#I'm just rocking back and forth and humming to the music and stimming

[goat-boy-sounds]

rewatching there will be blood is a wild experience for me because it's like "oh yeah this movie is literally a limb that I forgot I had"

[stilljuststardust]

Tools for emotional regulation

This is specifically things I do for end of day decompression. I take an hour and I do different things off this list till I'm relaxed.

I understand that alot of these are "basic" but it's less about what you do and more so about taking time to care for yourself and ne present in your body in ways that feel safe.

I've broken this down in to categories of self soothing.

Environment

A calming environment is beneficial for obvious reasons so here's things I do to feel more safe in mine.

1. Turn off over head lights and uses LEDs, candles, or lamps instead

2. Noise cancelling headphones

3. Phone off

4. Christmas lights for some reason

5. Someplace to sit that isn't your bed (you can put pillows and blankets on the floor if need be)

6. I usually cleanse (witchy, may not be your thing)

7. Protection spells on your room specifically (witchy, may not be your thing)

8. Stuffies

Stimming

If you don't know what stimming is it's stimulating your senses as a form of self soothing. It's ok to move your body in "weird" ways, make odd sounds, or look for sensory experiences you find comforting. Nobody is watching, there's no one around to judge you release the feelings! I usually windmill my arms, rock back and forth, hum/sing, jump, etc. Anything you want.

It's actually really important to set aside time for stimming! You don't realize how important it is until you do it! It's scientifically proven to be harmful (particularly for autistic people) not to stim. It's really hard to unlearn suppressing it, so giving yourself a safe place to do so where you don't have to worry about what people think is important.

Sensory Seeking

Using tastes, textures, sounds, and visuals you like as a tool for self soothing is extremely powerful. This can look like so many things. I personally use perfume. I find certain scents incredibly calming and when I have them on I take deeper breaths because of them so it's a win win.

Other sensory examples:

1. use slime/clay

2. Touch fabrics you enjoy (like ultra soft blankets)

3. Listen to soothing sounds like music, rain, or ASMR

4. Drink a hot drink like tea or hot cocoa

5. Take a warm shower

6. Heating pads

7. Compression (weighted blankets/stuffies work great)

8. Stim boards

Clear mind

Sometimes you just need to get your feelings out. Having an outlet where you just express how you feel without worrying how it's perceived is important!

1. Journal (it's important to write like no one will read it cause they won't, unless someone will lol)

2. Sit outside or by a window

3. Write your doubts on toilet paper then fucking flush that shit to the sewers where it belongs.

4. Draw your feelings

5. Scribble non sensically

6. Scream into the void

Inner child time

It's time to kick internalized shame to the curb. What does your inner child want right now? If you were a kid again what would you do? It isn't wrong to do things you would've loved as a kid. It's important actually. What can you now do that you wish you could've done as a kid?

This one is incredibly individual cause I don't know what your inner child wants I'm just giving out ideas.

1. Play with slime, clay, kinetic sand, or play doh

2. Draw

3. Play with toys (have no shame)

4. Color

5. Legos

6. Read

7. Write a story

8. Make a "potion" (don't mix chemicals though)

9. Play with shaving cream I know you want to

10. Build a fort

11. Fluffy pajamas

12. Dance

13. Preform for stuffed animals

14. Barbie soap opera

15. Rewatch comfort shows

[riverthebooknerd]

weird autism thing- my brain likes asl too much?

so, right, okay, listen

i'm an autistic dude with sensory issues. i tend to stim a lot- usually this is me fidgeting with my hands or humming, things like that. i wear jewelry every day and fidget with it. sometimes, when high emotion, i'll clap or shake my hands- typical stimming behavior

lately, i've been trying to learn asl. it's something that i've always wanted to do, especially since i recently realized that i'm semiverbal (people always just called me "shy" growing up)

here's the problem. for some godforsaken reason, whenever i try to sign a sentence, my brain delightedly decides that "oh!! hands moving! must be time to stim now! :D" and i get an overwhelming urge to do the happy hand-flappy autistic stim thingy. sometimes i even end up rocking back and forth or making Autistic Stim Noises- which usually only happens if i'm REALLY happy or excited about something, like seeing a new marvel movie

it's not necessarily bad. it's just hard to communicate in a language when you have to interrupt yourself because your brain is doing weird brain things

it's hard to describe. it's almost like, imagine every single time you tried to talk, you got the sudden and inexplicable urge to burst into song as though your life were a fucking musical. it's WEIRD. not bad weird. annoying weird, at worst. and very hard to explain to people when you're just trying to say "good morning"

i dunno. does anyone else have this problem??

