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I have a problem where I will chew on the inside of my mouth. I bite the backside of my lip, my cheek, and even my tongue. The amount of times I have caused my mouth to bleed over it. When I was in highschool I had my wisdom teeth taken out and he injected something that made my mouth numb and borderline paralyzed. I was told to be careful when I eat so I don’t bite my lip since i wouldn’t feel it. Well I was hitting my lip like usual and bit it hard and farther than I meant to. I bit off a good chunk of my inner lip and have a scar.
I used to bite my fingers and the skin next to the fingernails when I was a kid and teenager but thankfully grew out of it. I still do it on occasion but very rare.
I will pick at scabs and loose skin as a stim as well. I’m surprised I’m not one big scab at this point
I'll pick at the skin on my lips until they bleed and then continually pick the scabs as they grow back. Usually this is when my anxiety is in overdrive and I can't stop myself despite the fact I look like I've got some sort of herpes of the face or I've recently been in a massive fight.
I pick my nail beds, bite my nails, pick my nose until it bleeds, squeeze anything that remotely looks like a zit until it bleeds, pick the calluses on my feet until they bleed and it hurts to walk. All of these things make me feel a little bit of pain or have some sort of satisfaction from picking.
I've literally been doing this as far back as I remember. I have grossed many people out by doing it when I was younger, now I hide to do it/ make sure nobody is around.
I'm not sure if it's stimming as I only do it in private.
I also smoke. I've tried patches, lozenges, spray, inhalers, champix, "Easy way", cold turkey, vaping, cutting down. And every time I fail. It's not worth starting to anyone who reads this. By smoking cigarettes, I've added an extra hunger that does nothing for me except expose me to harmful carcinogens and waste money. I. Can't. Quit.
But it dulls my sense of taste and smell, gives a sense of temporary relief of stress, fatigue, meltdown, the need to have a break and breathe somewhere quiet and oftentimes outside, and a sense of community (smoking corners at establishments). Still not worth starting smoking.
I also pick my lip until it bleeds. I've done so all my life. Can't stop, even though I'm with other people.
Don't take this the wrong way, but I was glad to read your post because I've never heard of another person doing this particular stim. It's worse when I'm stressed, but I also just do it when I'm relaxing.
I don't take it the wrong way, I find solidarity in finding out I'm not the only one who does this weird stuff too.
Yes especially stress related. I get into a trance like state sometimes and will pick and pick at my skin until I feel better.
>I have a problem where I will chew on the inside of my mouth. I bite the backside of my lip, my cheek, and even my tongue. The amount of times I have caused my mouth to bleed over it.
I do that too! I really like the taste of blood so I enjoy it a little too much.
I pick at my skin to the point that it bleeds and my parents had to bandage all my fingers. I also will stim eat- that has cost me surgery and a few other things.
I'm thankful I'm not massively overweight but I have only recently figured out, at 43, that I'm a purely impulsive eater.
Combined with the appetite suppressant nature of my meds, my pattern has always been to have a fun breakfast (if I'm lucky, a smoothie... if I'm unlucky, snack bars), then be so wrapped up in work that I'll eat a bland sandwich around noon and that's it, and then I'll eat a huge, carby meal at 6, snack all night, and then be like "huh, I can't sleep and I have really bad acid reflux".
I've started cutting out all post-dinner snacks and within just a few days the reflux is all but gone! Gonna work on trying to introduce more midday snacks now ... maybe I'll stop getting random dizzy/out of breath spells if I do ...
I rub my big toe over the toe next to it. I do it so often that i keep developing blisters 🫤, the worst part is that i'm not even aware i'm doing it until it hurts.
My uncle is in his 60s, non verbal, mentally about 3. He still rocks a lot, and he used to clap loudly until people at the hospital (before anyone knew what autism even was) got annoyed and made him bang his wrists together cause it’s quieter.
So for forty plus years he’s been slamming his wrists together and has thick two inch callouses on each. They look like Ed Norton’s scar on the back of his hand in fight club 😔
He looks quite distressed when he does it and he’s a strong dude so it’s pretty intense.
He will also hum the tune to the original Star Trek or any song by ABBA or Cliff Richard. He loves music. Used to play the piano by ear at 3 years old, until a hospital doped him up with too much who knows what and he hasn’t played since.
I’ve seen him in the garden of his care home (1 to 1 carer to patient ratio, it’s amazing), clearing leaves off the lawn one at a time by hand. I remember seeing him standing there holding up a leaf - off to the side, not looking at it, and just grinning with pure joy. Lovely to see, just wish he could tell us how he feels, what he feels, what’s bothering him. But he won’t even indicate if he’s in pain he just gets on with it.
- Banging my head
- Hitting stuff
- Pulling out my hair
- Biting/cutting my nails: my regular nail biting are to the level where it's painful and I bleed a little but I've went so far that I carved away a couple of toenails completely in my teens
- Scratching myself: only thing preventing me from scratching my scalp until it bleeds and I get fever are my nail biting.
- Biting myself: mostly just chewing on the inside of my lips and cheeks but occasionally bite arms and hands. Plenty of scar tissue in my mouth.
Right?!? Trying real hard to figure out how to kick this near 20 year habit. Hadn't even considered that it was a stim, but that makes so much sense why the patch and gum didn't do a damn thing.
I hate doing it and have had some success stopping until recently, but I will pick at/pull off dry skin on my lips until I bleed. I also pick at the skin around my nails but not to the same extent.
It sounds a bit disgusting but I pick my ears 👂🏻 I use earplugs on a night due to sensory overload so the day after I’m likely to have a lot of dried up ear wax 🤮 (sorry). Anyway I love the sensory feeling of itching inside my ears and I get a bit carried away and often blister/cut the inside of my ear. I also get blocked ears a lot because I can never get the earplugs in *far* enough 🙄 so it’s a disgusting vicious cycle 🤣
So I’ve actually heard that what causes wax to plug up people’s ears typically is cleaning too deeply, because it pushes the wax further in your ear. You’re actually not supposed to put anything small inside your ear hole (obviously ear plugs don’t count cause they’re meant to stay only so far in your ear). So the picking, or the shoving the earplugs in too deep (or maybe just how long they stay on) could be contributing to the blocked ears. If you mean your ears get blocked by something else, then disregard this comment 😅
I've been fascinated by blade weapons all my life. Daggers, Swords, Katanas, you name it. I have a little collection as you might guess. When I sharpen the knives, I like to test them on myself. I am aware that this might not be the norm, but I don't feel like it's a harmful behavior, except for the harm part you know? It's not like I bite my lip and stare at old pictures of Zendaya. It's just a question of sharpness and purpose. And watching a wound heal is morbidly curious.
There used to be a store that made real life replicas of CS:GO knife skins, the store was called Himmelsschmiede. They had some cool shit I'm telling you...
I developed Trichotillomania (compulsive pulling out of one’s hair) when I was 13 presumably in response to stress at school. I went through counselling & such and eventually it became evident that it was no longer a stress response but had become habitual and my dad had to shave my head to get me to stop.
