An Autistic Perspective  - Stimming & Masking
Channel: Lyric Rivera - Neurodivergent Rebel
Date: 04/09/2019

Hi everyone.  NeuroRebel here, and I was diagnosed autistic before turning 30.  That means I went almost 30 years of my life not knowing I was autistic, and one of the big “a-ha” moments for me when I discovered I was autistic was learning about stimming.

For those of you who are new to my channel, stimming is just one of the ways that autistic people express and regulate energy and emotions.  For example, when I experience a very intense emotion, maybe extreme joy or startle or fear, those emotions are often seen in my hands as movement.  Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy.  Or I naturally, like right now as I’m thinking, I’m rocking back and forth, and I’m moving.  And when I allow myself to go with the natural ebb and flow of my energy, I am always in motion and talking with my hands, and many other things.  So that is one thing that stimming is.

Also, stimming can be certain types of behaviours that we engage in intentionally to soothe the senses and to regulate energy.  For example, I have these wonderful scented pens, and I like to smell them.  They smell really good, and sniffing something yummy is a stim.  Drawing and colouring, for me, is a stim.  I would say enjoying fun visual … things that are visually pleasurable is a stim.  (This is stuck because it’s been sitting still.)

But there are many other things that can be stims for when you’re intentionally stimming, because a lot of autistic people have realised that stimming is really great, and now even non-autistic people are starting to realise that stimming is really great.  But, autistic people, we need to stim.  And we really, naturally, engage in stimming behaviours.  And so, the other part of stimming that doesn’t get enough discussion is masking.

And because autistic people are often constantly told “Sit still, be still, quit fidgeting,” some of our stims are more obvious sometimes, or are considered “obnoxious” by other people, or noisy or disruptive, may be put away in favour of stims that are less disruptive to the people around you.  So, like, squeezing my fingers, or I might clench my jaws.  Typically, when I do things that are less obnoxious to other people, it might be like scratching at myself or holding myself tightly, or holding myself tense, or biting the inside of my mouth.  Those stims that I do when I’m trying to be quiet and still, and not disruptive, tend to actually be stims that aren’t very good for me, like ripping off my fingernails, and things that hurt.  So, it’s much better to let my body just stim naturally.

So, let me know.  I talked a little bit about stim suppression last week, and tell me about your stims this week.  Alright guys, thank you so much.  I’ll talk to you later.  Bye!

An autism and neurodiversity blog based on personal experience. Please remember - this is only ONE autistic perspective. We are all unique. 


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