Christa H on Stimming and Senses

Join neurodiversity advocate and educator, Christa H (AKA Neurodivergent Rebel), as they share their favourite stims and explore the connection between stimming and sensory profile.

This video is funded by the National Disability Agency.

Transcript

[Music]

Hi everybody, Christa here and some of you may know me online as the Neurodivergent Rebel and this morning I have been asked to answer two questions and the first question is what is your favourite stim? I wasn’t sure what they meant by your favourite stim. Do they mean my favourite stim as in the one I do the most frequently, or did they mean the one that I would do the most if I had a choice to do it. The one I do most frequently is probably rocking back and forth, or anything with my hands and  that’s my hands touching themselves or touching other things or fabrics or my shirt, petting a dog –  that’s wonderful, like if I could at a dog all day I would probably do that, or if I had a choice I seek out sound very frequently and I seek to control the sound environment and for me, that could be listening to music. Music is really like my go-to thing; pop on a familiar song and that is how I can regulate myself.

And the second question is, how does this relate to my own personal sensory profile? And I really naturally, especially once I found out I was Autistic, gravitate towards things that are comfortable to my senses. As you see right now I’m actually sitting in a dark room, because I am very sensitive to  light;  however I have lit myself up so you can see me in the camera, but there are  sensory things that involve light that I seek out and enjoy, but in a very controlled way. Having the control over it is necessary because there are days where looking at something like this would actually be physically painful and make me ill if I am not feeling my best. There are days where I can’t even look at the screen on my telephone because the light will just make me feel sick, but taking care of myself and getting enough rest and all of those things help to make sure I don’t get to that point. But I surround myself and my environment with things that are soothing and pleasant to my senses and music has always been one of those things that for me, since I was a very young person I just naturally gravitated towards, because I knew I could use it to set the mood for myself and help set my brain and get my brain in a certain state of mind, so it’s definitely all connected.