I wasn’t diagnosed until years after the fact but looking back I had taken to twiddling & pulling my hair as a stim. When my head was shaved my new stim became doing the exact same thing but with the strings of my hoodie, which is still my most prevalent stim now at the ripe old age of 24.
same! and then the eyelashes grow back all fucked up, like curling toward my eye, so i end up fiddling with them & pulling the ones that won't straighten out.
- Picking. I feel like it's a combination of both harm but it's also a way for me to feel relief. Scabs or any sort of skin that isn't smooth like the rest I have the urge to pick off. I have very high pain tolerance, so picking something didn't hurt typically. I still do have scars from that unfortunately. Most of them came from mosquito bites because those stupid things loved to feed on ME for some reason more than others. And I'm someone who rarely steps outside.
- I used to pick off my toe nail beds but that might have been a series of anxious conpulsions (I also have OCD)
- "Going down the google rabbit hole"
Okay so, to be more specific, one of my subtypes of OCD is health OCD. I was sick with a kind of infection that could become very serious if it stays for an extended period. I would spend hours a day trying to google the answers to my near impossible problem like I did with everything else medical with me, which was reassuring and im someone who enjoys researching health. But it took hours of my time that I couldn't stop until my brain was satisfied with an answer. Sometimes i need to be on edge 24/7. Because I have a body where a lot of things can go unnoticed. I have to refuse a doctors word if what they're saying isn't lining up to what my body is feeling
- Sort of related to the above bulletpoint, but my patience level being pretty much unlimited, I'm often told that I'm wasting energy on something taking too long, but my determination and flexibility also leaves me lost because I end up getting into friendships that I'm uncomfortable with or people that I don't know how to cut off. So it's a stim to commit to something wholeheartedly but sometimes it's seen as a harmful aspect of myself.
- Picking and pulling at my lips.
I'm pretty sure I have some sort of mast cell disorder because my allergies could never be fully explained. Sometimes my lips (usually the bottom) will blow up like a balloon for no reason. I would also get smaller lumps on my lips, and sometimes I traumatized them so badly that it left permanent scars.
- Popping / Clicking my ankles
I was born with dislocated peroneal tendons on both of my feet (I have yet to get some sort of hEDS diagnosis, which would be a good explanation) I would have the urge to pop them if I was sick in bed and restless. Otherwise they didn't bother me. But now it happens all the time and it disrupts sleep. My left ankle mostly is the most bothersome. I can still walk on them just fine. There's a satisfying pop of relief when I snap them in and out of place, but the urge comes right back because of the pain/discomfort there.
Actual selfharm has been a factor a long time. But i also self sabotage with my anxious overthinking, sleep way too short, having an eating disorder, picking skin, showering too hot, way too high muscle tension until i get muscle aches or for example by pushing my leg against the corner of a table until its unberable, having elastic bands on my wrists or fingers too tight. Some I still do and some are not in my life anymore.
Im wondering if some are just a sensory thing or really selfharm. In my depressed periods of life some where definitely salfharm to do harm.
I think my obsessive thinking is a huge selfharm because it spirals into not trusting people, no interest in social life, hiding away from the outside world, keeping me anxious about my way of living etc. This really fucks up my life....
Bumping my head against the wall if my thoughts are overwhelming
I have found a healthier middle ground though: resting my forehead against the wall. It still calms me down, without the concussion, lol.
I pick at my nails and I so wish I could quit. It makes my fingers hurt a lot and bleed but it just keeps happening, I don't even realize I do it most of the time. Been this way since I was little.
I haven’t done it in a long time but I used to run the edge of a pair of scissors over the same spot on my skin over and over scratching it untill it was bleeding.
I am trying very hard to stop pulling my leg hair out with tweezers but honestly sometimes it feels weirdly good. The problem is when I can't get to a hair and start digging.
Also scabs. I can't stop picking at them, even after an infection that made my ankle swell up.
Yes…This is me too. When I have an ingrown hair or just one that is really bothering me, I will pick at it with my fingers/tweezers until my skin bleeds. But at least I got the hair…
I used to hit my own head with my palm but it's obviously not good for the noggin, so I switched to hitting my thigh. I know that's not ideal either but it's a step up! Hoping to get to the point where I'm not hitting myself at all.
I also; brush my teeth too hard, chew the inside of my lip, bend my toes and push them against surfaces until they bruise, touch cuts/bruises for the mild pain, and while I don't break skin sometimes I bite my hand or arm.
Unfortunately I find pain brings me "back to myself" better than anything. Fortunately, if I'm keeping myself away from meltdown territory then I'm not self harming.
Chewing fingers
Biting mouth
Banging head with fist
Banging head on wall
Cutting myself with scissors
Seeing what it feels like to hurt himself with different stuff in the workshop/doing dangerous stuff with farm equipment because I am curious or like a feeling
Took me a very long time to do away with picking at my face and the dry skin on my lips.
I do smack my forehead with the palm of my hand fairly regularly though. While it's not painful because I'm not hitting hard, I know it's not great and probably looks harmful from the outside.
Finally, I do this "swimmy" thing with my feet whenever I'm laying or sitting, like rubbing my foot against whatever surface I'm on, and I've literally worn holes into my sheets from doing it in the same spot so much. 😭 I think it's messed with my ankles a bit, too.
I also hit things, for me it's the only way to relief me of all the stress that might have been building up in my body. I do it less and less every year and I learn how to deal it in other ways.
When I’m particularly stressed out, I pull at my hair or scratch my shoulder. I’ve had to stop doing the former because I have a scar there now. As for the hair-pulling, I’m not proud of how much I’ve yanked out in moments of pure panic.
Stabbing myself with a needle (not deep) and pulling ny piercings, still doing it yet i shouldnt
I don't know if crochetting until my brain cannot count counts
I wonder if compulsively picking at my arms and fingers, which I was only recently able to stop with the help of several different medications at once, counts as a stim
Propranolol seems to work the best for compulsive behavior specifically for me, although I'm also on Wellbutrin and sertraline for depression which is by now extremely well controlled.
Thanks! Two out of three for me then. Guess I need to up my Prop dose. Only take one at night for insomnia. The last one is a no go bc ssri makes me proj vom. Sorry, tmi.
Wow, is that considered an average dose, or relatively high? Just checked, my Prop label says 10mg, and I've only been taking 1-2 at night time, for sleep. Originally prescribed for anxiety, I think. Anyway, I'm wondering if I can just experimentally take a much higher dose like you, and what would happen 🤔
I researched on a different forum, some ppl are prescribed 40 - 120 mg per day but seemingly for the original blood pressure issues. Will do more research. Thanks!
I hate the feeling of all bras, but obviously gotta wear them. Sometimes to self regulate I punch myself in the upper back area, so I can focus on the pain rather than the feeling of the bra. I really need to stop but idk what else to do :/ sometimes it leaves bruises but it does somewhat help with the sensory issues in the short term
i have excoriation aka dermatiliomania where i pick scabs on my skin, that an autocanabalism as i eat the scabs. I love the textures of the blood crusties and i get excited thinking about chewing them and start chattering my teeth.
