Is this part of autism?

Yesterday, my parents were arguing and I was getting very overwhelmed. The emotions were so overwhelming, I kept having to shake my hands and fingers out to feel cope. Do anybody else do this? And is this part of autism?

Hi miss_rainy. I think if you are diagnosed as autistic this could definitely be part of autism.

But another way to look at it is you seemed overwhelmed with emotions you did not know how to express and so you shook hands and fingers and that helped you cope. That is a valid coping mechanism especially when your parents are passing anger into the home.

Here is more of symptoms of autism that do list shaking the body to cope
Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms | Psych Central

Thank you. I'm actually getting tested for autism. I just wanted to see if these were symptoms of it.

i do that too when anxiety seems to burst up without warning. i also shake my head. which i know is some characteristics of autism ;-)
usually i would end up having a meltdown when emotions and sounds were overbearing (especially in a loud conflict between people that im unable to leave away from it all).

i wish you well on your testing! :-)

Thank you. I like when I see other people going through the same thing.

Shaking hands and fingers, that sounds like a form of stimming. Stimming is something people on the spectrum often do to calm down.

Yes. I cannot stand confrontations or arguments. Anything that is emotionally heated makes me severely uncomfortable to the point I get nauseous.

hand flapping/shaking and any other tics or such are a self stimulus way to either calm or work your brain into a situation (yes its part of the spectrum disorders if there is no drug or other influences around), get comfortable and forgive yourself doing it and you can learn how to deal with things much better. I think Im at the stage where I just non chalantly do the tics and stuff and overextend it to alleviate any stress/frustration etc; without noticing to much

My 15 yr old aspie son does this. It is his main stimming.

good luck on your testing

I've been diagnosed for many years, and I've often felt overwhelmed by too much emotion and expressiveness in others. I used to shut myself away when that happened.

Thanks for all the help everybody, it was very helpful.

That is true. I have a brother who's autistic and I see him do the same thing. We have many similarities so it makes me wonder.

I think everyone is right it is called stimming i don't know why they do it maybe a sensory overload or something

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Me too. I used to get overwhelmed by emotion, especially those that sparked my creative side that eventually I had to go into my favorite and play them out in my head. It would consist of two things, replaying the scene over and over again and rocking back and forth.

I used to hide it from my mom and go in a dark place, a place that was small so I could imagine it right.