[jenh526]

I have a good friend that I have long suspected is somewhere along the autism spectrum. He has numerous tics or stims. He does seem to be able to control these behaviors to some extent, because if I look at him while he's doing it, he gets embarrassed and stops.

One stim in particular I'm pretty fascinated with. He flicks his fingers rapidly back and forth, so rapidly in fact, that it sometimes makes a humming or buzzing sound. I've searched YouTube for anything like this and have found some videos of young children moving their fingers slowly back and forth, but I've never seen any videos of rapid flicking. I just wondered if anyone here has encountered a stim like this.

I'm also wondering if there's been any link shown between autism and meningitis. I know he was hospitalized with meningitis when he was a baby.

[snickie]

I have (had) nervous tics with my hands, everything from flapping (I apparently did this a lot until about 4 years ago, during my freshman year of high school) to wringing them to shaking them (axis point seems to be my index finger) to typing what I hear people say (or just words that feel cool to my fingers; I still do this a lot) to wiggling my fingers. I do have complete control over these, but then I get this weird sensation in my hands when I stop. It's not painful, just weird, like really tiny and mild but widespread tingles. It's the same sensation I get when I try to stop my legs from shaking due to restless leg syndrome. They're probably related in my case.

I'm not sure what you mean by flicking, but I have personal experience with hand tics.

As for your meningitis question, I googled it just now and everything seems to be saying there's not, but it's an interesting hypothesis. There is a lot saying that autistic children tend to have more immune system abnormalities than normal children, though it tends to manifest itself in more ear- and upper-respiratory infections. But I wouldn't rule out meningitis. So now we have a new question to answer: if there IS a correlation or cause-and-effect relationship between meningitis and autism, which causes which? Does autism cause kids to have a higher likelihood of contracting meningitis? Or does having meningitis as a kid cause developmental damage that could potentially lead to autism?

[jenh526]

Originally Posted by snickie

I'm not sure what you mean by flicking, but I have personal experience with hand tics.

Thanks for your response. Maybe I should've explained this a little better - he keeps his fingers straight with his hands pointed towards each other, then moves all of the fingers up and down very rapidly. Like wiggling, I guess, but the fingers are straight instead of bent. Sometimes he rocks his body forward when doing this.

This is only one of many stims. Sometimes he spaces out when he's stimming and misses what I'm saying. Then I have to repeat everything. I've asked him about the stimming but he doesn't really seem interested in talking about it, and I'm not sure to what extent he's aware he's doing it. The most I've gotten from him about what it feels like is that he says it makes him feel "free".

[snickie]

Originally Posted by jenh526

Thanks for your response. Maybe I should've explained this a little better - he keeps his fingers straight with his hands pointed towards each other, then moves all of the fingers up and down very rapidly. Like wiggling, I guess, but the fingers are straight instead of bent. Sometimes he rocks his body forward when doing this.

Before, I was imagining that he would flick his fingers the way some people might flick watermelons to listen to them to hear if it sounds good or not (how people do this I have no idea) or flick other people to annoy them or to get boogers off their fingers if they suddenly find themselves with a booger on their finger. Now I'm imagining him doing like cartoon conniving evil geniuses who are excited that their master plan is going to finally work and foil those meddling kids. I'm not sure that's what you mean either, since it doesn't really fit my definition of "flick", but I can visualize it a little better.

When I wiggle my fingers they're usually bent because that's just how they naturally fall, but it doesn't feel terribly unusual to have them straight either.

I can't say it makes me feel "free". But it doesn't make me feel trapped either. (I do get irritated when people tell me to stop, though, simply it because it annoys them, even if I'm not making any noise.) It just gives me something to do with my hands because I usually have no. idea. whatsoever.

[BadWolf]

I do work with people who have autism professionally. I have seen alot of different kinds of finger flicking. Fast, slow, in front of eyes, on objects. It seems like everyone who likes finger flicking does it in a different way.

[Ford Puma]

I have a habit of counting on my fingers, drumming them and even tapping them together a lot. A few people tend to notice but never say anything. When I become aware of people watching I stop some times embarrassed some times not.