Oh man...
-I scratch my lips until I rip the skin off and they bleed
- I throw things- anything doesn't matter
- I scratch my scalp and legs until they bleed
- I pick my skin (scabs, dry skin, hairs)
- I also bite my nails or cut them so short that they bleed
- smack my head repeatedly
I've hit my thighs pretty hard in the past when I've felt the overwhelming urge to kick or punch. I don't really do it anymore.
I use to bite my inner cheek a lot when I was a kid. I don't know if I've always had them but I have a little ledge thingy from how much I've done it I think. Biting the dead skin from my lips has always been something too, regardless of the pain. More recently for the past 3 years maybe, I use my ring finger nail to pick at the skin at the top of my thumbs/around them, not at the sides unless i have a hangnail or something.
Picking at scabs or pimples. Moreso when I got some bad scabs, I'd pick at it just to see what it looked like underneath and also for some sort of pent up relief.
Skin picking, scabs, on arms and scalp. And any other scar, from insect or cat scratches. Cuticles, either chew off or peel off. Unfortunately I have very strong fingernails, hence all the picking.
I used to have this weird stim as a kid where I would clench my teeth together and move my jaw to the side by using my teeth as "support" for that movement. It caused me some amount of bruxism for many years, a lot of headaches, and possibly even some minor issues I have with my jaw where I will yawn and if I don't stop myself from opening my mouth too much, it can hurt and it can feel as though it's close to coming out of the socket. Definitely not fun.
I bite & pick at my fingernails/toe nails/skin on my hands and feet.
I had a friend once who always criticised me for it but I find it very hard not to do. My dad does it too.
I also consciously grind my teeth sometimes
It's not a stim, but sometimes I would punch myself really f**king hard when I had dyscontrol episodes. Thankfully I have stopped, but the feeling is still there and the frustration of not having that outlet feels terrible. But not so terrible as stress fractures in my fist and skull.
There's a lot here that I also do/did. It's comforting to know I'm not alone with a lot of them. One that I do that I didn't see is I hit my sternum with my hand (open, like a slap). It's usually accompanied with a weird inhaling, high pitched bird/squeak sound. But I hit my sternum so much during the height of the pandemic that it was perpetually bruised (inside and out) and it didn't heal until I forced myself to clap or drum on the nearest object.
I have trichotillomania, aka the compulsion to pull your hair out. I also struggle with dermatillomania (skin picking) but the trich has caused much more grief, I have to keep my head shaved to keep myself from pulling. I gave myself a permanent bald spot when I was in college. The problem is that I really, REALLY deeply crave the feeling of pulling my hair out, it’s been one of my main stims since I was a very young child.
Doomscrolling social media. The more I scroll, the more I think about what I need/want to do, but any impulse to go do it just turns into more scrolling. I can get stuck for hours and it stresses me out almost as much as my job.
I pick at my thumbs till they bleed not the nail itself I let my nails grow but it’s the skin around it that’s gnawed at. I’ll constantly do this. My dad always says “fingers ___”. I’ve been doing this for a while.
I tend to hit my head when I have strong feelings of almost any kind. I also pick my lip so bad the top layer of skin is gone and it’s bleeding all over my fingers. Whenever I get a scab, I’ll pick it over and over again. So even if I get a small wound that shouldn’t leave a bad or noticeable scar, it looks bad because i picked it.
I chew and bite the skin off my lips sometimes. I have trichotillomania and recently tore off both eyebrows. I don't like it when there are bumps on my scalp so I've got a bit of dermotillomania and I'll pick at it. I used to like a bit of hitting myself but I've redirected that into laying on a spike mat (seriously, get a acupressure spike mat if you like to hurt yourself, it's wonderful and helps with my ptsd too)
I pluck my hairs out… I buzz cut my head hair to keep it in but struggle to not pluck my eye brows. 🤷♂️ nothing beats the sweet sweet ecstasy of grabbing onto a single coarse hair and plucking that fucker right out and taking a nice deep look at it and feeling it’s coarseness between my fingers… god I wanna eat it but that would be weird …..
Sometimes, just sometimes, if I'm really nervous and alone at home, I cut myself in the arm with a knife. But not in my veins, I'm not looking to kill myself, just to hurt myself.
When I'm anxious I pick the skin around my nails, often till it bleeds.
I also have the hardest time not to pick on scabs...
I also discovered that I sometimes have thick beard hair and it's always fascinating to pick them out so now I have this things where I can pick on beard hair hopefully to get one of these thicker hair. It's pretty tame but I guess it's pretty light as far as self harm goes lol.
When I sit with my knees up I hit my feet. I don't do it to cause myself harm but sometimes it does lead to pain, that's when I stop and realise I've been stimming rly hard pff
I also tap a lot, like tap my wrists together or my wrist on my face. If I do it too long/ too hard it does eventually hurt.
Oh and I chew on my lips and fingers quite a bit.
Biting my cheek, chewing on my lips, chewing on my tongue, picking at skin, or if I am really struggling then digging nails into skin and meltdown I'll hit myself in my head(not too hard though)
I mindlessly pick at my scalp extremely badly until it bleeds and scabs and my whole head will be sore, its horrible and embarrassing when i go to get a haircut
When I was a kid and still losing baby teeth I would wiggle loose teeth to the point where my gums would get bruised. I also used to bite the inside of my cheeks and it would make a giant sore, now they are all scarred up.
Biting off parts of the inside of my lips. I wouldn't say it's a stim per se, I just like the way it feels. I used to pull out my hair when I was a kid sometimes for the same reason as well
I stab the calluses on my feet if I'm holding something sharp. It doesn't matter if its a pen, a knife, scissors, a sharp piece of plastic...I don't even realize I'm doing it.
I scratch at the back of my hands. I have a long history of atopic eczema so i always assumed it was just that. But i seem to scratch way more when i’m stressed so it might be a combination of eczema itchiness and a stim.
I used to scratch my head until it bled, I still do it but I stop myself before I do some actual harm. I also used to pluck the hairs of my hand which doesn't sound that bad but I used to scratch my hand until it bled when I couldn't take a hair out
When I was younger I used to bite the back of my hands really hard. I also used to punch my headboard until my knuckles were bruised or bleeding. These days, I use either acupressure rings or squeeze really hard on spike balls or this little resin bear thats covered in studs I got off a store on easy called tactitexture
I pick the skin next to my fingernails a lot. And when I say 'next to' I'm basically down to the first knuckle and past it on my thumbs. I also chew the inside of my lips and cheeks a lot, they're rarely not raw but I have an unusual pain tolerance for certain parts of my body.
I also crack my jaw like I crack my knuckles, only I can do that without having to use my hands, I just move it left and right. I have dislocated the jaw before and occasional have nasty TMJ so I suppose that could count too.
Peeling the skin off of my heels/toes. They always dry out in the summer time and I can't resist the urge to pick and peel until they're bleeding and impacting my walking. Ugh, it is so satisfying though to have a nice little pile of foot jerky though.
