Dealing with Family's Discomfort with Stimming

Ugh that’s the worse. 😡😡😡. You could try and explain to them how Stimming is beneficial, but they don’t sound the most receptive. You could try more subtle Stimming methods. My favorite subtle ones are counting in my head (with a mask you can even mouth it too), rubbing my tounge on my teeth, adding pressure into my mouth repeatedly without puffing checks, twiddling fingers, tapping toes, rubbing clothing. There’s tons of subtle stims so I would play with it. Essentially anything that would be labeled as “fidgeting” is subtle Stimming. I will say for me, most my subtle stims are less satisfying and I use as a form of masking, so I can’t full heartedly suggest it. Under ideal circumstance you would be able to stim to your hearts content, but that does not really seem like an option :(

Leave and pretend you're going to the bathroom. Stim there

Thanks for the good ideas they all worked for a little bit

I do subtle things I curl my toes in in my shoes. Left right left right left right. No one knows. Or excuse yourself to the bathroom and take 10 min to yourself and stim all you want

First of all, that is quite a rude thing for them to say!! I can understand them thinking stimming is "weird" if they don't understand it but still! (Sorry I get very passionate) Anyway, what helps me sosososo much are my headphones and just bringing little items in my purse that have nice textures, and I can just fiddle with them. My personal favorite is this silicone makeup applicator I have, I like to squish it and wobble it around LOL

maybe try to find a stim toy!!

Im sorry that you are dealing with this. Im sure you know stimming is so helpful and should we dont deserve this sort of reaction towards it. For school or other situations like this I have stim rings that you can spin or mess with, mess with my cuticles, chew at my mouth, hum or sing in my head, and use stim toys if you can