as an adjective modifying nouns like “toys” or “tools” or “things” or a verb as in “I stim”, is just the linguistic offshoot from “stimming”. (“Stimmy” is also a common colloquial adjective often used to emphasise the quality or degree to which something works as a tool for stimming.) It’s language of the community, in the sense that you’re more likely to find these words adopted and used in non-medical, ND-community spaces by autistics and people with ADHD, anxiety or many other diagnoses/labels under the neurodiversity umbrella.

A general definition is that stimming is a way of using some form of sensory input to self-regulate and aid functioning or survival.

I’d argue that all people stim to some degree, and most people know it better as fidgeting, but it occurs to an extent that is pathologised by the medical profession (to the extent of being part of diagnostic criteria or commonly associated with that diagnosis) in people who have a greater need for that self-regulation–usually people with mental illnesses, developmental disabilities or other neurodiverse diagnoses or disabilities. It’s very often repetitive input, and often used for long periods of time. (Speaking as an autistic, I find repetitive movements very soothing; it also mirrors my tendency to use repetition in language as communication.) While it can be the main or dominant activity on its own, it’s often done in combination with another activity (squishing playdough while watching TV, for example, or using a Fidget Cube on the train).

By this I mean: someone who doodles on a notepad while talking on the phone is not very different to someone who chews on a chew pendant while sitting in class or twisting a Tangle in a psychiatric appointment, to the extent that I don’t see much logic in trying to separate these things.

However, doodling on a notepad while talking on the phone is generally categorised as an acceptable behaviour, while my using a Tangle to survive talking to my psychiatrist is categorised as an abnormal behaviour, one indicative of disorder or disability. Someone who is not somewhere under the broad umbrella of neurodiversity or disability can generally keep their stimming to forms, times and ways that are accepted by mainstream society; those of us who are under that umbrella either cannot do this or have been forced into suppressing our natural need to stim in order to try and make our behaviour socially acceptable (something that makes it harder for us to function). Many of us have endured often traumatising experiences when others try to make us stop our natural stimming, either physically or mentally–I’ve been grabbed and held still by my parents so I can’t rock from side to side while talking, as one example. The self-regulation that helps me be more comfortable while doing the uncomfortable thing of verbal communication has resulted in people physically denying me both the right to move freely and the right to consent to being touched.

The behaviours aren’t that different, but one is deemed normal if performed in the limited, socially-appropriate ways; the other, not performed in those ways, is pathologised by the medical profession and can result in verbal, emotional and physical abuse by people trying to force us to behave like NTs/allistics.

“Self-regulation” can mean a lot of different things, depending on the needs of the stimmer. Some stimmers stim to direct an excess of energy. Some stimmers stim because a pleasant sensory sensation helps distract us from a world full of intolerable sensory or emotional sensations and/or experiences. Some stimmers stim because holding still is equivalent to a form of torture, yet modern Western society expects children and adults to attain a certain level of stillness in many activities. Some stimmers stim because it aids in concentration or focus. Some stimmers stim just because the stim feels good. Some stimmers stim and can’t quite put words to why they do it. Some of us flat-out need it, and some of us can (or have been forced to learn how to) live without it but find it helpful when used.

Stimming itself is quite an individual thing, to the extent that the cause, result and experience differ between stimmers. It can be input delivered by movement, weight/pressure, touch/texture, smell, sight, taste, sound, or various combinations of some or all those things. I stim, generally, because I need to move and because I often need a distraction from sensory and emotional things I cannot otherwise easily survive; it helps relax me, it helps direct some of this energy, it helps distract me, and it helps me feel a little more comfortable. I like touch/texture stims that offer movement, so I tend toward toys like Tangle Jrs, squishies, spinners and marble mazes. I also like music with good beat and rhythm that invites movement, which is why I listen to a lot of European melodic metal. Every stimmer will have their own likes and dislikes–I don’t like pressure save in very specific circumstances, and flickering visual and light-up toys are dangerous for me.

“Stims” as a reference to the things we do can mean anything that’s stimmy (offering stimulation): rocking from side to side, flapping hands, twisting a Tangle, listening to the same song on repeat for five hours, watching a sand-cutting video. They’re often roughly categorised into “visual stims”, “bodily stims” and “toys”, but there’s massive overlap between these categories.

There are some stims, often stims we’ve picked up through not having free access to toys or stimming, that are less healthy in the sense that they can cause harm to ourselves or others. This can be anything from skin picking to hair pulling to banging a body part against a wall/desk to throwing items. Some of us find sharper sensations, like pain, to be quite stimmy. (I’ve spent years picking at my cuticles just for the pain of pulling at them; it’s a sensation I really like.) I don’t want to call any stim bad, since the reason for doing that stim isn’t a bad one, and developing less-healthy stims in a world where we often can’t stim easily is not our fault. (For example, picking at my cuticles is far more a socially acceptable stim than is rocking, because it’s less obvious, even though rocking causes me no harm and picking absolutely does.) Many of us work on finding replacement or redirection stims, which can be incredibly difficult if you can’t find a safer stim that offers the same sensation. Conversely, many of us also have behaviours that aren’t exactly stims but we also seek to redirect with a toy.

Stimming, in ND spaces (especially autistic spaces), is also an increasing part of our culture and communication. Stimming can often be an expression or language (happy flapping is the most well-known concept of this) but it’s also become something quite specific to who we are and how we interact with the world.

In short: stimming is a form of providing sensory input for a variety of reasons that help us (most often disabled people) better experience or survive either our disabilities or the pressures a world not designed for us. Stim toys are one way (but a fun and awesome way, I think most will agree) of providing that input, and they’re what we talk about on this blog.

Does this help?

- Mod K.A.

#ask #text #not a toy #off topic #mod chatter #discussion post #stimming discussion #neurodiversity discussion #mod K.A. #submission #europeanonmyshoezs0nblog #long post #very long post #actuallyautistic #BFRB discussion #self injurious behaviour discussion #ableism discussion