I have a minor problem.

[conuly]

Minor is a key word here, but it's starting to bother me. Most of the time, I am chewing on something. My fingers, or my cheeks, or my tongue, or junk food. I must've spent a fortune on junk food in the last year. It helps me to think, and stay calm in stressful situations and all that. Anyway, anyway, a while ago Ana, being all cute, handed me one of her teething toys, so I nibbled for a second, because she was trying to "feed" me (she's a cute kid, but a bit strange... are most one-year-olds that strange?) and ended up thinking "hm... that's not so bad" which immediately crystallized my ongoing vague thoughts into a firm "Something. Needs. To Be. Done."

So, I've done some research and some thought and came up with these options:

1. Get something to chew on.
Pros: Simple
Cons: Buying sight unseen

2. Steal one of Ana's teethers
Pros: Cheaper, even if I buy it
Cons: C'mon, it looks stupid. Really. And robbing my niece? LOW.

3. Do nothing, keep things the way they are right now
Pros: Saves money in the short run, in the long run if I cut out the junk food
Cons: I'm tired of waking up with a sore mouth? It looks silly in class when my fingers have tooth marks all over them?

4. Stop chewing on things.
Pros: Definitely the cheapest solution
Cons: I don't want to do this. Somehow, I don't see it happening easily, and, frankly, on the list of self-improvement things, this doesn't rate very highly. It's not as though I'm biting other people or sucking their blood....


[Poll #288730]

Thanks for reading and/or helping. This will possibly be posted over in asperger, so we'll see what they have to say too. Definitely it seems like an autistic thing.

Comments

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

I've got the same stim -- it's very common among autistic people that for one reason or another stopped "natural" stimming like rocking or flapping. (Other species will do the exact same thing in response to stress if their natural behaviors are prevented, incidentally.) I chew my lips, the inside of my mouth, my cuticles, virtually any rough spot on my skin, and I'm also on the "self-harm" level where I'll actually start cut the skin off if I'm too stressed.

You could buy a chewing-oriented stim toy of some kind, or even pick something that doesn't *look* like it's something a person would chew on (like a dog toy) and buy that.

Another alternative would be to intentionally work on picking up a different stim to replace it -- perhaps wiggling a body part in a way that gives you the same sensation of relief. I've learned to rapidly chafe my hands or fingers together, and that results in the same mental sensation as biting, weirdly enough...

[conuly]

Another alternative would be to intentionally work on picking up a different stim to replace it --

Thing is, I don't care all that much about it... I just 1. don't like spending the money on junk food 2. don't like having chewed up fingers in class all the time and 3. realized that the teether worked better anyway. The "stop doing it" is just up there for those who think this sort of thing is a real problem. Never understood that myself, but...

[deathweasel.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. :-) I feel less weird.
I chew my hands mostly, but sometimes I get really annoyed and start cutting off cuticles, nails, etc with my X-acto.


Maybe that was too much information. *wince*

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

Not TMI, that's the same thing that I do! I used to use an X-acto, scalpels from (sterile) dissecting kits, and most recently a pair of tiny surgical scissors. I've got a couple of raw spots right now, in fact. :-/

I think the worst I ever did (now this *might* be TMI) was when I was a stressed-out miserable teenager... I used toenail clippers to cut off all of the callused areas off the bottom of my feet.