To think that stimming (especially destructive or very intense) is potentially not helpful or even harmful in the long run?

[ThatWaryGreenBiscuit]

I’ve seen a lot of advice that stimming behaviour in individuals with autism or adhd is helpful and regulating, however instinctively this feels wrong to me.

The brain is plastic and can be trained to expect certain things and I feel like that failing to redirect ourselves or our children to more healthy ways of experiencing overwhelm is only making stimming worse. And possibly the overwhelm worse in the long term.

this is backed up by several Reddit threads, where people said allowing themselves to stim, made the stimming worse, but the mainstream opinion is to let the stimming happen.

Instead of teaching life skills and how to get through day in an off ten overstimulating world, is it healthier to rely on potentially problematic behaviour as a way of getting by.

I know I’m probably kicking a hornets nest here, but this is not to suggest that ALL stimming is bad or anything like that. We don’t know everything about the brain or our behaviour, so I think it’s good to discuss things so we can work towards helping everyone rub along together. I hope this makes sense.

Could you give some concrete example of what you consider non-helpful stimming, and why you think it intensely repetitive behaviour might cause escalation to harmful acts?

Maybe you could just let people decide for themselves based on the innumerable different nuances and circumstances that will apply to their own child (or themselves) rather than taking it upon yourself to inform them what you have decided based on ‘several Reddit threads’.

Yea this. You're being very vague.

If you want to reply you need to click ‘quote’ on the post you want to reply to.

I can only speak for ADHD stimming, but who cares if you repeat song lyrics, twiddle hair/fingers or do swimmers feet, in the comfort of your own home. You aren’t hurting anyone, if OP is talking about stimming being something to be ashamed of in public, I can’t see how that would be helpful. It doesn’t bother me if someone is regulating in a way I don’t understand.

Well, typically if I'm visibly stimming it's either that or slowly build towards a meltdown. Often in public. I'd rather not be screaming, crying and hitting myself at the bus stop, so a little rocking back and forth as I stand and wait seems like a pretty good trade-off personally. Since I was diagnosed in my teens and stopped suppressing my urge to stim, I've barely had any meltdowns at all when I used to melt down regularly. I can safely say that stimming has massively improved my wellbeing by preventing such frequent meltdowns, which left me exhausted and ashamed.

In general, I barely notice my own stimming. It's mostly things like knitting (a repetitive hand motion), chewing gum, jiggling my knee, or humming to help me focus (if I'm alone). It's just a background element of my life. Obviously self-injurious stims are harmful both long-term and short-term and should always be redirected where possible, but hand flapping or pacing can be wonderfully regulating. If I suppressed my stims the way I used to, my ability to go out and about, travel, work, and socialise would be vastly curtailed.

Who decides what is ‘helpful stimming’ or ‘unhelpful stimming’? Is it you, OP? You might not enjoy the sound of my child bouncing up and down the hallway hundreds of times a day but nobody in our house cares,

This is a really interesting point. 3 out of 4 of my girls stim. Even still at 10. Only when excited (twist hands at wrist furiously) or playing. None of them have any additional needs or diagnosis. I myself constantly twirl hair all day every day and have done all my life.

I have often wondered for my second daughter if it was learned behaviour as my first daughter did this and they were very close in age. It's something I've always wondered. My third daughter flaps but at 7 has pretty much grown out of it.

Self injurious stims can produce endorphins, which can relieve distress and calm the individual.

Are you secretly just concerned with the embarrassing, attention drawing ones op?

The way you describe your child does not sound like autism at its most severe (and there is no such thing as the most severe form of autism). Likewise, as a PP said, a GP isn’t involved in an ADHD assessment.