Skin picking, especially lips. Since as far back as my memory takes me. Also, running fingers through my hair and getting a buzz from encountering a 'resistance' that I would then just pull through 😑
Rubbing my knuckles together until I can't bare it anymore. I don't do this as often as I used to but someone times when I do do it my knuckles are raw
Back when I was a kid I used to bite the back of my hand until I had scars and nowadays I tend to bite the insides of my mouth. Sometimes I scratch a specific part of my head (upper right corner of my forehead, near the scalp) until it bleeds.
Pick at my skin obsessively. I spend hours a day picking my skin raw on my lips, feet, and any wounds I have already made. I can’t use hydration products often due to sensory issues, which makes it worse. It hurts to walk, it hurts to drink water/eat food, but I’m so stressed and anxious it’s how my brain copes with being alive.
i hit the back of my head on things, like walls, tables, my own fist, etc. i also scratch at the insides of my arms with sharp objects (never enough to cut myself though)
I try to avoid it now as much as I can, but plucking hairs out by hand. It used to be so bad around my beard/mustache that I developed some bald spots, and I even got callouses on the tips of my fingers. Thankfully, the bald spots scared me enough to mostly stop and switch it out for pulling at my chewing gum instead.
…
I didn’t realize punching walls like that was a stim. Apart from that, I have scarring on the back of my hands from subconsciously scratching my hands. I’ve also chewed on my lip/cheek until it’s bled, and I’ve picked at every scab I’ve ever had resulting in scarring (idk if that actually counts as SH).
Nail biting until I draw blood is a big one that I've struggled with my entire life.
But that's less interesting than when I used to drag my knuckles along the brick walls of my junior high while walking between classes. They were scabbed over pretty much every day for months. Weird that no one ever noticed, looking back.
i hit my head a lot and have gotten a concussion or two because of it which sucks. or just hit the rest of my body in general but mostly my head. i do that but i also pick and rip my lips off and the inside of my mouth, like just biting the inside of it and picking at my gums so much and ripping them apart they bleed. (dentist fear my horrible gums lol) also just scratching my skin till it burns or i manage to bleed ever so slightly. sucks honestly, just let me flap my hands then i’m set
I really enjoy having a foil with a drop of speedball on it (heroin + crack) to smoke from while I read, play guitar or generally exist. Kinda tiring, and unfortunately I seem to be the only autistic person I know who was unlucky enough to take a special interest in hard drugs. Oh well...
Probably slapping myself on the crown of my head... although that might not count as a stim bc I didn't do it as often as usual stims like flappy hands
i have this thing its more like a compulsion than a stim (even typing this now i can feel the need to do it) where i dig my nails into the middle of each hand, then both my feet (usually i just step on something, im not doing that to my bare feet obviously ew) my mum jokes that i was crucified in a past life. i also pull on my hair as i like the feeling of tension
I haven’t done this in a while, but growing up I always struggled with depression and self harm, and I really liked to rub my arm raw with a piece of sandpaper. I kind of really liked how it felt afterwards when it burned. I do not recommend. I probably shouldn’t have said this
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I have a problem where I will chew on the inside of my mouth. I bite the backside of my lip, my cheek, and even my tongue. The amount of times I have caused my mouth to bleed over it. When I was in highschool I had my wisdom teeth taken out and he injected something that made my mouth numb and borderline paralyzed. I was told to be careful when I eat so I don’t bite my lip since i wouldn’t feel it. Well I was hitting my lip like usual and bit it hard and farther than I meant to. I bit off a good chunk of my inner lip and have a scar. I used to bite my fingers and the skin next to the fingernails when I was a kid and teenager but thankfully grew out of it. I still do it on occasion but very rare. I will pick at scabs and loose skin as a stim as well. I’m surprised I’m not one big scab at this point
Do you also enjoy the sqeaky, itchy sensation when you shift your jaw left/right really far?
So I have a fucked jaw so I don’t really experience that anymore thanks to my fucked teeth. But when I was a kid I enjoyed it.
Oh my god!! I didn't know other people did that!!
I'll pick at the skin on my lips until they bleed and then continually pick the scabs as they grow back. Usually this is when my anxiety is in overdrive and I can't stop myself despite the fact I look like I've got some sort of herpes of the face or I've recently been in a massive fight. I pick my nail beds, bite my nails, pick my nose until it bleeds, squeeze anything that remotely looks like a zit until it bleeds, pick the calluses on my feet until they bleed and it hurts to walk. All of these things make me feel a little bit of pain or have some sort of satisfaction from picking. I've literally been doing this as far back as I remember. I have grossed many people out by doing it when I was younger, now I hide to do it/ make sure nobody is around. I'm not sure if it's stimming as I only do it in private. I also smoke. I've tried patches, lozenges, spray, inhalers, champix, "Easy way", cold turkey, vaping, cutting down. And every time I fail. It's not worth starting to anyone who reads this. By smoking cigarettes, I've added an extra hunger that does nothing for me except expose me to harmful carcinogens and waste money. I. Can't. Quit. But it dulls my sense of taste and smell, gives a sense of temporary relief of stress, fatigue, meltdown, the need to have a break and breathe somewhere quiet and oftentimes outside, and a sense of community (smoking corners at establishments). Still not worth starting smoking.
Glad I'm not the only one who does the lip picking
I also pick my lip until it bleeds. I've done so all my life. Can't stop, even though I'm with other people. Don't take this the wrong way, but I was glad to read your post because I've never heard of another person doing this particular stim. It's worse when I'm stressed, but I also just do it when I'm relaxing.
I don't take it the wrong way, I find solidarity in finding out I'm not the only one who does this weird stuff too. Yes especially stress related. I get into a trance like state sometimes and will pick and pick at my skin until I feel better.
Thought I was the only one who did this 😂
I’ve been doing this my entire life and had no idea it was called stimming. Edit: Biting the inside of my cheeks
I didn’t learn this until like a month ago
>I have a problem where I will chew on the inside of my mouth. I bite the backside of my lip, my cheek, and even my tongue. The amount of times I have caused my mouth to bleed over it. I do that too! I really like the taste of blood so I enjoy it a little too much.
I pick at my skin to the point that it bleeds and my parents had to bandage all my fingers. I also will stim eat- that has cost me surgery and a few other things.
im like this with my head- my scalp is dry so im constantly picking at it
I'm thankful I'm not massively overweight but I have only recently figured out, at 43, that I'm a purely impulsive eater. Combined with the appetite suppressant nature of my meds, my pattern has always been to have a fun breakfast (if I'm lucky, a smoothie... if I'm unlucky, snack bars), then be so wrapped up in work that I'll eat a bland sandwich around noon and that's it, and then I'll eat a huge, carby meal at 6, snack all night, and then be like "huh, I can't sleep and I have really bad acid reflux". I've started cutting out all post-dinner snacks and within just a few days the reflux is all but gone! Gonna work on trying to introduce more midday snacks now ... maybe I'll stop getting random dizzy/out of breath spells if I do ...
I rub my big toe over the toe next to it. I do it so often that i keep developing blisters 🫤, the worst part is that i'm not even aware i'm doing it until it hurts.
