Don't know if this is stimming.

[renaeden]

I wrote on OTS about whether stims can be annoying. I have gathered that most people enjoy their stims. But I don't. So I don't know if it is stimming or not.
Sometimes it feels as though I can't get comfortable. When I am sitting on the bus it becomes almost unbearable. I have to wriggle my shoulders a lot and flex the muscles under my arms. It's somewhat a complex movement and hard to explain. I once elbowed GA and he asked me what I was doing. I stopped moving for a while but then the feeling of needing to move just got stronger and I elbowed GA again and apologised. I did say that this wasn't pleasurable and it annoyed me.
I used to have a lot of trouble with this when I was 15, 16 and 17 but then it eased and only happened occasionally.
It may be stress causing this to start up again. It may be just a different sort of stim. I went to the doctor last week and almost said something but I didn't know how to explain it.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. This is driving me crazy.

[Aspen]

What medicines are you taking? Did this stim, if it is one, increase in relation to medication changes?

[renaeden]

At the moment I am taking:
Lexapro 20mgs
Dexamphetamine 20mgs
Lamictal 200mgs
That is what I take for one day. But I don't think it coincides with the stimming. I looked at side-effects and didn't come up with anything. These stims have been around for as long as I can remember, just intensified during the last six months.

[Sophist]

Sounds like you use a stim to relieve sensory discomfort.

If this does tend to get worse with stress, then I'd say working on relieving stress is probably your best bet.

[adhocisadirtyword]

If you try to stim in some other way does it help at all? Does it happen when you are concentrating on something at all?

[renaeden]

I've been thinking (and yeah, it hurt) that it is maybe not a stim because doesn't stimming make a person feel better? For me it is like an itch. It doesn't matter how much I scratch it, it still itches. It gets me frustrated because I want to stop it, for a little while I can but only for a little while.

If I am concentrating on something, it's easier to cope with because I am thinking about something else. But it still happens, out of my control, without even thinking about it.

On the bus today I tried twiddling my pen as a way to stop the other stim but it didn't work.

This has bugged me for years wondering about it. It's just been since I was diagnosed that I started thinking about it in detail. I remember on the school bus being asked if I had worms. The word got around that I did and I got a whole seat to myself.

[Sophist]

I've been thinking (and yeah, it hurt) that it is maybe not a stim because doesn't stimming make a person feel better? For me it is like an itch. It doesn't matter how much I scratch it, it still itches. It gets me frustrated because I want to stop it, for a little while I can but only for a little while.

If I am concentrating on something, it's easier to cope with because I am thinking about something else. But it still happens, out of my control, without even thinking about it.

On the bus today I tried twiddling my pen as a way to stop the other stim but it didn't work.

This has bugged me for years wondering about it. It's just been since I was diagnosed that I started thinking about it in detail. I remember on the school bus being asked if I had worms. The word got around that I did and I got a whole seat to myself.

It sounds like you're using that stim to alleviate discomfort. So it would be a good feeling. The only bad feeling is that it doesn't work.

Probably not the common definition of "stim". But an alleviating stim...

[AKAConlang]

Maybe it's some kind of tic.

[SomethingElse]

I get that feeling sometimes. I just get very restless and want to scratch or shift around, but I mostly just get it when I'm on my own.

It's the same kind of feeling I'd get when I was little when I always wore a dress or skirt to school and I used to want to change into trousers or shorts as soon as I got home. If I was taken to my aunts before being taken home to get changed I'd turn from pretty much perfectly behaved to a little brat. I remember getting a bit 'freaked' and going and sitting on the stairs and biting my skirt and trying to tear it with frustration and being just generally very angry and frusterated, until my aunt got my cousin to get me a pair of her shorts.

But now when I get the feeling it has no reason. I think it's just from sitting still for too long in my case though, and I get restless and the only thing that could alleviate it is going and doing something to get rid of that energy, but I can't because I can't go out running because I don't like people watching me do things (unless I'm acting on stage or something).

[renaeden]

Maybe it's some kind of tic.

I don't know much about that.

I wish I could wear myself out physically to stop it but I tried that and it didn't work. Even when I pull muscles in my shoulders and it hurts, it still happens!

Benji, I can understand hating to wear skirts to school. I still hate wearing them now! But I'm not stuck in school, so I don't have to wear them anymore, ever.

[GalileoAce]

I feel at a loss as to help renaeden in this issue as I know little about stimming (except where it concerns myself, in a typical autistic fashion), or tics. So I did a little bit of research and came up with the following. (I found out I have Palilalia though)
(boldedness added by me to signify significance..yeah)

Stimming stood for 'self stimulatory behaviours'. Something non-auties
imagined they didn't have!

