Instead of biting my nails or playing with a fidget toy, is there a skill I can learn/practice?
Like rolling a pen/coin through my fingers or something like that.
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May I ask what sort of work you do?
Chisanbop or chisenbop (from Korean chi (ji) finger + sanpŏp (sanbeop) calculation 지산법/指算法), sometimes called Fingermath, is a finger counting method used to perform basic mathematical operations.
You might be already doing this. If you strum your fingers of your right hand by pressing your index, middle, ring, and pinky to your desktop, and then do the same thing again starting with your thumb, you’ve just counted from 0 to 9. Do the same on your left hand and you’ve gone from 00 to 90. It’s really easy to do simple math this way by counting on your fingers.
For stimming purposes, you might just start by counting up or counting down, then maybe counting up by twos or counting down by threes.
This is the approach that I’ve known for many decades now. I’ve seen YouTube videos of kids doing amazing fast calculations like multiplying large numbers using what looks like a different method in that their hands are in the air. I’ll leave it to you to Google the other approaches if this direction interests you.
While I’m unfamiliar with your condition, it seems simple magic tricks, like having a playing card appear in your hand from thin air (when it was actually just well hidden) and making it disappear again.
I did magic tricks as a hobby, I would practice some card techniques with whatever I had at hand, e.g. credit or parking cards. There are several things you can do with cards or coins that are quick and cool.
Drumming
Related: get a Digitakt or Syntakt from Elektron and make music while you stim with clicky buttons 🤩
Digitakt is awesome
I’ve thought so much about this because I stim by bouncing my leg and strumming my fingers on stuff; I’m already basically playing drums!
Shuffling cards, rubix cube, ukulele, traveling coin,
My most frequent stim for YEARS involves me playing along doing saxophone fingerings to whatever music I’m listening to or is stuck in my head. So, maybe a wind instrument!
+1 for almost any instrument
Think you just answered your own question.
Seriously though, coin rolling is great for dexterity and you can move on to some simple slight of hand magic
Archery
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Absolutely knitting or crocheting. It’s very soothing.
Lockpicking maybe? Just recently got into it as a bucket list hobbies but it’s actually really entertaining. They sell practice cutaway locks that fit easily in one hand as you fidget about with the lock picks.
This is a great idea! Lock picking is fun and super impressive to laymen (haha).
Just don’t tell anyone but your closest, most trusted friends (haha). Also, tell them to keep it a secret! Why? So your neighbor doesn’t knock on your door at 2AM because they locked themselves out of their apartment.
Also, you don’t need cutaway locks! They’re neat toys but nothing more. What you really need is a variety of locks to play with.
Head to your local hardware store and pick up a bunch of cheap locks. Or just ask friends if they have any old padlocks they’re not using (most people will have one or two).
True, cutaway locks aren’t needed. I recently heard of a neat idea where you can call around various storage businesses and ask if they have cut locks from people who lost their unit. It won’t be useful to lock anything but great for practice. Unfortunately the one near me throws theirs away regularly so I need to call around more to see what I can find.
Whenever I have my lockpicks and a few padlocks available, I end up picking nonstop while doing things like watching youtube
You can get training locks where the back of each cylinder unscrews so you can put in as many or as few pins as you want, and try it again with different pinning each time.
Yup! Thats like the one I have from Sparrows. I got their Tuxedo Reloaded set and it comes with all sorts of driver pins and keys to setup yourself.
I learned to count to 31 on 1 hand using binary. I’ve gotten more than a few free drinks via bar bets with that skill lol.
That’s… Barely a skill
It’s a little over 30
I’m going to learn this skill and wonder why people are counting to 4 in front of me.
4 and 5 are some of the most popular numbers out there, apparently.
Was it a bar at a software companies happy hour?
Who would bet a drink against your ability to count in binary?
Who would bet a drink against your ability to count in binary?
Shit talking and making odd claims about talents are a good way to pass the time drinking in bars with strangers/acquaintances.
Look into flow arts! There’s something for everyone, and it’s great exercise!
Also for those who don’t feel like Googling it: flow arts include juggling, spinning, baton/staff/whatever spinning, fan dance (?), and more.
TIL there’s a general term for that.
Wouldn’t the coin on the knuckles thing count?
Pen tricks too. I also had one of my psych patients who had dermatillomania learn to make those paper stars. They also make “paint by sticker” books.
Compulsive skin picking for those who don’t want to have to Google it.
Maybe knitting?
I second knitting, and its 100% something you can do while watching tv without needing to devote much concentration, its almost subconscious once your going.
