or certifiable? Honestly? Or do lots of people do this?

[stiflersmom]

I have a sandpit (well, an oven tray full of sand) which I play with when I am stressed, or jut when I feel like it (usually in front of the tv in the evening)

I like to play with it dry for a bit, then add a bit of water and mix through so it goes all crumby and fluffy, then massage it in my hands until it is all dry again

If I don't have it I get CRAVINGS for it, seriously, like cigarette cravings

I need to smell it and scrunch it, for some reason

I am also craving snow, but I don't know how to make that so I just chew ice cubes instead

am I weird?

atyourcervix, that sand animation is just incredible! wow!

ps can anyone translate what she writes (ukranian?) at the very end? i assume its something like "let us not forget"

oh and realeyes has just posted the same link for anyone who doesn't want to scroll back!

I don't think that's weird at all. I have a couple of Cushtie pillow things that have very small bean bags things in and run those through my fingers while watching TV (through the pillow case iyswim)

Don't play with sand, but I too love the smell of wet concrete/bricks.

Glad to see I'm not the only one

You are not certifiable at all. Sand Mandala's are very relaxing, help relieve stress and centre a person. You would probably get into it since you like the sand.
store.nortonsimon.org/children/tibetan-sand-mandala-kit.html

Tools For Peace sells mandal colouring books for adults, but I don't have time to find the link.

Just cause something is weird doesn't mean it is wrong.

Can't see any reason why you can't play with sand if it makes you happy. If it becomes a compulsion that interferes with life then that would be different, otherwise, why not?

I don't think you're certifiable or unreasonable OP :)

Other people use worry beads, or knit or garden or whatever it is to give them peace. I've skimmed this thread so may be repeating others but my guess is that the sand helps place you in a light relaxing trance and that's a lovely place to relax from ... A creative space too IMO

gotart - oh me too! I cannot count, so knitting anything other than a scarf is out of the question. I find it very relaxing, so i too have a scarf whch is about 20 feet long and still growing :D

I love the smell of felt tip markers and pear drops and marzipan ( I am a prime candidate for Solvent Abuse . Also would happily bribe my kids to brush or stroke my hair but they think that is deeply weird. I absolutely love people (well not strangers, that really would be weird) stroking or fiddling with my hair. I once had a teacher who admitted she loved having her hair cut so much she would ask the hairdresser to just keep on snipping.

When I was pregnant I craved the smell of gloss paint and petrol. I used to take ages filling up the car. And once I was nearly in tears, begging my friend (who was glossing her porch) to let me sniff the brush. She wouldn't let me

Your particular liking is a bit odd, but blimey it isn't harming a soul and it's better for you than smoking or beer!

So you must be in seventh heaven at the seaside?

(Don't tell anyone but I have a strange fondness for the smell of the air that comes out of the vacuum cleaner.)

My friend bought me a sand thingy with a rake and some stones. Some oriental relaxing thing.....like those ball clackers. So I don't think you are weird as they make mini sandpits. think I only got rid of it last year as I never used it. Shame I could have posted it to you LOL

well I bite my nails, they are badly bitten just now, so I've no place to talk really!! Enjoy your habit ;)

Olderandwider DD2 loves to play with my hair & I hate it. I'll send her to you to satisfy both your cravings

She always does it when I'm putting her shoes on so sometimes she goes to nursery in her socks!

Yes, you're weird. Harmlessly weird though. Nothing wrong with harmlessly weird- the nation of England is famed the world over for its harmless weirdos after all. Be proud! (Unless of course you're Scottish, in which case I'm sorry).

Not weird at all I don't think. I love the feel of sand or grass between my toes. Very relaxing for me. I love walking on grass in barefeet in the Summer. And I play with lentils too.

I totally "get" the writing on the soles of slippers. I think that is absolutely a sensory thang, tis very smooth to write on the soft soles.

My habit is picking bits off my living room rug. It goes so far that I never hoover it as it will deny me the pleasure of sitting on it gathering bits of whatevers on it. I even (embarrasing admission alert) get giddy ith excitement when people come round as I know that, at some point, when they have left, I will have new bits to gather.

I don't care, I am a happy bunny and content with the oddity :)

I constantly stroke myself (hair, arms, face) and bite my hair, and bite my nails (not off, I just kind of tap my teeth on them) and I wrap myself up in tight layers, and I crave the smell of old books and that stillness that comes from being near loads of books - I think it is sound insulation or something.

I also get really, really grumpy if I can't have a soak in a bath - I eat my dinner in there quite a lot.

On the other side, I get massively panicked if things touch my knees, neck or wrists in the wrong way, if someone touches me without warning, if water touches my face (even rain), if I have to swallow a tablet or something, if I look at a piercing (I'm ok if I kind of ignore what it is, but the thought of metal against skin is bad enough, never mind through skin...urgh), if I accidentally touch a toenail (mine or someone elses), if something rubs my c section scar, and oher stuff.

I get worse sometimes - I have weeks of being stuck in all this, and months when I don't do any of it.

My point being, you are not alone :) I have mental stuff going on, but apparently all the above is pretty normal, if a little exaggerated because I get anxious - so it is fine, as long as it doesn't interfere with life :)

also has the best line about cynicalism I have ever heard..

end of song celebrates the delight and sensual pleasure of the way a biro writes on a good slipper sole! .. no i don't think you are weird for having a sensual hand thing you do to unwind.. sand is rare, but feeling things in your hand giving a strong pleasurable and distracting thing is not really weird, just shows some intense physical/emotional overlap...

Whatever floats your boat OP!

Far less destructive than many other cravings, it sounds lovely, perhaps we are all missing a trick here (sell tobacco! Buy tiny rakes and sand!)

I also used to love squeezing jelly in my hands, if there were leftovers, naked feet on new wet grass.. yes yes yes, sometimes just watched my hands squeezing things like bread dough, soil, lentils, rice (have been caught just feeding rice through my hands and pushing them into bog containers of rice just for the pleasure of feeling my hands feel rice), also love squeezing flour when making something - it sort of goes hard and in a shape but a puff of air, or movement makes it go back to flour, love standing in mud sometimes in bare feet (other times it horrifies me!) love the feel of oat face mask from body shop and sometimes find myself putting loads on my hands and squeezing it through before wiping it back in the tub thinking 'what the hell are you doing?' :)

sooo with only one weird sensual hand thing that is quite organised and disciplined I think perhaps you are a bit of an organised neat freak.. but not a freak for enjoying sand in your hands! what is being human if not enjoying ourselves and our ability to derive pleasure intellectually and physically and emotionallly from almost anything.. :)

keep seeing this thread and every time I do, it makes me want to sniff firelighters

and why is nobody creosoting their fence when you need it?

My Dad had a mild ASD and he used to get us to comb his hair when we were children - never saw a connection till I read this thread.

yy to writing on the bottom of slippers. To add to that, when writing normally on paper, isn't it just bliss when you get a really good pen, that writes just right, really fast and smooth?

(I often compare singing voices or other musical sounds with pens, eg a fine classical violin sounds like a fine point marker to me, whereas a folk violin is like a felt tip pen. I can sort of see the sound written as a wavy line of the appropriate thickness and smoothness.)

< slinks out of thread in shame >