[shmobugsbrainrot]

gravity falls character headcanons!!!!

dipper played baseball for a while, and was pretty good at batting. he can't catch for shit though cause he's scared of getting hit by the ball. that's why he used the shovel as a bat and hit that disco ball at the zombies (scary oke)

mabel is really good at wiring, since she has those sweaters that light up and play music and stuff. mcgucket would definitely give her instructions on stuff like that during future summers

wendy's actually a lesbian going through comphet. my reasoning for this is that she breaks up with guys pretty fast and often, and doesn't really seem all that excited to get into a relationship with them: "yeah, I guess so."

(also I'm a lesbian and kin her so it's basically canon /j)

dipper and mabel are both pretty chubby, mabel moreso than dipper. she has a bit more muscle mass whereas he doesn't have much muscle at all

as the younger twins grow up, it became clear that mabel is the taller one. she beats dipper by an inch and so he wears shoes with padding inside because he's petty

once pacifica started getting more freedom after weirdmageddon, she started getting into more grungy/alternative fashion. since her favorite color is hot pink, she started actually buying like crop tops in that color and pairing them with ripped jeans and combat boots and cool jackets and stuff. she's more expressive with her style

stanley and ford eventually came clean about everything to their ma, who gave them a long and hard lecture about being knuckleheads and to never do that again, before hugging them super tight and saying she missed them

filbrick is dead. as he should be

caryn pines is a badass and a GOOD MOTHER. she couldn't do anything about filbrick kicking stan out cause she just woke up and was caring for a BABY like she didn't know what was happening and I don't think filbrick would've let her bring stan back. if I see anyone hating on her I'm tearing up your lawn

wendy likes shitty romcoms cause she can make fun of them, and gravity falls by far has some of the worst she's ever seen. secretly she thinks they're sweet but it's hard to take them seriously when the filming is done so horribly

soos actually is trilingual, knowing english, spanish, and japanese. he taught himself japanese and since he's a huge fan of animes it helped to watch subbed shows until he got it, same way with spanish even though he already grew up with it

pacifica is a major germophobe cause of her upbringing. her parents essentially taught her to be afraid of not being clean, which is why she acts the way she does about the shack or touching mcgucket's hands during weirdmageddon

pacifica eventually works at greasy's diner, and actually enjoys it. even though it isn't the cleanest, she likes being able to earn her share and repairing her relationship with the townsfolk

they're all autistic. every character. all of em, and here are their stims

mabel: flapping her arms and legs, echoing what people say, pressure stim, rocking, chewing her hair

dipper: chewing, wringing his shirt, rocking, shaking out hands

stanley: patting himself, lip trills, clicking, some verbal stims where he sings, humming

stanford: tapping, pulling on his hair, twirling pens and dice between his fingers, swaying, hitting himself (only during meltdowns), pressure stim

wendy: pacing, swaying, tugging her hair, spinning her axe, humming

soos: patting himself, mouth popping, rocking on his feet, messing with his tools

pacifica: screeching, rocking, pressure stim, pulling her hair, hitting herself

fiddleford: slapping/patting himself, tapping his feet, dancing while standing, swaying, tilting his head back and forth

[cage-cat-yt]

Characters I headcanon or are canonically on the autism spectrum (with quick little headcanons)

This might be a big post, heads up lol

Jack Walten

-I've made a post about all of the headcanons, but to give a quick rundown, I headcanon his autism affecting him with sensitivity to texture and sight, hypersensitive in sound, stems by hand flapping (he stems the most out of the characters), taking things very literally, and having a high amount of empathy that can make it painful at times. His special interest is Bon's Burgers Burgers robotics as a whole. He does get overstimulated sometimes, but not as often as others might, and only likes physical touch if he indicates it.

