Stimming & Stress

Growing up undiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), I had many self regulatory behaviours. Including hair twirling, nail biting, skin picking and rubbing. I would repeat words, stare off into space, jiggle my legs, chew on my clothing etcetera.

These behaviours, which I’ve carried into adulthood, help me manage stress and sensory input from my external environment.

Almost everyone stims, neurotypical and neurodivergent alike. The difference is the neurotypical person will notice their leg jiggling is bothering the teacher.

For example, I’ve always been a jiggler. I was homeschooled so my mother was my teacher. I would jiggle my leg to focus, which in turned made my mother who suffered from motion sickness, nauseous. She would ask me to stop, and I would, for about two and a half minutes before starting up again.

Eventually, my mother would get fed-up with telling me to stop and we would take a break.

But this story shows you how hard it can be to stop some stimming behaviours.

And how they can affect others.

Stims or stimming, is self-regulatory behaviour. Everyone stims to help self regulate but neurodivergent people do it to regulate external input from their environment.

According to BetterHelp.com https://www.betterhelp.com/, a website geared towards making therapy more accessible through affordability, there are many forms of self regulatory behaviour.

Including:

• Visual Stimming: Uses sense of site: E.g., staring at objects, obsessively painting

• Verbal Stimming: Uses voice and sense of sound: E.g., excessive giggling, humming, making odd noises, or compulsively clearing the throat.

• Tactile stimming: Uses sense of touch: E.g., picking the skin, rubbing fingers, teeth grinding, or biting fingernails.

• Vestibular stimming: Uses body movement and balance: E.g., spinning, rocking, and swinging.

When Stimming Becomes Harmful

As students, we deal with heavy workloads and lots of stress. This can lead to what I like to call, obsessive stimming.

Let me explain, stims are supposed to help us regulate sensory input. There is nothing wrong with twirling your hair gently around your finger. Or ripping out a hangnail so you can focus through your lecture.

Once I became a student and my stress load increased, so did my need to stim. I would bite my nails until they bleed. And twirl my hair until pieces broke off.

To help limit this somewhat harmful behaviour, I cut my hair short so I could no longer twirl it. And my sister taught me how to apply acrylic nails over the summer so I could stop cannibalizing myself.

Moreover, I no longer leave the house without some sort of fidget device, whether that be jewelry or a toy. This way I can do something with my hands with out bothering other people in class or hurting myself.

Of course, I’ve subconsciously adapted to this by vigorously scratching my head when I am confused or frustrated. But so far this hasn’t done any physical damage except to my dignity when the teacher confuses my head scratching for a hand raised.