Their responses highlight the highly adaptive and useful purpose of stimming for Autistic people.
Five clear themes emerged:
We hope you enjoy gaining these insights from our community’s rich bank of Autistic lived experience.
Stimming brings genuine joy, comfort and pleasure, helping Autistic individuals feel happy, relaxed and authentically themselves.
“It sparks joy 🩶” – Gray Area Counseling LLC
“Regulation is the biggest benefit for me.” – Steph Kennedy
“Stimming regulates me and makes me calm and happy.” – Renée Mutetwa
“It feels good, makes and keeps me feeling happy, relaxes and entertains me. I just like doing it, or how it sounds when it’s a vocal or noisy stim or repetition.” – Son of Kylie Aekins
“Ooooooh!” – Australian Neurodivergent Parents Association – ANPA
“I don’t realise I’m doing most of my repetitive movements. I think doing the same thing, listening to the same thing, or moving the same way just makes me feel better.” – ND Renegade
Stimming supports emotional regulation by grounding the body, reducing sensory overload and calming the nervous system.
“It helps regulate and express my emotions, provides proprioceptive input so I know where my body is in space, and helps reduce sensory load.” – Rosie JI
“It helps pull me out of my head and back into my body. With my anxiety symptoms it helps ground and calm my nervous system.” – Kayla Crebert
“It’s calming, self regulating. A good sensory tool to play with helps me with transitions and distracts me … Stimming helps with body awareness and interoception, it is grounding.” – Clare Smith
“It stops the buzzing in my head, reminds me that my body still exists, and releases the emotions swirling around my brain … provides proprioceptive feedback. Grounds me I guess you’d say.” – Karen McEwan
Stimming enhances concentration and cognitive processing by releasing internal tension and occupying restless mental energy.
“Stimming allows me to be able to complete tasks/concentrate by occupying the ‘restless’ part of my brain that otherwise becomes the overwhelming driving force. It can be an expression of joy as much as a coping mechanism, and as much a part of valid neurodivergent communication as speech.” – Kyra Chambers, The Prism Cat
“If I don’t stim, it is like a pressure cooker of energy build up that has to get released. When alone I can freely stim and it helps me visualize and concentrate a lot better.” – Larissa Payne
“Humming is my biggest stim. It helps me focus, it helps me calm, I often don’t know I am doing it.” – CT Thomson
Stimming is a natural, expressive and functional form of communication and regulation that deserves recognition and acceptance rather than suppression.
“It feels natural to constantly move, tap and sway, to look around and to chatter. The requirement of most of the world to stay completely still and quiet, and to look at who’s speaking feels restrictive. It makes my muscles tense up. It takes concentrated effort and practice. It feels like playing a game of pretending to be a statue or robot. So weird and exhausting.” – Charlie Park
“It’s not ‘restrictive’, it’s expressive! That’s how I show, and process, emotions, in particular when they overflow. Not allowing the overflow of internal experiences will result in bottling up, which eventually, will lead to uncontrollable escape (aka meltdowns). It’s just like a pressure valve really… we monitor, we gauge, we exercise safe and controlled release which helps to avoid a damaging explosion. It’s simple and obvious and, at this stage in my life I simply refuse to exist in spaces that refuse to accept this for myself and child.” – Ali Piffer
“It’s calming and relaxing, or coupled with enjoyment. It’s a normal behaviour for autistic people, and helps regulate and also express emotion? Why do neurotypical people hug each other when sad? Why do neurotypical people smile when happy? People talk about autistic scripting and repetitive communication. These same people also have repetitive social scripts like asking others how they are, but they don’t really want to know, it’s just a social script that they do to feel safe. Just because you see MY behaviour or communication as strange, weird or difficult, please be rest assured that many in the autistic community feel exactly the same way about neurotypical behaviour and communication. Not ‘broken’, just different.” – Thylacinus Polyesterus
We’d like to thank our #ActuallyAutistic community for contributing their lived experience to help inform and debunk myths around Autistic stimming.
The Reframing Autism team would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we have the privilege to learn, work, and grow. Whilst we gather on many different parts of this Country, the RA team walk on the land of the Awabakal, Birpai, Whadjak, and Wiradjuri peoples.
We are committed to honouring the rich culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this Country, and the diversity and learning opportunities with which they provide us. We extend our gratitude and respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and to all Elders past and present, for their wisdom, their resilience, and for helping this Country to heal.
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