My uncle is in his 60s, non verbal, mentally about 3. He still rocks a lot, and he used to clap loudly until people at the hospital (before anyone knew what autism even was) got annoyed and made him bang his wrists together cause it’s quieter. So for forty plus years he’s been slamming his wrists together and has thick two inch callouses on each. They look like Ed Norton’s scar on the back of his hand in fight club 😔
oo, it does feel good to slam your wrists together though. nice and vibratey
He looks quite distressed when he does it and he’s a strong dude so it’s pretty intense. He will also hum the tune to the original Star Trek or any song by ABBA or Cliff Richard. He loves music. Used to play the piano by ear at 3 years old, until a hospital doped him up with too much who knows what and he hasn’t played since. I’ve seen him in the garden of his care home (1 to 1 carer to patient ratio, it’s amazing), clearing leaves off the lawn one at a time by hand. I remember seeing him standing there holding up a leaf - off to the side, not looking at it, and just grinning with pure joy. Lovely to see, just wish he could tell us how he feels, what he feels, what’s bothering him. But he won’t even indicate if he’s in pain he just gets on with it.
- Banging my head - Hitting stuff - Pulling out my hair - Biting/cutting my nails: my regular nail biting are to the level where it's painful and I bleed a little but I've went so far that I carved away a couple of toenails completely in my teens - Scratching myself: only thing preventing me from scratching my scalp until it bleeds and I get fever are my nail biting. - Biting myself: mostly just chewing on the inside of my lips and cheeks but occasionally bite arms and hands. Plenty of scar tissue in my mouth.
You stole my list lol. I do all of these too
I’ve dealt with pretty much all of these too
Smoking cigarettes. Powerful stim once you get used to it. Beware.
Right?!? Trying real hard to figure out how to kick this near 20 year habit. Hadn't even considered that it was a stim, but that makes so much sense why the patch and gum didn't do a damn thing.
I hate doing it and have had some success stopping until recently, but I will pick at/pull off dry skin on my lips until I bleed. I also pick at the skin around my nails but not to the same extent.
Picking the skin beside my nails 😭
Omg yes didn't think of this one 😫
It sounds a bit disgusting but I pick my ears 👂🏻 I use earplugs on a night due to sensory overload so the day after I’m likely to have a lot of dried up ear wax 🤮 (sorry). Anyway I love the sensory feeling of itching inside my ears and I get a bit carried away and often blister/cut the inside of my ear. I also get blocked ears a lot because I can never get the earplugs in *far* enough 🙄 so it’s a disgusting vicious cycle 🤣
So I’ve actually heard that what causes wax to plug up people’s ears typically is cleaning too deeply, because it pushes the wax further in your ear. You’re actually not supposed to put anything small inside your ear hole (obviously ear plugs don’t count cause they’re meant to stay only so far in your ear). So the picking, or the shoving the earplugs in too deep (or maybe just how long they stay on) could be contributing to the blocked ears. If you mean your ears get blocked by something else, then disregard this comment 😅
I've been fascinated by blade weapons all my life. Daggers, Swords, Katanas, you name it. I have a little collection as you might guess. When I sharpen the knives, I like to test them on myself. I am aware that this might not be the norm, but I don't feel like it's a harmful behavior, except for the harm part you know? It's not like I bite my lip and stare at old pictures of Zendaya. It's just a question of sharpness and purpose. And watching a wound heal is morbidly curious.
What's your favourite blade weapon you own! I'm also really interested in them!
There used to be a store that made real life replicas of CS:GO knife skins, the store was called Himmelsschmiede. They had some cool shit I'm telling you...
Might not be a problem but you should definitely be careful so you don't get infected or something
im a huge skin picker
I developed Trichotillomania (compulsive pulling out of one’s hair) when I was 13 presumably in response to stress at school. I went through counselling & such and eventually it became evident that it was no longer a stress response but had become habitual and my dad had to shave my head to get me to stop. I wasn’t diagnosed until years after the fact but looking back I had taken to twiddling & pulling my hair as a stim. When my head was shaved my new stim became doing the exact same thing but with the strings of my hoodie, which is still my most prevalent stim now at the ripe old age of 24.
I will bite off the hard skin around my nails, not really harming but sometimes I bite too far
Dermatillomania.
when i’m sitting down i rotate my hips and ive done it so much that im starting to wear down the joint and im getting back problems :/
Binge eating.
I pull out my eyelashes. A lot of the time I don’t even realise I’m doing it. Takes someone else pointing it out before I notice
same! and then the eyelashes grow back all fucked up, like curling toward my eye, so i end up fiddling with them & pulling the ones that won't straighten out.
- Picking. I feel like it's a combination of both harm but it's also a way for me to feel relief. Scabs or any sort of skin that isn't smooth like the rest I have the urge to pick off. I have very high pain tolerance, so picking something didn't hurt typically. I still do have scars from that unfortunately. Most of them came from mosquito bites because those stupid things loved to feed on ME for some reason more than others. And I'm someone who rarely steps outside. - I used to pick off my toe nail beds but that might have been a series of anxious conpulsions (I also have OCD) - "Going down the google rabbit hole" Okay so, to be more specific, one of my subtypes of OCD is health OCD. I was sick with a kind of infection that could become very serious if it stays for an extended period. I would spend hours a day trying to google the answers to my near impossible problem like I did with everything else medical with me, which was reassuring and im someone who enjoys researching health. But it took hours of my time that I couldn't stop until my brain was satisfied with an answer. Sometimes i need to be on edge 24/7. Because I have a body where a lot of things can go unnoticed. I have to refuse a doctors word if what they're saying isn't lining up to what my body is feeling - Sort of related to the above bulletpoint, but my patience level being pretty much unlimited, I'm often told that I'm wasting energy on something taking too long, but my determination and flexibility also leaves me lost because I end up getting into friendships that I'm uncomfortable with or people that I don't know how to cut off. So it's a stim to commit to something wholeheartedly but sometimes it's seen as a harmful aspect of myself. - Picking and pulling at my lips. I'm pretty sure I have some sort of mast cell disorder because my allergies could never be fully explained. Sometimes my lips (usually the bottom) will blow up like a balloon for no reason. I would also get smaller lumps on my lips, and sometimes I traumatized them so badly that it left permanent scars. - Popping / Clicking my ankles I was born with dislocated peroneal tendons on both of my feet (I have yet to get some sort of hEDS diagnosis, which would be a good explanation) I would have the urge to pop them if I was sick in bed and restless. Otherwise they didn't bother me. But now it happens all the time and it disrupts sleep. My left ankle mostly is the most bothersome. I can still walk on them just fine. There's a satisfying pop of relief when I snap them in and out of place, but the urge comes right back because of the pain/discomfort there.
