Hi, I'm Amythest and welcome to the first episode of Ask an Autistic! For the first
episode of Ask an Autistic I'm going to introduce myself and talk a bit about stimming. Firstly,
I'm Amythest. I am twenty-two years old, I am Autistic, and I blog about disability and
Autism at my tumblr blog "neurowonderful". I get a lot of questions from parents, family
members, some educators, about Autism. And it's good, it's great. I think that right
now we're going into a time where people are realizing that maybe what we thought we knew
about Autism isn't accurate, and what we thought we knew about Autism was the observations,
sometimes inaccurate observations, of neurotypical scientists, doctors, and researchers. So I
think it's great! Come at me! Bring all the questions! I'm just so happy to answer them
because I do dream of and work towards a world where Autism is widely accepted and that Autistic
people can be themselves and be happy doing so. Happy Autistic people, yay! Stimming.
What is stimming? Stimming is also known as "stereotyped behaviours" and in some parts
of the world I've heard them called "tics". So stimming, stims, tics, kind of all the
same thing. Autistic people might self-stimulate for three different reasons which I'll get
into, and those three reasons are to self-regulate, to seek sensory input (sensory seeking), and
expression. Firstly what does stimming look like? Stimming... I think the most classic
example is hand flapping. Parents notice this in their young Autistic children, that they
will flap their hands when they are excited or agitated, or just when they are happy and
enjoying life. I hand flap, and I hand flap when I'm excited or when I'm anxious. So that's
a good example. Also rocking- many Autistic people are known to rock as that's a common
stimming behaviour. Other stimming behaviours can include all the senses. There are actually
seven senses- there's more actually, but I'm going to talk about seven. So you know the
five- taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing... But you also have proprioceptive sense, and
that's the sense that [allows] your brain to know where you are in space, and also know
where your body parts are, and also how much pressure to put on things. So you want to
be very gentle picking a flower, or you want to put a lot of force into hammering a nail.
That is all determined by proprioceptive input. And then there's the vestibular sense, the
seventh sense, and that is actually very closely connected to your inner ear, and balance,
and also movement and motion. So the vestibular sense if how your body knows if you are in
motion or at rest, up or down, you know, upside down or right side up. So that's the seven
senses, and so stimming can include and incorporate any of the seven senses and sometimes multiple
senses at once. So, touch might be rubbing a soft blanket, or it might be smell, smelling
something like essential oil, or just something that's interesting to you- when I was a kid
it was dandelions. You could visually stim by looking at a windmill turning or something
sparkly or flashing. You can stim all kinds of ways. Vestibular stimming would be spinning,
which is also quite common in Autistic children... and adults... If you happen to like spinning
on your computer chair. Which I do. And then proprioceptive input stimming would be kids
who like to wrestle as they play, or who will be very physical, and they kind of, like,
throw themselves on their bed and jump up and down on the couch. They might be even
under sensitive to proprioceptive input, so it's a way to know where there bodies are
in space and to feel good. That's another aspect of stimming. As most people who have
an Autistic family member or who are Autistic know, along with Autism comes Sensory Processing
Disorder. And that's where your brain doesn't perceive sensory input in an accurate way.
When you have Sensory Processing Disorder, it's not just uncomfortable. It's not like,
"Well, these lights are rather bright but I can deal with it", it's, "Ow, those lights
are like spears of hot pain going into my eyes". So a way to deal with all of this loud,
bright, too fast, too crowded sensory input is to self-regulate. Which is basically blocking
bad input with good input. So, a child who is sitting in their classroom, and the florescent
lights are overhead and they're flickering terribly and making you nauseous, and all
the kids around you are whispering or chewing gum, and the noises are getting to you and
you've been sitting for two hours and you don't know what you're going to do- you can
self-regulate by rocking in your desk, by rubbing something like the rubbery end of
an eraser, twirling your hair, tapping something against the side of your face. You can fidget
with a fidget toy. All of these things you can focus on the good sensory input, focus
on one things, and the rest of the world, which is too overwhelming and threatens to,
you know, cause a meltdown, it fades away. And so self-regulation is great. You can do
it in all kinds of settings. I do it everywhere. When I was a kid I was really discouraged
from stimming, which I'm going to talk about in another video, about why you shouldn't
discourage people from stimming. So it took me a while to get over that and start to stim
again, particularly in public. So now I mostly can, maybe not around my inl-aws (still a
little shy about that) but if I'm at the mall, or at the movie theatre, I'm not shy about
doing what I need to do. When it comes to "looking normal", versus being able to live
and function and be a happy, healthy Autistic adult who stims, I would definitely take the
latter. Because "looking normal" drains your energy, it's terrible, you have to put up
with all of the negative sensory input with no way to self-regulate, you can't stim?Like,
why? It's terrible. You get exhausted and maybe you can only spend ten minutes at a
party versus an hour if you were able to stim. So, self-regulation, stimming is great for
that. The second reason is, sensory-seeking. Neurotypical people have this too, they enjoy
things, right? Like, "Mmm, delicious chocolate mousse", or, "This music is so beautiful".