Engineer

-Also having a high amount of empathy, Engi's autism makes all of his senses a little more sensitive than it would be for the average nuerotypical person. As much as his special interests with engineering got him the job with mann Co and stuff, he's somewhat proned to getting overstimulated, which usually causes him to shut down and try to get out of the situation. He enjoys his routine, getting very uncomfortable if somebody takes him out of it. But other than the bad days that can happen (but it happens to everybody ^^), he's really happy with everything about himself. He Stims by rocking back and forth on his heels, and doing a little quick clap with his hands (not like a loud one, idk how to explain it tbh)

Manny/Yellow Guy

Manny is very high empathy but struggles immensely to communicate his emotions the most out of the group, especially when upset. But truly, he's a very happy kid that loves to indulge into learning new things! He doesn't really have a specific special interest, but if he were to have some then I feel his main one would be doing visual arts of any kind (drawing, painting, origami, etc.). He's hypersensitive in taste and smell, and hyposensitive in sight, touch, and sound. He doesn't like the texture of majority of meats and usually feels sick if he eats it. He stems by playing with little fidget toys, or but rubbing the top of his hand skin. He struggles the most with catching onto social cues out of the characters

Stinkie

-he has low empathy and hyperfixes very easily, his main interestd being mechanics/electronics and things that have intense smells. He's hyposensitive in all senses except for his smell, and most smells he enjoys (example being like the canon stuff), but really intense sweet smelling things like perfume/cologne and those oversweet cakes will very quickly overstimulate him and make him shut down. But the amount of times that it happens is very few and far between thankfully, so he's mostly just either hanging out his his brothers or indulging into his special interests. (Also I love the idea of him, Engi, and Jack getting together and discussing like machinery stuff and having a fun time, it'd be mega wholesome and I'm gonna make some art if anyone wants to join in with that ^^). He doesn't stem very often, but when he does he does, it's usually with letting out little chirps and hums. Out of these characters, he avoids eye contact the most.

Katz Macpherson

-he's the only character on this list that canonically is on the spectrum, since he's my character and I wanna represent it based on my experiences with my best friend. He's kind of nonverbal, struggles with empathy, and will get agitated if someone touches him without his permission. His special interests are video games and theater, struggling to talk about many other subjects, but will light up if he gets the chance to talk about his favorite retro arcade games and musicals (spoiler: it's the spongebob musical). He doesn't really communicate his emotions, being emotionally distant and brutally honest. But when he gets attached to someone, he'll defend them until the day he dies. He usually stems with hand flapping and humming.

Claire

-Claire is nonverbal and is the most prone to overstimulation, not really talking to majority of people, not communicating very often, and keeping to herself. But when she makes friends, she becomes a ball of joy, especially when she gets to talk about her special interest, drawing and Opal's burgers (or burgers in general). She stems with hand flapping, chirps, and rubbing the top of her hand skin. She's very clingy, but only likes touch if she indicates it, and will push/bat people away if they touch her without her permission. Her most sensitive senses are sound, sight, and touch, while she's only slightly sensitive in taste and smell. She also struggles with empathy and many social cues.

If you read the post, thank you so much! If I got anything information wrong on autism please let me know so I can fix my mistakes.

Remember to hydrate and I hope you have a good day :)

[softxsuki]

Sorry if this is a bad time to ask, but I just need something to wind down with because I just had a meltdown and this is kind of my only way of calming down, so this is kinda urgent :(

Maybe um, Atsumu and Bokuto comforting an autistic s/o who is having a problem with sensory issues and on the verge of a sensory overload and people keep telling them that they're being dramatic, and someone yelled at them for "acting like a spoiled brat" and that sends them even deeper into a sensory overload, but they can't really say anything because they can't really speak anymore and they have little note cards but nobody else is looking enough at them to read them.

If it helps you write, then uh, maybe tight hugs, I tend to do verbal stims (like hums, little "aaaa' noises, and things) flap my hands, and sometimes I curl into a ball and try to hide! Noise-cancelling headphones also good 👍

Sorry for dumping yet another request on you :(

Atsumu and Bokuto (Separate) Comfort Autistic Reader Who's Experiencing Sensory Overload

Pairings: Atsumu x Gn!Reader, Bokuto x Gn!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of sensory overload

Genre: Comfort

Post-Type: Headcanons

Word Count: 630

Summary: In which Atsumu and Bokuto comfort you after you go into sensory overload while out in public

[A/N: It's never a bad time to ask for an urgent request! I just had a few pending and was also a little sleep deprived and busy, BUT I finally got this done for you. It's probably a little late to help with your previous meltdown, but hopefully this can be helpful for any that you have in the future! Thank you for giving me a brief description of what you do when this happens and also what helps in this situation; that was actually really helpful! I also did a bit of research too so hopefully I did okay! I hope this helps comfort you whenever you need it! And never apologize for sending in requests! That's what I'm here for <3]

Atsumu:

Atsumu immediately knows what to do in this sort of situation; he sees the warning signs that you’re about to go into sensory overload and he’s moving quickly

