I first found this visual series of stims many, many years ago. It’s not only charming, but helped me solidify my own acceptance of being Autistic.
While scrolling Tumblr one day, perhaps when I was about 16 years old, I happened upon a comic series. It described the many different kinds of stims an Autistic person can display.
It was in a cute, "A is for... B is for..." format. I was intrigued.
At the time, I was convinced that I was fully neurotypical. 100%. Despite being lonely, bullied, and mistreated because I was different, I thought there was just something odd with my brain.
In my childhood diaries, I phrased my communication difficulties as there being "a wire cut between my ears and my mouth." It takes me several more seconds to process verbal information than most people, and this conceptualization was all I could think of at the time.
Like many other late-diagnosed Autistic people, I did know that something was fundamentally "wrong with me," but I didn't know how or why.
I felt disturbed, upset, and worried that I was somehow "broken" and I would never be able to properly "blend in" with everyone else.
It was this comic by Par la fenêtre (along with other community resources) that started my journey of realizing that I'm just Autistic. Not broken.
I'm sharing it with you all today not only because it's a great illustration of the many different stims you can have as an Autistic, but also in the hopes that it helps someone else come to the same realization.
What is stimming?
Stimming is an intrinsic part of Autism. I think the series' author says it best in their introduction below:
But what kinds of stims are there? Let's get into the alphabet of some stims!
A is for acting
When I was a little kid, I loved acting. I participated in all the elementary school plays.
There was something so soothing about running through the same script dozens, perhaps hundreds of times. The fun of memorizing every switch of tone, emotion, and action.
It was repetitious, and I loved it. Rehearsals were fundamentally enjoyable to me.
In a way, I was definitely stimming. To this day I sometimes read poetry out loud to myself. I work on mastering the rhythm and enjoying how the same words sound in my mouth.
B is for blinking
This is one of those stims that faded as I aged. Not naturally, but because it's very noticeable.
As I learned that my stimming was "odd," I stopped. You "can't" blink repetitively in front of a teacher in class to calm yourself. That's "unacceptable."
Obviously none of that is true. Autistic people should be allowed to stim freely, as long as it isn't harmful to themselves or others. Stimming naturally soothes us.
Blinking is very fun. It's nice to return to a darker world when there's too much going on visually.
C is for counting
This is one of the stims I definitely still engage in. I'll count steps I'm taking, or count upwards from 1 to calm myself and have something to focus on while something overstimulating is happening.
I've noticed that, for myself, I like having about 3 things going on at once at all times.
If I'm sitting in a loud bus, waiting for it to move, listening to everyone shuffle and talk and play their music on stereo around me, I also need something to do with my hands and something to busy my mind. I might squeeze my fists over and over again while I count upwards.
It's like a litany to discourage me from going into shutdown mode.
D is for dangling a string
I've never done this before, but I bet the bouncy movement of the string is hypnotizing! Personally I love playing with slinkies. The way they bounce, the way the wires are perfectly spaced, is all so compelling. I could play with them for hours.
E is for echolalia
Echolalia is an interesting, daily part of the Autistic experience for many. Personally, mine only happens when I have nothing to say in response to a comment, or think that what the person just said was interesting.
Usually if my partner makes a joke, I might repeat the punchline back to him.
For me, it also functions to solidify what was said in my mind. I utilize echolalia when I meet new people, repeating their name back to them when they tell me what it is. This way I almost never forget.
F is for flapping
Flapping is so fun! Personally, for me moving my limbs rapidly is overstimulating, but it seems really comfortable and soothing for other Autistics!
G is for grunting
Grunting is something I mostly did when I was a little kid. It was quickly shut down by my parents as "weird" and "inappropriate," which I didn't understand.
As many allistic parents are, they were just terrified that something was "wrong with me."
Never feel ashamed of your stims. Grunt away!
H is for humming
Humming is one of those stims that is SO soothing for me.
It's repetitive, it's auditory as well as touch-stimulating. It drowns out bad textures you might be touching with a new overlay of stim, and can cover a loud noise or annoying noise you're currently experiencing.
Add in that it's always 100% accessible, and humming is a fantastic stim overall!
Add in that you can hum a song or a melody, and it's extra stimulating for the brain!
I is for imitating
Imitating isn't just something Autistics naturally do to mask or communicate with others, but also a stim!
It can feel soothing to try to copy a movement exactly.
J is for jumping
Jumping moves your entire body around! There's no other stim like it, except perhaps some kind of sports or activity.
However, while jumping is just jumping, other activities like sports can be overstimulating (because there's people there, you're trying to mask potentially, etc.)