But I think Autistic people might take it to the next level. You know, seeking sensory
input and just really enjoying it. When I'm listening to a sound I really enjoy, or rocking
and listening to music at the same time and just feeling the music flow through me, and
I just get, like, in the zone. Just so blissful. Spinning in my computer chair, I just feel
so happy. Sensory seeking is great and just very enjoyable. And so some neurotypical parents
will wonder, "Jonny's been holding a flashlight up to his face and turning it on and off for
the past two hours, should I stop him?" and I say, unless it's a laser flashlight and
there's a chance of eye damage, no. Because, you know, it might not be the way that a neurotypical
child would play and enjoy themselves. His brain is just firing with fireworks of joy,
and enjoying sensory input. And I say, you know, it's fine. Has Johnny done his homework?
Has he eaten dinner and taken a bath? Then, you know, let him look at the flashlight for
two hours, or rock to music, or bang his Thomas The Train engines together. What's the harm?
Other than maybe embarrassment on the parts of neurotypical parents. Expression is the
third reason that people might stim. Autistic people. And it's interesting to me that neurotypical
doctors and scientists have lumped all kinds of hand flapping and rocking together when
to me it's quite obvious, because it is my natural body language, that there are different
kinds of rocking and different kinds of flapping. In my experience, if I am really enjoying
something I'll start rocking with, you know, my neck extended a little bit, and it'll be
more slow and rhythmic. Like, mmm, this chocolate cake, or, oh this apple fritter is great.
Agitated or anxious rocking , you know more hunched over, and quicker shorter motions.
And my husband, who lives with me of course, has grown to learn and know what my rocking
means and my hand flapping. Happy hand flapping! Ahh yeah! So much fun! I love kittens! And
then there's more agitated hand flapping. Oh no! My husband Marvin knows to ask, is
everything okay? What's going on? And- oh no! My cat is jumping up on the bookshelf.
She's so bad, she can't stand me giving attention to anything else. Okay. Hi Kitty. Hand flapping.
Expression, that's the third reason that people might stim. And you know, that's another reason
why it's terrible to discourage stimming. We don't just need it for self-regulation,
it's the natural way that we move. It's, you know, our natural way of growing, learning,
expressing ourselves. And so if you tell a child, "Don't! Don't flap your hands in public!"
The child is just expressing their joy and you're telling them, "No, stop. The way you
move is bad and shameful." What does that tell the kid about themselves? Personally,
if someone has a problem with a child hand flapping, which isn't hurting anyone, that
is their problem. I think that, rather than forcing Autistic individuals to conform and
force themselves, very, you know, exhaustingly to act and look "normal", I think a better
option is to encourage society to learn and embrace different neurotypes. Because, hey,
I think Autism is great and that Autistic people are wonderful, and lovely. So that
was my first video on stimming. I'm sorry I talked really fast- I'm going to try to
talk less fast next video. And maybe, maybe my cat Kitty will be back, so you know, say
tuned if you like cats. I do. Thanks for watching my video and if you have any questions for
me feel free to ask them in the comments section. And I'll be linking to a few... resources!
On stimming, what stimming is, what stimming looks like. And if you want to like this video,
or thumbs it up, that'd be cool too. Thanks for watching the very first episode of Ask
an Autistic!