There’s Much More To Autistic Stims Than You Probably Realise
I t doesn’t matter how many times I hear it, the word stim still makes me wince. Some words are just too harsh, as though they overshoot the mark without actually illuminating their meaning.
Knowing that it is short for “self-stimulating behaviour” doesn’t help. I mean, surely I’m not the only one who recoils with embarrassment every time they hear that unfortunate phrase.
It’s not even accurate. The type of activities we’re talking about are driven by the need to regulate, not stimulate, despite what it might look like to an observer. Ideally, we would have a term that better reflects this.
A few years ago, when evidence of my autistic brain was mounting, I resisted thinking that autistic stimming had anything to do with me.
Like so many other representations of autism, my mind sorted it into the not me pile which was battling it out with the omg that is so me pile.
Even though stimming is something that the autistic community discusses in its own terms, in my mind it remained tied to an image of a small boy rocking back and forward and making strange noises.