Stimming is aword created by non-auties with often negative connotations.
It was a word created by non-auties who didn't understand that some folks
had compulsive but involuntary tics, some had self calming tools they didn't
understand, some had sensory fascinations they couldn't relate to, some
needed to tune out to tune in, some needed a tool for social distance in the
face of compulsive social invaders, some needed to be repetitive in order to
download, some needed to compensate for a non-autie multitrack world they
couldn't process in thier mono-tracked reality, some needed something to get
lost in when utterly blowing all fuses.... and, anyway, the non-auties
labelled, as is there tendency, this vast array of experiences with one word
as if it was one thing at all times to all people labelled 'Autistic'.

Forgive them. They know not what they see.

Many theories exist as to what function stimming has, and the reasons for its increased incidence in autistic people. For hyposensitive people, it may provide needed nervous system arousal, releasing beta-endorphins. For hypersensitive people, it may provide a "norming" effect, allowing the person to control a specific part of their sensorium, and is thus a soothing behavior.

Sometimes self-injury is viewed as a form of stimming. Usually, self-injury is very different from stimming, but people with decreased pain sensitivity may injure themselves because they like the feel of it, similar to other stims. For example, they might like the way their hand feels in the mouth when they bite themselves, while not feeling the pain of the bite. Or they might like pressure on their forehead and bang their head without it hurting, even if they are risking brain damage.

That's in relation to myself..I found it intriguing.

Simple motor tics are typically sudden, brief, meaningless movements, such as eye blinking or shoulder shrugging. Motor tics can be of an endless variety and may include such movements as hand-clapping, neck stretching, mouth movements, head, arm or leg jerks, and facial grimacing.

Complex motor tics are typically more purposeful-appearing and of a longer nature. Examples of complex motor tics are pulling at clothes, touching people, touching objects, echopraxia and copropraxia.

Complex tics are rarely seen in the absence of simple tics.

Treatment of ADHD in the presence of tic disorders

Referred (clinical) populations of patients with Tourette's have a high rate of comorbid ADHD, so the treatment of ADHD co-occurring with tics is often part of the clinical treatment of Tourette's. The treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the presence of tic disorders has long been a controversial topic. Past medical practice held that stimulants could not be used in the presence of tics, due to concern that their use might exacerbate underlying tic disorders. However, multiple lines of research have shown that stimulants can be cautiously used in the presence of tic disorders. Several studies have shown that stimulants do not exacerbate tics any more than placebo does, and suggest that stimulants may even reduce tic severity.
Controversy remains, and the PDR continues to carry a warning that stimulants should not be used in the presence of tic disorders, so physicians may be reluctant to use them. Others are comfortable using them and even advocate for a stimulant trial when ADHD co-occurs with tics, because the symptoms of ADHD can be more impairing than tics.

The stimulants are the first line of treatment for ADHD, with proven efficacy, but they do fail in up to 20% of cases, even in patients without tic disorders. Current prescribed stimulant medications include: methylphenidate (Ritalin®, Metadate®, Concerta®), dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine®), and mixed amphetamine salts (Adderall®). Other medications can be used when stimulants are not an option. These include the alpha-2 agonists (clonidine and guanfacine), tricyclic antidepressants (desipramine and nortriptyline), and newer antidepressants (bupropion, venlafaxine and atomoxetine). There have been case reports of tic exacerbations with bupropion (brand name Wellbutrin®). There is good empirical support for the use of desipramine, bupropion and atomoxetine (brand name Strattera®). Atomoxetine is the only non-controlled Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug for the treatment of ADHD, but is less effective than stimulants for ADHD; is associated with individual cases of liver damage; carries an FDA black box warning regarding suicidal ideation; and controlled studies show increases in heart rate, decreases of body weight, decreased appetite and treatment-emergent nausea.

[renaeden]

Um, thanks GA.

I'm going to my psychologist today (the one who diagnosed me with autism) and I'm going to talk to her about it, although I'm not quite sure of how to bring the subject up...

[Aspen]

It sounds a little like Akathisia, Renaeden, not exactly like a stim.

If it is Akathisia, then propranolol might help.

My husband has palilalia too, Galileo Ace. He just does it sometimes, not all the time.

[Sophist]

I have Signilalia: the inability to walk or drive past a sign without reading it out loud.

[Civet]

I occasionally tremble uncontrollably, but I doubt that's what you're talking about, here.