As I’m new to autism terminology, could someone please tell me
what stimming is? (name witheld)
I replied:
Stimming stood for ‘self stimulatory behaviours’. Something non-auties
imagined they didn’t have!
Stimming is aword created by non-auties with often negative connotations.
It was a word created by non-auties who didn’t understand that some folks
had compulsive but involuntary tics, some had self calming tools they didn’t
understand, some had sensory fascinations they couldn’t relate to, some
needed to tune out to tune in, some needed a tool for social distance in the
face of compulsive social invaders, some needed to be repetitive in order to
download, some needed to compensate for a non-autie multitrack world they
couldn’t process in thier mono-tracked reality, some needed something to get
lost in when utterly blowing all fuses…. and, anyway, the non-auties
labelled, as is there tendency, this vast array of experiences with one word
as if it was one thing at all times to all people labelled ‘Autistic’.
Forgive them. They know not what they see.
Warmly,…
… Donna Williams *)
www.donnawilliams.net