You’re in public when it happens and he tries to take you somewhere quieter where there aren’t that many people or noises that could make your sensory overload worse

His initial response is anger–he’s pushing people out of the way and even accidentally screams a few times for people to move away from you, but then he realizes that his screaming is probably making you feel worse

He’s also extremely pissed if he hears people talking badly about you or saying things like “you’re acting like a spoiled brat,” when they don’t even understand what’s going on with you; however, he holds himself back for your sake, that last thing you need is for him to cause a scene

He takes out your emergency noise canceling headphones and gently puts them over your ears as he hold you tight against his chest, thinking it was probably better for him to just keep quiet, as shushing you or saying comforting words was still noise and could make you feel worse

It takes a while, but he patiently holds you tightly as little hums come from your mouth

He hold you in his arms, hoping that his presence and support is enough to help calm you down

Once you’re finally calm, he makes sure to take you straight home

“Let’s go, I think that’s enough stimulation for one day,” he says softly while grabbing your hand as you both take the long way home, avoiding loud or busy streets

He doesn’t mention what happened and you both continue your day at home doing something together like a puzzle or listening to calming music, anything you want to do

Bokuto:

Bokuto on the other hand has a hard time catching warning signs that you’re about to go into sensory overload

It isn’t until you shrink into a tiny ball beside him with your hands over your ears as you rock back in forth, when he finally realizes

Luckily you’re both right around the corner from where you live, so he quickly takes you home

He honestly doesn’t even hear if anyone around you says something horrible about you as his sole focus is on you and getting you into a safe place in that moment

However, If he does happen to hear anything,then he’d just send them a quick glare and make a mental note of their face incase he ever runs into them again in the future

We all know that Bokuto is loud so it really takes everything in him to just be quiet and not ask you a million questions about whether you’re okay and what caused it to happen, but he tries his best

Anyway, once he safely has you home, he’d take you into a dark, quiet room and pull you into his arms in hope that it would calm you down

He’s not as patient as Atsumu and gets antsy as he waits for you to calm down–but he’s mostly just worried about you as he doesn’t know what it feels like to go into sensory overload, but he imagines that it must be horrible

After what feels like forever to him, you finally manage to calm down and just rest in his arms

For the rest of the day, Bokuto tries to stay quiet to give you a break from his constant chaotic blabbing and only really speaks in a hush tone if he needs to ask you something

“I love you,” he says at the end of the day, making sure you know that he would still be there for you no matter what

REQUESTS ARE OPEN :D

Posted: 1/27/2022

[cromchychipdip]

Heya! I was wondering if you had any tips on how to write an autistic character? I'm thinking of making an autistic character and I'm not quite sure how to portray them and I don't want to accidentally be offensive?

You’ve come to the right person!

1. Stimming:

A big part of writing a character on the spectrum is accurately displaying them stimming! Stimming can be defined by an action that lets a person get out sensory energy that is difficult, stressful, or impossible to stop immediately. It can also help them focus. People stim for a lot of different reasons, like when they’re anxious, trying to focus on something, happy, and more! There are some stims that are sort of overused in media like rocking back and forth and humming or hand-flapping, but you can still write them in because they’re realistic stims! Some more stims that you can write are:

Leg bouncing

Mouth popping

Repeating words or phrases to themselves (think: Paul from TGWDLM saying “okay” over and over)

Something I do is take both of my hands and bring them to my face, then sort of shake them. Idk how to explain it, it’s weird

Biting their lips

Tapping their fingers or toes

Picking at their arms/legs

Gently squeezing their arms

2. Language Patterns:

A lot of people on the spectrum struggle with social awareness (myself included). This can include not understanding sarcasm, taking a while to understand jokes, saying some things aloud that sound better in their head, talking when they probably shouldn’t talk, and/or not talking when they should probably talk. Something that you should really avoid when writing dialogue for this character is them saying offensive things out of nowhere, then blaming their autism for it, or the other characters overlooking it because they have autism. Another thing related to this is if/when they go nonverbal, which can happen when someone is really overwhelmed or if they’re used to not talking very much. Some people on the spectrum are already nonverbal, and they communicate in other ways than verbal communication. Another thing that’s sort of connected to this is expressing emotion through words and facial expressions. Some people are really animated, and other people are more monotone. A lot of people, myself included, struggle with showing certain emotions.