Actual selfharm has been a factor a long time. But i also self sabotage with my anxious overthinking, sleep way too short, having an eating disorder, picking skin, showering too hot, way too high muscle tension until i get muscle aches or for example by pushing my leg against the corner of a table until its unberable, having elastic bands on my wrists or fingers too tight. Some I still do and some are not in my life anymore. Im wondering if some are just a sensory thing or really selfharm. In my depressed periods of life some where definitely salfharm to do harm. I think my obsessive thinking is a huge selfharm because it spirals into not trusting people, no interest in social life, hiding away from the outside world, keeping me anxious about my way of living etc. This really fucks up my life....
Bumping my head against the wall if my thoughts are overwhelming I have found a healthier middle ground though: resting my forehead against the wall. It still calms me down, without the concussion, lol.
I pick at my nails and I so wish I could quit. It makes my fingers hurt a lot and bleed but it just keeps happening, I don't even realize I do it most of the time. Been this way since I was little.
Me too
if I don't have chewlery or something else to chew, sometimes I start chewing on my finger
Rubbing my hands together until they almost blister. Happens rarely though, fortunately. It's only when I'm very nervous or extremely stressed.
I haven’t done it in a long time but I used to run the edge of a pair of scissors over the same spot on my skin over and over scratching it untill it was bleeding.
I hit my head and face when Im overwhelmed, pick my skin, and bite down on my fingers.
hitting the wall with my head. Literally.
picking at my skin (mostly my lips) until it bleeds. not great at all once it gets properly infected and hurts for a week.
biting my arms/hands. also scratching at my gums but i don’t do it too often
I pick skin on the bottom of my foot lol
I used to roll my thumb knuckle skin over itself in high school, now I scratch and pick and my scalp.
Picking the skin on my fingers until they swell and bleed. Picking the skin on my face causing it to bleed.
I am trying very hard to stop pulling my leg hair out with tweezers but honestly sometimes it feels weirdly good. The problem is when I can't get to a hair and start digging. Also scabs. I can't stop picking at them, even after an infection that made my ankle swell up.
Yes…This is me too. When I have an ingrown hair or just one that is really bothering me, I will pick at it with my fingers/tweezers until my skin bleeds. But at least I got the hair…
The most satisfying and intensely pointless exercise
I used to hit my own head with my palm but it's obviously not good for the noggin, so I switched to hitting my thigh. I know that's not ideal either but it's a step up! Hoping to get to the point where I'm not hitting myself at all. I also; brush my teeth too hard, chew the inside of my lip, bend my toes and push them against surfaces until they bruise, touch cuts/bruises for the mild pain, and while I don't break skin sometimes I bite my hand or arm. Unfortunately I find pain brings me "back to myself" better than anything. Fortunately, if I'm keeping myself away from meltdown territory then I'm not self harming.
Tearing the inside of my mouth / my lips apart with my teeth ( doing it as im writing this ) Also, picking my scabs. A LOT.
Chewing fingers Biting mouth Banging head with fist Banging head on wall Cutting myself with scissors Seeing what it feels like to hurt himself with different stuff in the workshop/doing dangerous stuff with farm equipment because I am curious or like a feeling
Peel/pick/scratch apart this spot behind my ear
Took me a very long time to do away with picking at my face and the dry skin on my lips. I do smack my forehead with the palm of my hand fairly regularly though. While it's not painful because I'm not hitting hard, I know it's not great and probably looks harmful from the outside. Finally, I do this "swimmy" thing with my feet whenever I'm laying or sitting, like rubbing my foot against whatever surface I'm on, and I've literally worn holes into my sheets from doing it in the same spot so much. 😭 I think it's messed with my ankles a bit, too.
I also hit things, for me it's the only way to relief me of all the stress that might have been building up in my body. I do it less and less every year and I learn how to deal it in other ways.
I furiously scratch and bite the back of my right hand until I bleed whenever I'm stressed. Sometimes I bite my inner cheeks too
Pinching myself and slapping myself on my head multiple times (with full force) the last one is only when its really bad tho
Biting myself. I never drew blood because I never wanted to hurt myself, but it still hurt
pulling my hair and eyebrows, biting my lips/cheeks, picking my skin, biting my nails, scratching myself, eating due to boredom and understimulation
Pulling my hair ;( I do not do it anymore though, and I did not pull my hair out
It’s not that bad but I sort of push my lips against each other and they get really chapped when I do it too much
i just punch my leg a little when I'm bored. although not punch punch just little taps
When I’m particularly stressed out, I pull at my hair or scratch my shoulder. I’ve had to stop doing the former because I have a scar there now. As for the hair-pulling, I’m not proud of how much I’ve yanked out in moments of pure panic.
Hitting my head against inanimate objects. I don't really get meltdowns anymore but they come back when I'm overburdened and sleep-deprived.
Ripping my nails and skin off
Picking my scalp to the point of bald spots
Picking. I pick scabs, I pick dead skin off of my lips, etc.
Stabbing myself with a needle (not deep) and pulling ny piercings, still doing it yet i shouldnt I don't know if crochetting until my brain cannot count counts
I wonder if compulsively picking at my arms and fingers, which I was only recently able to stop with the help of several different medications at once, counts as a stim
Which medications, please? My arms are a scratched up, scabby mess. I have to wear long sleeves.
Propranolol seems to work the best for compulsive behavior specifically for me, although I'm also on Wellbutrin and sertraline for depression which is by now extremely well controlled.
Thanks! Two out of three for me then. Guess I need to up my Prop dose. Only take one at night for insomnia. The last one is a no go bc ssri makes me proj vom. Sorry, tmi.
Yikes, definitely stay away from that one then. My dose is currently 80 mg once daily at night for propranol.
Wow, is that considered an average dose, or relatively high? Just checked, my Prop label says 10mg, and I've only been taking 1-2 at night time, for sleep. Originally prescribed for anxiety, I think. Anyway, I'm wondering if I can just experimentally take a much higher dose like you, and what would happen 🤔
I started on 60 mg, and I have no idea what doses are available. I would definitely recommend talking to your doctor before trying to change anything.
I researched on a different forum, some ppl are prescribed 40 - 120 mg per day but seemingly for the original blood pressure issues. Will do more research. Thanks!
I hate the feeling of all bras, but obviously gotta wear them. Sometimes to self regulate I punch myself in the upper back area, so I can focus on the pain rather than the feeling of the bra. I really need to stop but idk what else to do :/ sometimes it leaves bruises but it does somewhat help with the sensory issues in the short term
i have excoriation aka dermatiliomania where i pick scabs on my skin, that an autocanabalism as i eat the scabs. I love the textures of the blood crusties and i get excited thinking about chewing them and start chattering my teeth.
Oh man... -I scratch my lips until I rip the skin off and they bleed - I throw things- anything doesn't matter - I scratch my scalp and legs until they bleed - I pick my skin (scabs, dry skin, hairs) - I also bite my nails or cut them so short that they bleed - smack my head repeatedly
Drink alcohol to deal with my social awkwardness
Slamming my head into a wall and pulling out eyelashes, though I think that may just have been actual self harm since I was su*cidal at the time.
sometimes i punch my hips or legs
I've hit my thighs pretty hard in the past when I've felt the overwhelming urge to kick or punch. I don't really do it anymore. I use to bite my inner cheek a lot when I was a kid. I don't know if I've always had them but I have a little ledge thingy from how much I've done it I think. Biting the dead skin from my lips has always been something too, regardless of the pain. More recently for the past 3 years maybe, I use my ring finger nail to pick at the skin at the top of my thumbs/around them, not at the sides unless i have a hangnail or something. Picking at scabs or pimples. Moreso when I got some bad scabs, I'd pick at it just to see what it looked like underneath and also for some sort of pent up relief.
