Hi y'all! I wanted to ask because I've been thinking about it lately- does anybody else stim in ways that involve a specific outcome? Like the goal is not the point per se, but you tend to continue stimming until it is reached. Thus Ii call it goal-oriented stimming- it's still a repetitive sensory behavior, but there is a non-essential outcome one may reach. Here are a few examples:
- Some people stim with Rubik's cubes; the goal may be to mix up the colors, or perhaps to solve it (though personally I think that may take up too much focus to be a stim... this isn't something I do personally)
- When I have a chewable I tend to chew on it until it is too messed up to continue (this isn't a goal I want to acheieve actually, it's just one that often happens! lol)
- When I pick at my hair the goal is typically to pull out the roots (I have trichotillomania). I've been trying to replace that with a similar input like a slime or putty with small pieces in it; then the goal is to remove all the peices, and when I'm done I can put them back in and start again.
- I also have a friend who is very rough on his stim toys, and has a tendency to destroy them; we've been trying to find one where he would be able to "destroy" it and then repair it for repeated use.
So I would love to know, does anyone else have stims like this? I would really like to find (or even make!) more stim toys that allow for repeated achievement of a goal.