3. Special Interests:

Special interests are interests or hobbies that someone on the spectrum really really likes and is very important to them. A lot of the time, autistic characters are written to have a special interest in technology or science. Some of my special interests throughout the years have been Warrior Cats, Avalon: Web of Magic, sharks, chemistry, rocks and minerals, emo music, math, Queen, Sailor Moon, Heathers: The Musical, and StarKid. These are also called hyperfixations. Another thing related to this subject is infodumping, which is when someone has the opportunity to share about their special interest and they share everything, or close to everything, they know and love about it. Infodumping takes a while and it’s very passionate, but if you shut someone down while they do it, then the person will feel like their special interest isn’t important and not share about it with you again. Their self-esteem will also take a hit because their special interests are so important to them. If you want to write a special interest for a character, make it really important to them, but don’t make it all that they talk about. Maybe put some infodumping in there, don’t make it all of their dialogue.

4. Meltdowns:

People on the autism spectrum get overstimulated easily. When they get overstimulated and they don’t calm down in time, they can have a meltdown. Meltdowns can’t really be helped, and they’re very emotional for some people. Some people shut down and dissociate really hard, like they’re running on low battery mode. Others are more frantic and they resort to more harmful stims, like hitting themselves. The type of meltdowns I have mostly revolve around getting really emotional and trying to block out anything that could cause me to freak out more. Something that you absolutely do not want to do is have another character touch them when they’re having a meltdown. Don’t touch people whenever they’re having a meltdown. It makes everything worse for everyone involved.

5. Sexuality:

A lot of people think that people on the spectrum inherently don’t want to have sex or be in a relationship. That isn’t true! There are a lot of people on the spectrum who are also aspec and/or arospec, but not every person is. If you’re going to write this character to also be somewhere on the ace/aro spectrum, don’t make them ace/aro/aroace just because they have autism. Concerning the other possible sexualities/romantic attractions: write them with the same respect you would as a character who isn’t on the autism spectrum.

I hope that this helped! This took a while to write lol. I encourage you to research more about this topic and not take all of my word as gospel. I’m only one person, and my experience as someone on the spectrum can be totally different from someone else on the spectrum. If you have any more questions, please let me know! Good luck! :D

[a-walking-fandom-reference]

Uh hey so i had a question?? Maybe you could help idk but I'm having trouble finding a stim that works right now?? I don't have any stim toys but i normally find other things that work for me and i keep flapping my hands but it's not really helping?? Idk it's very frustrating and i feel like im trapped in my skin

Hey! Sorry i didn’t respond sooner but i totally get this. I definitely have times where i super need to stim but nothing feels right or works and it’s so so frustrating. I didn’t have any stim toys either till a couple years ago and even now i just have some fidget spinners, a fidget cube, and a chew necklace. i’m gonna list some stims i do or stim with besides those and hand flapping (which i do a lot too) and hopefully it’s helpful for you. warning: this is wayyyyy too long and has way more information then you asked for but finally got those adhd meds again so i’m like oh can’t stop typing (typing stim right there).

(p.s. if you or anyone ever wants to talk or ask about neurodivergent stuff feel free to i’m always happy to talk about or help and my inbox and dms are always open)

chewing: i chew on stuff a lot to stim (even though it’s like the worst stim for my tmj) and sometimes find myself eating stuff just to move my mouth. but mostly i chew on my shirt collar a lot or just have it in my mouth a lot of the time, i also love gum and hard candies but tic tacs are my favorite but i end up eating a whole container of them when i have them because i just love chewing them. also uncooked pasta is a favorite to chew on. i also sometimes chew on pens

listening: i listen to songs, tv episodes, and podcasts on repeat a lot like a lot a lot. i don’t like quiet most of the time or not really quiet because i can hear everything around me all the time but like i don’t really like that either so. i listen to my brother my brother and me like 24/7 i’ve listened to all the podcast episodes? like way too many times, i also listen to bojack or bob’s burgers a lot because i’ve also seen the episodes so many times i know exactly what’s happening in every scene, the music i listen to on repeat is either a single song or an album, so show yourself, rewrite the stars, words fail, etc or frozen ii, jatp, dear evan hansen albums. i also cover and uncover my ears a lot because i like the noise.

