autistic people and stimming

https://themighty.com/2020/04/let-autistic-people-stim/?utm_source=newsletter_autism&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_autism_2020-04-21&$deep_link=true

Stimming is little things that we do that help us regulate our bodies to feel balances in our world.

When i'm reading, I run my teeth over my lip and have a pen or a fidget in one of my hands. The clicking of pens bothers my husband, so i sometimes use the fidget or a pen with a cap instead of a clicker.

When i'm watching a movie, i'll have my phone in my hand, or i'll crochet, or i'll eat (smacks head).

When i'm somewhere that I can't swim as easily, I have a rubber band on the bottom of my purse or I pick at something on my skin (this is destructive).

If I get super excited about something, i'll actually squeal and jump up and down. I freaked my husband out about six months ago when I allowed myself to physically do this instead of keeping the feeling inside. I didn't know before last year that I was autistic, and now that I know, and that these things are actually good for me to do, I let myself openly stim.

This can be hard to do, because people like me (late diagnosis autistics), our whole lives we learned to keep these things in and mask things so we didn't look odd.
Now I can allow myself to learn myself better, and not squish down things that are part of me that don't need to be hidden.
If it makes other people uncomfortable, so be it.