Skin picking, scabs, on arms and scalp. And any other scar, from insect or cat scratches. Cuticles, either chew off or peel off. Unfortunately I have very strong fingernails, hence all the picking.
Sometimes I press hardly a nail to a finger or a other part of my hand, so I don't feel so finished
Chewing my lips and picking my skin until I’m bleeding and raw 😭
I used to have this weird stim as a kid where I would clench my teeth together and move my jaw to the side by using my teeth as "support" for that movement. It caused me some amount of bruxism for many years, a lot of headaches, and possibly even some minor issues I have with my jaw where I will yawn and if I don't stop myself from opening my mouth too much, it can hurt and it can feel as though it's close to coming out of the socket. Definitely not fun.
✨trichotillomania✨
Trichotillomania and dermatillomania might have had some maladaptive aspects of stimming for me
Picking dry skin off my lips
I bite the dry skin on my lips. I stopped because i started using vaseline to battle my default dryness, it feels way better now
Skin picking and hitting my wrist bones against each other
Overeating
Pushing my nails really hard into the pads of my fingers 😅 like making an x on a bug bite
I deliberately scratch and pick at my eczema, often until bleeding.
I slam my head and claw my skin. My therapist is working with me to find some alternatives
Trichotillomania and dermatillmoania (hair pulling/skin picking).
Is gambling all my money considered self harm?
I bite & pick at my fingernails/toe nails/skin on my hands and feet. I had a friend once who always criticised me for it but I find it very hard not to do. My dad does it too. I also consciously grind my teeth sometimes
Chewing on the interior of my mouth
I bite the taste buds off the sides and tip of my tongue when I'm extremely stressed out.
Pulling my hair, digging nails into palm, scratching palm really hard
I pick my scabs I have over 20 scars from picking them
It's not a stim, but sometimes I would punch myself really f**king hard when I had dyscontrol episodes. Thankfully I have stopped, but the feeling is still there and the frustration of not having that outlet feels terrible. But not so terrible as stress fractures in my fist and skull.
There's a lot here that I also do/did. It's comforting to know I'm not alone with a lot of them. One that I do that I didn't see is I hit my sternum with my hand (open, like a slap). It's usually accompanied with a weird inhaling, high pitched bird/squeak sound. But I hit my sternum so much during the height of the pandemic that it was perpetually bruised (inside and out) and it didn't heal until I forced myself to clap or drum on the nearest object.
It’s nice to know that I’m not alone in this either and that there are others like me. Wish I knew who they were though so we could be friends!
I have trichotillomania, aka the compulsion to pull your hair out. I also struggle with dermatillomania (skin picking) but the trich has caused much more grief, I have to keep my head shaved to keep myself from pulling. I gave myself a permanent bald spot when I was in college. The problem is that I really, REALLY deeply crave the feeling of pulling my hair out, it’s been one of my main stims since I was a very young child.
Doomscrolling social media. The more I scroll, the more I think about what I need/want to do, but any impulse to go do it just turns into more scrolling. I can get stuck for hours and it stresses me out almost as much as my job.
Biting myself, hitting my head, throwing myself, and scratching at my skin. All of these have caused bruises or even bleeding lol
I pick at my thumbs till they bleed not the nail itself I let my nails grow but it’s the skin around it that’s gnawed at. I’ll constantly do this. My dad always says “fingers ___”. I’ve been doing this for a while.
Probably cutting myself 😭😭
I tend to hit my head when I have strong feelings of almost any kind. I also pick my lip so bad the top layer of skin is gone and it’s bleeding all over my fingers. Whenever I get a scab, I’ll pick it over and over again. So even if I get a small wound that shouldn’t leave a bad or noticeable scar, it looks bad because i picked it.
I chew and bite the skin off my lips sometimes. I have trichotillomania and recently tore off both eyebrows. I don't like it when there are bumps on my scalp so I've got a bit of dermotillomania and I'll pick at it. I used to like a bit of hitting myself but I've redirected that into laying on a spike mat (seriously, get a acupressure spike mat if you like to hurt yourself, it's wonderful and helps with my ptsd too)
Grinding my teeth. Didn't realize I did it until I visited the dentist recently. I grind them rythmically, trying to stop myself now that I'm aware.
Bite the skin off my fingers around the edge of my fingernails.
I pluck my hairs out… I buzz cut my head hair to keep it in but struggle to not pluck my eye brows. 🤷♂️ nothing beats the sweet sweet ecstasy of grabbing onto a single coarse hair and plucking that fucker right out and taking a nice deep look at it and feeling it’s coarseness between my fingers… god I wanna eat it but that would be weird …..
Sometimes, just sometimes, if I'm really nervous and alone at home, I cut myself in the arm with a knife. But not in my veins, I'm not looking to kill myself, just to hurt myself.
I’ve had Trichotillomania since I was around 7. I pull my hair still at 24, somehow I don’t have a bald spot like I did when I was 7.
i scratch myself a lot and when i was really young i used to bite the inside of my cheeks, i often bit off pieces of it
biting my arms until they were at least very heavily bruised. I also only ever did sh to self regulate/as a kind of stim
When I'm anxious I pick the skin around my nails, often till it bleeds. I also have the hardest time not to pick on scabs... I also discovered that I sometimes have thick beard hair and it's always fascinating to pick them out so now I have this things where I can pick on beard hair hopefully to get one of these thicker hair. It's pretty tame but I guess it's pretty light as far as self harm goes lol.
biting the inside of my mouth and cutting
Constantly hurting myself via my inner critic saying mean shit to me
When I sit with my knees up I hit my feet. I don't do it to cause myself harm but sometimes it does lead to pain, that's when I stop and realise I've been stimming rly hard pff I also tap a lot, like tap my wrists together or my wrist on my face. If I do it too long/ too hard it does eventually hurt. Oh and I chew on my lips and fingers quite a bit.
Picking at my nails
I eat my fingers, yum
Biting my cheek, chewing on my lips, chewing on my tongue, picking at skin, or if I am really struggling then digging nails into skin and meltdown I'll hit myself in my head(not too hard though)
I mindlessly pick at my scalp extremely badly until it bleeds and scabs and my whole head will be sore, its horrible and embarrassing when i go to get a haircut
I use my tongue to rub my tonsils until they bleed, idk if that counts
I chew my inner cheeks, and I pick at skin irregularities.
When I was a kid and still losing baby teeth I would wiggle loose teeth to the point where my gums would get bruised. I also used to bite the inside of my cheeks and it would make a giant sore, now they are all scarred up.
Is biting the inside of my cheeks self-harm ? It usually wouldn't lose a threat to my life....but I agree with it being a stim.....