K is for kicking
Kicking is definitely something I did more as a child, but I still kick when I have the opportunity!
L is for lining things up
Now this is the stim that convinced me that I'm Autistic. Here's why:
When I was a little kid, I relentlessly lined my toys up.
I had a little Barbie or Polly Pocket toy dollhouse, and I would line my toys up to get inside the dollhouse. I liked the concept of lines, of my little friends entering the building one by one to settle into the house.
After lining them all up in a queue that went across the coffee table, across the couches and the end tables, and sometimes even across the dining table and into the kitchen, I would pick up the first toy and move it inside the house. Then I would pick up the toy behind it, and move it forward into the first one's place. Then the one behind that one into second place. And the one behind that one... on and on it goes, moving the queue forward.
It was so stimulating for me. I felt like I was really using my whole brain. I felt soothed. I don't think I've ever felt that calm, focused, and interested in anything in my adult life since.
When I learned that this was a classic sign of Autism (what else could it even be?) I felt like my life suddenly made sense. This wasn't me being strange, weird, or anything negative my parents said. It was just me stimming.
It's a creative endeavor, and it's fun! Don't stop your kids from stimming.
M is for meowing
I meow all the time at my cats! It's nice to make noises they react to, and it's fun to make sounds in the back of your throat.
N is for nail-biting
As I grew up, I started biting my nails and my cuticles, as well as picking my skin.
My parents disapproved quite a lot of my stimming. To them, it was an obvious sign that something was "wrong with me," and they didn't want that. Like some puritanical train of thought, they thought they could "talk it out of me." If I stopped displaying the actions of Autism, somehow, magically, I would not be Autistic anymore.
Obviously this isn't true. Someone who's born Autistic will always be Autistic.
So when I was scolded for my obvious stims like lining things up, I switched to more subtle and "acceptable" things like picking my skin. Other disorders of self-harm such as trichotillomania (hair-pulling) and dermatillomania (skin-picking) can also be common with Autistics.
Now in my late 20's, I still have a problem with skin-picking.
Discouraging natural stims can lead to actual dysfunction.
O is for organizing
Organizing things is so fun! Even if you choose an unconventional method of organizing, it still feels deeply satisfying to know exactly where everything is, and that it's exactly the way "it should be."
If you're ever feeling overwhelmed with your space, I recommend taking a few hours to organize it.
Just don't start too big of a project for you to handle in the near future... Otherwise you might end up with a pile of messy books on the floor, instead of just an unideally-organized bookcase.
P is for pacing
Pacing is one of my personal fallback stims, and simultaneously one of the first things my parents discouraged.
It's good to feel your legs moving while your mind is thinking through something, exactly as the image illustrates.
Q is for quacking
Making noises can be so fun! It's nice to feel the sound in your throat vibrate, and then fine-tune how the noise comes out of your mouth.
My ADHD partner loves making sounds.
R is for rocking
Rocking is a stim that I could never explain to allistic people.
What do you mean you don't feel better if you rapidly rock?
There's just something about a quick movement, that doesn't take the full body, that's intrinsically repetitive as you move back and forth. It activates a deep soothing sensation in my body. It gets my brain working, allowing me to focus on the sensation as I rock, while also unlocking more focused thinking.
Someone needs to study why rocking works so well for Autistics...
S is for spinning
Spinning is so fun, and allistics do it too in their office chairs! It's fun to feel your body moving in circles.
T is for toe walking
I do this on the way to the kitchen, or just walking around the house.
I can't explain it, it just feels nice and soothing.
U is for unzipping
Zippers are a nice, handy stim toys. They can be transfixing. I mostly remember unzipping and re-zipping a lot when I was bored as a child in school.
V is for vocalizing
With my personal brand of Autism, I'm very sensitive to sound. For that reason I don't vocalize much, because I tend to annoy myself with my own sound! However it seems to work very well for other people.
W is for whistling
I've never learned how to whistle, but it sounds so compelling. Even allistics do it idly!
X is for x-ing fingers
The artist describes it as their "number one public stim." I can see that it would be easy to hide! I usually dig my fingernails into my skin, just to feel a stim. It's very hard to sit still sometimes.
Y is for yelping
A great example of using a stim as a form of communication!
Z is for zigzagging
Often when I walk I step over the cracks, or sometimes step deliberately on them. Regardless of which, it's me stimming to distract myself from all the people around me.
Final thoughts
Do any of these stick out to you as things that you do? Do any of them in particular speak to things you did as a child, or still do today?
I love this series, and I hope it helped you think more about your own stims!
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