Autistic Stimming and Applied Polyvagal Theory
“Stimming is a regulatory tool; Nobody taught autistic people how to stim; yet they know intuitively how to move their bodies in an attempt to regulate their nervous system’s demands”
Stims are repetitive, often body oriented, sensory seeking behaviours that exist on a continuum and a deeply personal & unique to each person.
Stimming plays an important role in recognising how moving our own body can help towards regulating our emotional, sensory & psychological demands.
Stimming acts as a source of communication, offering us insight & information on how we may be feeling internally at any given moment - communicating our internal emotional states
eg. pacing back and forth could communicate anxiety
They can be both adaptive (such as singing, sensory play, doodling) & maladptive (such as skin picking, biting, whacking), but they ultimately are attempting to meet our sensory, emotional & psychological needs through the act of sensorimotor stimulation.
Some stims regulate and help soothe us in an overwhelming environment, some stims activate us into mobilisation and some stims try their best to meet a dysregulated nervous systems needs.
It’s not about labelling the stims as good or bad, but rather asking; what is my need to stim trying to communicate to me in this context?
Am I excited? Am I overwhelmed? Am I tired? Am I scared? Am I inquisitive? Am I exploring? Am I bored? Am I uncomfortable? Am I wanting to connect and play?
What do different stimming behaviours communicate about your state of being? How can you learn to befriend the stim and what it’s trying to tell you about your sensory, emotional and nervous systems needs?
Excerpt from IG on 01.12.2023; “Polyvagal Theory, Somatic Psychology, Sensorimotor Psychology and Stimming”
Holistic & sensory approaches on how to re-ground.
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