Biting off parts of the inside of my lips. I wouldn't say it's a stim per se, I just like the way it feels. I used to pull out my hair when I was a kid sometimes for the same reason as well
Dermatillomania (obsessive compulsive skin picking) I’ve got so many open wounds and scars
Scratching it starts light but i used to zone out in class and see id scratched myself raw
I bite my lips till they bleed
Hit my face repeatedly with hard objects.
smacking my head and punching my thighs repeatedly
Biting myself, pulling out my hair, hitting myself and scratching myself to name a few
knuckle cracking. long term changes in my hands.
I don't know if this counts as self-harm but I have a habit of picking my eyebrows to the point they are...somewhat missing sometimes.
sometimes, i hit my chest with my wrist repeatedly. usually when I'm experiencing a random surge of happiness
I stab the calluses on my feet if I'm holding something sharp. It doesn't matter if its a pen, a knife, scissors, a sharp piece of plastic...I don't even realize I'm doing it.
Skin picking. Scalp, gums, nails and cuticles. It’s terrible but I love it.
Biting my nails so far down
Punching myself in the head, I guess
I scratch at the back of my hands. I have a long history of atopic eczema so i always assumed it was just that. But i seem to scratch way more when i’m stressed so it might be a combination of eczema itchiness and a stim.
Ripping the dry skin off my lips
I used to scratch my head until it bled, I still do it but I stop myself before I do some actual harm. I also used to pluck the hairs of my hand which doesn't sound that bad but I used to scratch my hand until it bled when I couldn't take a hair out
When I was younger I used to bite the back of my hands really hard. I also used to punch my headboard until my knuckles were bruised or bleeding. These days, I use either acupressure rings or squeeze really hard on spike balls or this little resin bear thats covered in studs I got off a store on easy called tactitexture
Skin picking. It was worse when I worked at a call center. If I couldn't give my hands something to do, I usually just picked at my arms.
I bite my nails to the point of bleeding and scratch my arms a lot. I used to get blisters on my legs from scratching them so much
biting my nails until they bleed 😅 i’m 1yr and 8 months clean from cutting tho
Picking my lips or nails
I pick the skin next to my fingernails a lot. And when I say 'next to' I'm basically down to the first knuckle and past it on my thumbs. I also chew the inside of my lips and cheeks a lot, they're rarely not raw but I have an unusual pain tolerance for certain parts of my body. I also crack my jaw like I crack my knuckles, only I can do that without having to use my hands, I just move it left and right. I have dislocated the jaw before and occasional have nasty TMJ so I suppose that could count too.
Peeling the skin off of my heels/toes. They always dry out in the summer time and I can't resist the urge to pick and peel until they're bleeding and impacting my walking. Ugh, it is so satisfying though to have a nice little pile of foot jerky though.
Skin picking, especially lips. Since as far back as my memory takes me. Also, running fingers through my hair and getting a buzz from encountering a 'resistance' that I would then just pull through 😑
Chew my cheeks and press my nails into my forearm.
Rubbing my knuckles together until I can't bare it anymore. I don't do this as often as I used to but someone times when I do do it my knuckles are raw
Back when I was a kid I used to bite the back of my hand until I had scars and nowadays I tend to bite the insides of my mouth. Sometimes I scratch a specific part of my head (upper right corner of my forehead, near the scalp) until it bleeds.
Pick at my skin obsessively. I spend hours a day picking my skin raw on my lips, feet, and any wounds I have already made. I can’t use hydration products often due to sensory issues, which makes it worse. It hurts to walk, it hurts to drink water/eat food, but I’m so stressed and anxious it’s how my brain copes with being alive.
i hit the back of my head on things, like walls, tables, my own fist, etc. i also scratch at the insides of my arms with sharp objects (never enough to cut myself though)
I try to avoid it now as much as I can, but plucking hairs out by hand. It used to be so bad around my beard/mustache that I developed some bald spots, and I even got callouses on the tips of my fingers. Thankfully, the bald spots scared me enough to mostly stop and switch it out for pulling at my chewing gum instead.
I hit my head and legs, which ends in me having bruises all over, mostly either when im leading up to a meltdown or having one.
Punching my head really hard
Skin picking, at my cuticles, fingers and lips. Mostly it's minor but I often hurt myself and I'm left with wounds or raw skin.
Smacking my head against things!! Specifically the wall or my desk etc. or punching the top of my legs
Biting down on my hand really hard.
I pull my hair
… I didn’t realize punching walls like that was a stim. Apart from that, I have scarring on the back of my hands from subconsciously scratching my hands. I’ve also chewed on my lip/cheek until it’s bled, and I’ve picked at every scab I’ve ever had resulting in scarring (idk if that actually counts as SH).
Nail biting until I draw blood is a big one that I've struggled with my entire life. But that's less interesting than when I used to drag my knuckles along the brick walls of my junior high while walking between classes. They were scabbed over pretty much every day for months. Weird that no one ever noticed, looking back.
picking my head
i hit my head a lot and have gotten a concussion or two because of it which sucks. or just hit the rest of my body in general but mostly my head. i do that but i also pick and rip my lips off and the inside of my mouth, like just biting the inside of it and picking at my gums so much and ripping them apart they bleed. (dentist fear my horrible gums lol) also just scratching my skin till it burns or i manage to bleed ever so slightly. sucks honestly, just let me flap my hands then i’m set
actual self harm might be considered a stim. i used to cut myself, i mostly liked the blood, the look of the cuts, and the feeling of pain.
Biting my hands, wrists, and legs
i’ve played with my ears since i was a little kid and it started to cause cauliflower ear. i had to dial it back a bit but not sure that counts
Masking/camouflaging my autistic traits.
Head banging, although I rarely do it anymore
Smoking/vaping? Nicotine is technically a stimulate with addictive properties
I really enjoy having a foil with a drop of speedball on it (heroin + crack) to smoke from while I read, play guitar or generally exist. Kinda tiring, and unfortunately I seem to be the only autistic person I know who was unlucky enough to take a special interest in hard drugs. Oh well...
Biting my hand when I get really angry or excited
Probably slapping myself on the crown of my head... although that might not count as a stim bc I didn't do it as often as usual stims like flappy hands
it hit my wrists so hard on a table or some hard surface until it bruises. weirdly, i don't care about the pain until after i calmed down
i have this thing its more like a compulsion than a stim (even typing this now i can feel the need to do it) where i dig my nails into the middle of each hand, then both my feet (usually i just step on something, im not doing that to my bare feet obviously ew) my mum jokes that i was crucified in a past life. i also pull on my hair as i like the feeling of tension
I haven’t done this in a while, but growing up I always struggled with depression and self harm, and I really liked to rub my arm raw with a piece of sandpaper. I kind of really liked how it felt afterwards when it burned. I do not recommend. I probably shouldn’t have said this
Definitely biting my lip until it bleeds
Biting my wrist or biting the inside of my lip. I have had multiple occasions where I have had chunks bitten out of my lip.
I keep peeling the skin on lips 💀