This is a community to discuss stimming of all kinds by ND people!
Distracted by stimming?
So, for context, I don't know exactly what my neurodivergencies are / why I stim. I know that I have some anxiety things, but I don't know if this is the only stimming-related way that I am neurodivergent.
I am confused about a phenomenon that I noticed recently. When doing something that I need to focus on, but have some trouble with, I start stimming intensely and often get carried away and lose track of what I was supposed to focus on. I can make myself stop for 10 to 30 seconds, during which I manage to pay much closer attention to the thing.
I know that there could be many reasons. Maybe the thing that I'm trying to focus on is making me anxious and distraction is actually a helpful reaction. Maybe the activity is too monotonous in some way, and being distracted is a side effect of not being bored. But from what I've read, stimming usually helps with focus (but maybe that only applies to autistic and ADHD people? It is possible that I am neither, but I am fairly certain that what I do is stimming).
I am not looking for definite answers or explanations, but I'd really love to hear about similar (or totally different) experiences to get some idea of what might be happening in these situations.




I'm really bad at multitasking sensory input. For example, if I'm looking at my phone and someone's talking to me, there's a 80% chance I can't understand what they say. So, stims that involve listening or watching (for example visual stims like pretty gifs, music, echolalia) make it hard for me to focus on other sensory inputs. Other stims that are more about moving my body (tapping my fingers, playing with fidget toys, ...) distract me less.