touching: i love feeling stuff mostly soft stuff so petting my cats or rabbit, feeling blankets, holding and rubbing stuffed animals

smell: i’m super sensitive to like 95% of smells but the smells i do like i can smell for hours and are big stim i’ve been doing for a long time specifically laundry detergent so i put my shirt over my nose a lot also my haunted mansion themed body wash is my favorite scent ever and so i just smell that and it really calms me

vocal: i don’t talk a lot i’m a fairly quiet person and could and have gone days without speaking but i can be loud and talkative when hyper or infodumping and have always stimmed a lot vocally. i hum a lot or just make noises or beats, i have a kind of odd vocal stim where i just kind of sing old mcdonald randomly (i don’t know why but i’ve done it for a while) and also echolalia, a lot of them are just weird and everyone around me is like please stop saying, “it’s not just food, it’s fourth meal” but i love echolalia i think it’s a super cool thing autistics do!

body stims/stuff with my hands: i rub my hands together, crack my knuckles, clap, drum with my hands on anything and everything (i was a percussionist in middle school band and have always loved the drums so) i also use pencils/chopsticks/paint brushes or anything and drum on tables or just air drum with imaginary drumsticks. i twirl my hair a lot and now that it’s longer i do little braids braiding is such a nice stim. i also do body stims that aren’t good for my joint hypermobility but like i just need to do them sometimes, such as doing circles with my wrist or ankle or hyperextending my elbow. one of my favorite stims i do and one i do mostly in public because i need room (and since covid and like barely ever leaving my house when i do go out i do it a lot) is i kind of jump up and lift one leg in the air and clap under my leg. that probably sounds weird and like it kind of is but whatever stims can be weird and that’s great! i also rock back and forth on my heals a lot.

visual: i’m not a person that gets into a lot of like stimboards and stuff because a lot of stim gifs aren’t stuff i like but my favorite stim gifs or videos are calligraphy writing ones, cooking/cake decorating, nail painting, and just food recipe videos. sometimes i’ll just end up in a wormhole on pinterest of food recipe vids, like they are never foods i could actually eat or ever need the recipe for but i just love watching them (except meat heavy ones i just don’t like looking at meat). also i love watching fandom video edits on instagram i have like a bajillion saved and watch them all the time. i also love love watching gifs of characters stimming and sometimes just go through my autistic collection to watch these gifs for hours.

random stims: one of biggest stims is playing with toy cars and toy skateboards. i just kind of roll them on my arms/hands/legs or tables. i actually take a mcdonald’s clone wars anakin skateboard toy like everywhere with me, and i love it i found it at my gramma’s house years ago and it’s become like a comfort item at this point and of course because of adhd i lose everything i touch so before i leave the house i’m always like where is my anakin skywalker skateboard. i also have a lightning mcqueen car that was my comfort stim toy before anakin and i still take him a lot of places too. i also love wear rings to stim with, i don’t have any like spinning rings or anything yet but i just like twisting them on my finger a lot, my favorite to do that with is my great grandmother’s spoon ring it’s the perfect thing to twist and i love it. i also like pressure stims sometimes if my body can handle it like putting couch cushions on me or my weighted blanket. i also just play with my pop socket a lot and use it so much i broke the top of it off but i don’t know what i would do without it.

sorry that was way too long and way too much information and i don’t even know if any of that was helpful at all but i really hope something was or it gave you an idea for a different stim. like i said before you can literally ask me about anything especially neurodivergent stuff.

[current-obession]

I think mobile ate both my ask, I'm not sure it's happened so many times so I'm sorry if you got this. But can you do musical Beetlejuice characters and how they might stim.(again sorry if you already got this ask!)

Stimming Head cannons

I just was just wanting to preface this with I don’t have ADHD and don't really stim, I did my research to the very best of my ability though to make sure that I was representing it correctly! Let me know in the replies if I misrepresented it at all!

Beej

-Flaps his hands and claps when he's really excited and really happy!

Lydia

-Fidgets when she is anxious, she really enjoys fidget rings that let her stim without thinking about it a whole lot.

Delia

-tends to tap on her crystals or do a low hum that keeps her calm and focussed when she is stressed

Adam

-Adam enjoys more tactile swimming, wether it be the feeling of smooth surface beneath his hands or snapping his fingers.

Barbra

-Barbra enjoys similar feelings but prefers the feeling of putty or clay and also the feeling of hair between her fingers.

Charles

-Paces back and forth when he is bored and had a habit of rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet when he's anxious.

