https://www.dailycal.org/2018/04/12/compulsion-complexity
Showing posts with label Behaviors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Behaviors. Show all posts
Stimming in Autism - The Why and What
Stimming, a common behavior in autistics, encompasses a variety of sensory and motor actions.
Self-Stims leading to Self-Injurious Behavior (SIB)
Stimming on Objects/Activities:
Why do autistics Stim? Stimming behaviors can serve various purposes, such as:
Types of Stims
Self-Stimming
- Visual: Triggered by or seeking lighting change - including flicking fingers in front of eyes, staring at ceiling fans, and repeated blinking.
- Auditory: Manifest as tapping on objects, snapping fingers, replaying songs, humming, repeating words or sounds, and tongue clicking.
- Olfactory & Taste: Involving smelling objects (even unpleasant odors), eating non-food items like paper, and licking body parts.
- Tactile: Such as rubbing skin.
- Vestibular & Proprioceptive: Including rocking, toe-walking, pacing, jumping, rolling, spinning, and throwing objects.
Self-Stims leading to Self-Injurious Behavior (SIB)
- Actions like head banging, biting one's own wrist, and excessive skin rubbing that can cause tissue damage.
Stimming on Objects/Activities:
- Lining up objects (e.g., lining up toys)
- Creating specific patterns with objects, rejecting all other arrangements.
- Spinning wheels on toys. Looking at the ceiling fan spinning.
Why do autistics Stim? Stimming behaviors can serve various purposes, such as:
- Reducing anxiety and calming oneself.
- Aiding in sensory and emotional regulation.
- Self-soothing, communicating, experiencing excitement.
- Coping with overstimulation or boredom.
- Avoiding tasks or seeking attention.
- Stimulating senses
- Expressing frustration, particularly in those with communication challenges.
- Easing pain or discomfort
- Could be indicative of seizure activity.
Differences Between Autistic and Non-Autistic Stimming:
The irony is that neurotypicals stim all the time too like the endless clicking of the TV remote, doodling, chewing the end of a pencil or pen, drumming fingers etc. NT stimming are regarded as "socially acceptable"
Autistic stimming often differs in its intensity and ability to be moderated/changed/stopped according to the situation.
How much stimming is too much:
- While some level of stimming can be calming, crossing a certain threshold may lead to behaviors resembling Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), further inducing anxiety.
- What might a mild, controllable/adaptable habit in an non-autistic, could become an unmanageable compulsion in a non autistic.
Stimming in autism is a multifaceted behavior with various forms and functions. Understanding these behaviors is crucial for providing appropriate support and interventions. It's important to recognize the individual needs and experiences of each person with Autism, as stimming serves different purposes and requires a tailored approach in each case.
Related Posts:
Looking at the Self
In the context of disability and autism, all the terms discussed below takes on a unique significance as individuals may grapple with challenges that affect their physical, cognitive, emotional, and social attributes. Understanding one's own abilities, limitations, and unique traits can be an integral part of developing a positive self-perception and fostering self-acceptance and empowerment within the disability and autism communities.
Self-Perception: refers to how we perceive themselves, including our physical, cognitive, emotional, and social attributes. It involves forming an understanding of one's own characteristics, abilities, and behaviors. Self-perception can encompass both internal aspects, such as thoughts and emotions, and external aspects, such as appearance and social roles. It involves recognizing oneself as a distinct entity separate from others and the environment.
Self-Evaluation: refers to the process of assessing one's own abilities, performance, and worth. It involves comparing oneself to internal or external standards and making judgments about one's strengths, weaknesses, and accomplishments. Self-evaluation can be influenced by various factors, including personal goals, social comparisons, and feedback from others. It plays a crucial role in shaping self-esteem, as positive self-evaluation can enhance feelings of self-worth and competence, while negative self-evaluation can lead to self-doubt and low self-esteem.
Self-Awareness: is the conscious knowledge and recognition of one's own existence, thoughts, feelings, and sensations. It involves being cognitively and emotionally attuned to oneself. Self-awareness allows individuals to monitor and reflect upon their own internal states, behaviors, and reactions in relation to themselves and their environment. It involves recognizing one's own strengths, weaknesses, values, and beliefs. Self-awareness is a fundamental aspect of self-consciousness and is essential for introspection, self-regulation, and social interactions.
Self-Reflection: involves the process of introspection and examining one's thoughts, feelings, and experiences. It entails looking inwardly and exploring one's own inner world. Self-reflection allows individuals to gain insight into their beliefs, values, motivations, and behaviors. It often involves asking oneself questions, considering personal experiences, and analyzing one's own actions and their consequences. Self-reflection facilitates self-understanding, personal growth, and the ability to learn from past experiences.
