Stimming: Why I Chew

First of all, sorry for not posting last week. There was too much going on for me over the course of Friday and Saturday so I didn't have time to commit to blogging. But that kind of leads me nicely into what I want to talk about this week, which is why I stim by chewing.

Let me start by explaining what stimming is. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as:
"The repetition of apparently purposeless movements as a pattern of behaviour seen mainly in persons with autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders" 

That's only the external, neurotypical point of view and doesn't explain the reasons behind it. The purpose of stimming is for self-regulation. Everybody stims in one way or another because we all need a certain degree of sensory input to be able to function. The difference in autistics is that we find that we have to create or seek the sensory input ourselves. This could be for various reasons depending on the individual, but for example they might need more input than a neurotypical person, or they might not respond as much to whatever stimuli is in their immediate environment as a neurotypical person would.

So one of the many things that kept me busy last weekend was that we thew a surprise 60th birthday party for my aunty. All the family was there, and as usual I wore my chewer which is a button necklace from Chewigem (you can check them out here). I was playing around with my kids to keep them entertained when my dad noticed my chewer around my neck and asked about it, so I explained what it is. He didn't say anything about it but his look and his tone were very disapproving. Thinking about it, I'm not sure what he disapproved of more - the chewer itself, or the fact that I said the words "I'm autistic" out loud in public. I'm fine with what happened because people are always going to have their own opinions however closed minded they are. It's just annoying that my dad shrugs his attitude and ignorance off about this and lots of other things as just "old fashioned".

I've been inclined towards chewing for a lot longer than I realised until recently. It's only when looking back the other day that I realised how long I've displayed a tendency to chew. The earliest I can remember was when I was in primary school. I can't remember what school year I was in, but at primary school age I must have been between 5 and 11 years old. I was sat in lesson next to a small bookcase and I must have had an urge to chew something because I found myself trying to chew the corner of this bookcase. The teacher noticed and said if I'm hungry it's not long till dinner time. I also used to bite my nails quite badly when I was younger and I think this was more for the chewing action than anything to do with my nails.

Over recent years I've found myself chewing my fingers whenever I've been stressed. That ended up ruining the skin on my fingers, which is why I then bought my first chewer from Chewigem at the start of this year once I discovered that you could buy things like this. We spent last Christmas at my in-laws' house, and because my wife's got such a big family there were too many people there for me, there was too much going on and it was too loud in parts so I found myself later on in the day sat in the conservatory away from everyone else and biting my index finger to shreds. This is what finally prompted me to have a look online and see what I could find in terms of adult human chew toys, and once I got my first chewer it really saved my fingers. Going back to the situation with my dad, my wife tried to explain about my fingers to him as well, but it still didn't make any difference.

I really like Chewigem as a sensory shop but there are lots of others that were suggested to me when I asked around online in the hunt for my first chewer. I've only ever used Chewigem so far so I can't comment any any others, but it's always worth searching online and most stores who sell this kind of thing seem to have an eBay and/or Amazon store that you can find easily. The problem I've got with chew toys (which isn't even an issue with the actual toys) is that I'm a much heavier chewer than I first realised so it's not as long before my chewers get damaged as it would be for other people. My first chew toy was a hand fidget (pictured below), which isn't as durable as I need it to be so I soon ended up chewing right through it and having to get the button necklace that I've got now. Even that's starting to wear down now but it's taken much longer to damage this than it took to damage the hand fidget. That would be my advice if you're looking for a chew toy for yourself; be aware of what kind of chewer you are (light, heavy etc) and make sure you check each toy for its flexibility, durability and firmness which are all displayed clearly on the product page for every item from Chewigem.

[Image description: Me chewing my hand fidget with a thoughtful expression on my face. My hand fidget is a small, circular silicone toy with a black, grey and white camouflage pattern, and it has a bar in the middle which holds a black ball intended for spinning and fidgeting with. I'm holding one end with my hand while chewing the other end.]