[words-writ-in-starlight]

hi, it's the adhd anon again. according to the dsm-v, i think i have it, which is weird bc i've never seen myself as having more trouble than others. (my grades are better than almost anyone else in my grade.) (although that might just be bc i'm interested in what's being taught - when something's not interesting or too hard, i have a pretty hard time doing it.) anyway, if it's not too much trouble, what does feel like to stim/hyperfixtate for you? (i'm so sorry to bother you in advance)

Hey, dude, welcome back!  So, okay, first things first: the stereotype of someone with ADHD automatically doing terribly in school is based heavily on the original diagnostic criteria, which categorized ADHD strictly in terms of “young hyperactive white boy who has violent outbursts and/or disciplinary problems and Just Doesn’t Do Well in academics.”  And there are people who manifest ADHD like that, it’s a stereotype with roots in reality--a lot of people with ADHD either consistently struggle with academics or eventually reach a point where their previous focusing techniques fail them.

However.

I left high school for college two years early, and if I hadn’t, I would probably been valedictorian of the graduating class, because I had a GPA well above 4.0 due to my general habit of doing extra credit whenever it was offered.  In college, I had a reputation for turning in beautifully complete lab reports and essays five pages over the minimum requirement.  I got high honors on my thesis, graduated magna cum laude, and finished a pre-medical major in half the recommended time period.  When I was a kid, the phrase “savant syndrome” got thrown around a lot, to give you some context.

On the other hand, I manifest a lot of those stereotypical ADHD symptoms: I’m loud, I interrupt people a lot, I have erratic and overwhelming mood swings that I struggle to control, I fidget incessantly and can’t stand silence, I have a tendency to get destructive when I’m angry, I have managed to seriously injure myself because I couldn’t resist a stupid impulse more than once, and if we’re all being honest, I would never have graduated high school at all, because I was on the brink of expulsion for getting into fights during class periods.  

It’s easy to feel like “I never really struggled academically” is somehow a counterargument to any and all symptoms of ADHD that you might manifest, but it’s really not.  (Heck, sometimes ADHD is even helpful--I finished my thesis a full week before anyone else and had time to fix my citations, mostly because my ADHD responds well to pressure and that crunch time hyperfocus Had My Back.)  It might take time for you to come to terms with this idea, and that’s okay!  But try to at least consider it.

All that being said, I am actually gonna answer your question, I just got distracted because the amount of time I spent making the statement “I’m faking having ADHD because I did well in school” is mindblowing and I have a Thing about it.  Forgive my ramble.

Stimming: I’m going to answer this first because the answer is going to be the most useless.  The ways I stim tend to be vocal/auditory stuff (I talk a lot when I’m alone, I sing and play music when I’m doing menial tasks, if I’m really anxious I’ll hum a single note until I calm down) or tactile stuff (sometimes destructive things like scratching my arms, sometimes neutral stuff like tapping my fingers in specific patterns or rubbing my palms over my jeans or the leather of a jacket or something).  It’s mostly things that ‘pass’ for neurotypical with very few exceptions, because I trained myself out of a lot of my ‘non-passing’ stims (rocking back and forth, knocking into walls, hand-flapping, that sort of thing) really young.  As for what it feels like to stim, it’s just...good.  It’s sort of like the brain equivalent of running your hand the right way along velvet, and discovering that you’ve been rubbing it backwards all along.  Or like the equivalent of stepping into a cool shower on a really hot day--it’s not that it’s miserable outside the shower, it’s just that the shower is extremely good.  I have a playlist of music that, for whatever reason, hits the right combination of voice and rhythm and notes and words to make my brain suddenly get calm, and it’s not necessarily my favorite music or a cohesive collection of tunes or anything (featuring Six Shooter by Coyote Kisses and also Human by Rag’n’Bone Man, which have nothing in common), but it’s Good.

Hyperfocus: You didn’t actually mention this, but I think it’s worth mentioning because it’s one of the hallmarks of ADHD.  It bears more than a passing resemblance to the concept of “flow”, but turned up to 11.  Hyperfocus is the state of being so overwhelmingly tuned in to the thing you’re currently doing that everything else falls away--which is fine, unless you’re one of us folks who can hyperfocus ourselves right through meal times.  It’s inexorable, it’s all-consuming, and it can feel pretty fucking great, which is why it’s important to be careful and find a way to hydrate yourself.  The primary difference between hyperfocus and flow is that hyperfocus is generally involuntary and does not necessarily tune you into something you planned or wanted to pay attention to.  If you ever see me publish a fic that includes a note about “I didn’t mean to write this but it’s 2 AM so here”, that’s code for “please validate me, I’ve been hyperfocused on this for two or three hours and I failed to do a lot of important things as a result.”  The other thing about hyperfocus is that afterwards, the drop coming off it is a real bitch.  It leaves me feeling hollowed out, exhausted, and kind of pettily disinterested in anything that would usually hold my attention.  Being hyperfocused is like being a machine designed to do one thing and one thing only and doing that thing feels incredible; coming off hyperfocus is like being an overtired toddler.