Self-Evaluation: refers to the process of assessing one's own abilities, performance, and worth. It involves comparing oneself to internal or external standards and making judgments about one's strengths, weaknesses, and accomplishments. Self-evaluation can be influenced by various factors, including personal goals, social comparisons, and feedback from others. It plays a crucial role in shaping self-esteem, as positive self-evaluation can enhance feelings of self-worth and competence, while negative self-evaluation can lead to self-doubt and low self-esteem.
Self-Awareness: is the conscious knowledge and recognition of one's own existence, thoughts, feelings, and sensations. It involves being cognitively and emotionally attuned to oneself. Self-awareness allows individuals to monitor and reflect upon their own internal states, behaviors, and reactions in relation to themselves and their environment. It involves recognizing one's own strengths, weaknesses, values, and beliefs. Self-awareness is a fundamental aspect of self-consciousness and is essential for introspection, self-regulation, and social interactions.
Autistic Inertia
[Concepts in Sensorimotor Research]
Newton's Law of Inertia
The general law of inertia, also known as Newton's first law of motion, states that an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will continue moving in a straight line with a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force. This means that an object will maintain its state of motion (either at rest or in motion) unless some force is applied to change it.Autistic Inertia
In Autistic inertia we draw on those parallels to describe the difficulty that some autistics experience in starting tasks and stopping tasks, whether it with reference to their behavior, thinking or attention to task.
- An object at rest will stay at rest: This is the difficulty in starting tasks.like you are almost freezing and you need some external kickstart to achieve takeoff velocity to get that motion/task going. Some of this could be due to catatonia [post on catatonia].
- An object in motion will stay in motion: The is difficulty with stopping tasks. Once you get moving, - its difficult to end whatever you are doing, so end up in this OCD loop of repeated unproductive thoughts or action (some forms of stims are OCD too).
- other examples include difficulty with
- Transitioning between tasks,
- Adjusting body movements and thoughts to suit a new and rapidly changing environment
- Staying on task, maintaining attention
- Transitioning between paying attention/focus mode to non-attention mode which is also needed at times.
- Making decisions, planning, following through
- Anxiety, Depression
Part of your mind is aware you need to be doing starting/stopping/transitioning/planning but you are unable to initiate that action and remain stuck. All of this difficulty in initiating and stopping actions is mentally and physically exhausting as your body feels at war with itself. It takes up more spoons [post on Spoon Theory] and can contribute to autistic burnout [post on autistic burnout].
Causes
Autistic inertia can be caused by a number of factors, including sensory overload, motor-apraxia, movement-issues, body-coordination issues, executive dysfunction, and anxiety.
Autistic inertia can make it difficult to complete tasks, meet deadlines, and maintain a job or school schedule. It can lead to autistic burnout [post on autistic burnout]
The flip side is that this inertia can also help with hyper-focus which is an advantage in terms of learning a specific area.
Misconceptions
- Autistic inertia is often misunderstood as laziness, non-compliance, task avoidance, lack of effort or due to lack of motivation.
- Many of these concepts in autism and neurodiversity are often though to apply to only those who have low/no support-needs. Spoken communication ability is not linked to inertia. In fact inertia may be even more complex in autistics who have movement-disorder-like-issues, apraxia, sensory dysregulation and body coordination challenges.
What can we do to help
- Put external assistances in place where possible to ease transitions. Whether its a reminder from others or something that you can put into place on your watch or calendar depending on context. And the amount and intensity of assistance varies from individual to individual.
Related Terms: A Chara , Allistic, Aspie, Atypical, Autistic Burnout, Autistic Inertia, Catatonia, Crip Time, Critical Disability Studies, Disability Justice Movement, Disability Rights Movement, Disability Eugenics, Feeble-Minded, Imbecile, Inspiration Porn, Masking/Camoflauging, Microaggressions, Neurominority, Ofa Ahi Latu, R-Word, Savant, Spoon Theory, Takiwatanga, Trains, Ubuntu, Ugly Laws, Upstander
Tse et al 2023 - Executive functioning, self-regulation, and physical exercise
The findings suggest that cognitively engaging exercise may be more beneficial than non-cognitively engaging exercise in enhancing cognition in autistic children.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13623613231168944
Noise Cancelling Headphones and Autism
Noise Cancelling Headphones are often seen as the solution to sensory overstimulation in autistics.
Pop on a pair of headphones. And Voila, the autistic problem is solved like magic (sarcasm intended).
Are they really the solution they are touted to be? The answer may surprise you.
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