I can no more stop my severely autistic non verbal DS from stimming than I could part the seas. He gets plenty of looks and stares from people like you, you get used to it. It's in every noise, every movement, every second. If he's not hurting himself or anyone else then happy days, he has no sense of where he is in space, bouncing, jumping, stomping wiggling his arms are the way his brain is compensating for that, without it, he has inadequate vestibular input. It's quite clever really, very interesting to research if you wish to educate yourself.
Imagine you're in a car going backwards with a blindfold on, four different songs playing at in your ears at once. That's how he feels if he doesn't stim, in a crude way it's similar to how a blind person's other senses compensate. Why would you want to stop that? Would you prefer his meltdown? It involves headbanging, concussion, biting himself down to the bone, unbelievable screaming, serious violence. I know which I prefer.
There can be harmful or antisocial stims, which require redirection, this requires work, and effort I suspect you have no idea about. I won't go into them as I expect that will reinforce your negative stereotype, but please understand it's not as simple as just stopping them, especially if coinciding with a learning disability.

You're not talking about autistic stimming, then. You're talking about OCD.

• Autistic stimming stimming does not cause OCD
• Allowing stimming does not increase OCD
• OCD is driven by intrusive thoughts and threat reduction, not sensory regulation.

Sure, they can be co-morbid or exist in isolation, and a clinician would need to assess what the route cause of the repetive movement is, and what purpose it serves, before decreeing it "harmless" or "problematic".

I have met a couple of parents whose children have autism and I have wondered when they have asked them to calm down why they are stopping them stimming and this has been in their own homes. I don't understand why they ask them to calm down. And both these parents are highly educated. Other parents I have been in contact just seen it as part of autism. So I have privately questioned whether they are right to say calm down.
Personally I feel better to be natural and let a person's nervous system function in its own way. I feel blocking things makes a pipe burst further down the line.
I'd never stop anyone stimming to fit in with a perception of conformity unless they were going to hit someone or something in the vicinity like in a shop.
People obviously stim for a reason. I would personally compare stopping stimming similar to when people used to try and get left handed people to write with their right hand.

These would be examples of stimming behaviour that I have witnessed from children close to me. Pacing, spinning, loud noises, jumping, rocking, head shaking. Instead of calming or grounding it seems to create a negative cycle that leads to them doing the behaviour more often or more loudly, violently etc if it’s not interrupted and replaced with a different behaviour.

I do not think these children just not get over it and their struggles should be dismissed. But I don’t think this behaviour is helpful and instead seems to be leading to more harmful behaviour and I worry about the potential harm letting them behave in such intense repetition is for their mental health.

Of course not everyone needs to do everything all the time, but there’s a difference between saying a potentially harmful behaviour is actually good for someone and saying, this behaviour isn’t probably good for me, but I don’t have the headspace to deal with it right now.

Only because I am questioning if it IS harmless. Maybe it is maybe it isn’t, I just feel like encouraging children to behave in intensive repetitive behaviours is not going to be good for their brain. BUT obviously it heavily depends on the person and how the behaviour is being displayed. Ie is it escalating in intensity or occurrence or leading to anxiety or in itself masking something that could be fixed.

not saying this is the case with you necessarily, more talking generally

Backed up by several Reddit threads 🤣 Catch yourself on OP!

Do you have any evidence these things create a negative cycle? At the moment this just seems like anecdote rather than research

Yes, my adult son has his happy noise. When he stops making it it's the first sign I have that he is feeling unwell or anxious.

The OTs that i spoke to in regards what to say to parents said that the only one they say to reduce in children is spinning as it stimulates rather than regulates and to try to redirect towards rocking or have it as a very controlled spin. Other than that allow the child to do what they need to do to regulate their sensory systems.

Backed by reddit?

I personally prefer to get my information from YouTube.

"I just feel like encouraging children to behave in intensive repetitive behaviours is not going to be good for their brain"

Is this just your feeling though? Where's the evidence for this actually being bad?

They can’t help it !!!! To order a child who can’t help something to stop causes huge psychological damage.

Do you have this view about limping?

ocd Is very common with autism so I’d say it’s enough to be wary of the potential negative side to certain stimming behaviour, especially when it’s children.

Suppressing non-harmful autistic regulation in favour of cognitive “skills” doesn’t eliminate dysregulation, it postpones and internalises it. The long-term risks of that are VERY well documented.

You can teach, emotional literacy, planning, exits, boundaries, breathing, grounding etc which can be useful, but none of them discharge sensory load the way a stim does in real time. Replacing a reflexive nervous system response with a conscious override is masking, which keeps a nervous system in a state of unresolved stress.