Hyperfixation: Hyperfixations are the ADHD equivalent of a special interest, aka: that thing you’ve been struggling not to pester every single person you know about, every single second of every single day of the past two and a half weeks.  Were you around, dear anon, when this blog was Only Animorphs, All The Time, and if you didn’t give a shit about morphin’ teens you just had to sit down, shut up, and learn some stuff, or else unfollow me?  That’s what hyperfixating looks like.  Sometimes it’s useful stuff--do you know how unbelievably useful having a hyperfixation on triage techniques is to me?  I crushed my triage training, I owned that shit, I wrote a whole chapter of my thesis on it.  Other times, it’s...well, Animorphs.  Or the American Revolution.  Or X-Men.  Or dinosaurs.  Some random shit like that.  Learning about hyperfixations, talking about them, is generally pure unadulterated joy.  On the other hand--oh, God, listen, I know how annoying I am, but I cannot stop myself.  I know I haven’t talked about anything but Animorphs in three weeks, I know I’ve made forty-five TAZ posts today, whatever you’re about to complain about, I already know, okay, I am aware, and there is nothing more painful than to have a fucking out-of-body experience watching yourself rattle on about a hyperfixation while the other person obviously gets bored in front of you.  And then you try to keep your mouth shut and it physically hurts not to talk about the thing.  It’s hard to describe what it ‘feels’ like except that ADHD brains are magpies at their core and hyperfixations are the shiny, shiny objects your brain wants to take home.

Anyway, I’m not sure how useful ANY of this has been, but like.  After a certain point, you kind of have to trust yourself enough to decide, once and for all, whether you really, truly believe you’re faking a neurological disorder for the attention.  If the answer is no, then great!  You have sussed out your symptoms and can start managing them accordingly, whether that’s some helpful apps on your phone or medication or something in between.  If the answer is yes, then you probably need some therapy, and your therapist will be able to help you get to a point where you feel able to trust yourself.

Go with the neurodivergent gods, my dude.

[gostaks]

Often when I'm on the verge of sensory overload, I feel extremely angry, like any sudden noise can set me off. I'm pretty good at preventing myself from yelling at other people, but it's really hard to function. Do you have any tips?

I’m not sure how universal these are, but here are some of the things I do to deal with sensory overload:

Take a break: Quietly excuse yourself to “go to the bathroom” or pretend that you’re getting an important call (loud and obviously fake ringing noises optional) and then find a quiet place to do something calming for a few minutes. If people accept that you experience sensory overload, you can also just say that you’re getting overwhelmed and need a few minutes.

Headphones: Most of the time people won’t question you wearing headphones outside of personal conversations, meetings, and classes (though you can often get accommodations that allow you to have headphones in class) and most people will accept “they help me focus” as an excuse, plus they’re great at cutting background noise

Music/white noise: block out overwhelming noises with your own

Deep breathing: My default pattern is in seven, hold seven, out seven but whatever you normally do is fine. The deal with this one is to refocus on counting and breathing rather than overloading stimulus (also let’s be honest deep breathing is just stimming for people who don’t want to admit they’re stimming)

Stim: When you’re dealing with overload, it’s important to try to keep yourself from going into fight-or-flight responses and stimming is a great way to keep yourself calm. Try to keep whatever stimming you do slow and rhythmic because that’s the best way to calm down. Rocking is 10/10 but if you can’t be seen stimming in public here are some more subtle ones

take your pulse (neck or wrist it doesn’t matter) and focus on the feeling of your heartbeat

curl and uncurl your toes

clench the muscles in your knees or hips to a rhythm (or make it a pattern like left knee left hip right knee right hip)

set a slow rhythm by tapping one foot and then tap your other foot or your hand in double time

pop your ears and then hum quietly, it’ll sound loud to you but really quiet to everyone else

if you’re wearing headphones tap the side of the headphones in a rhythm (great auditory stim too)

use your thumb, index, and middle finger to spin a pencil or pen around in circles

swing one (or both) legs like a pendulum

shift your jaw back and forth so your teeth click together

rub an item of clothing or your phone case (phone cases are a great place to hide a stimmy texture in general)

Anyone who has other strategies please feel free to add on!