Found Myself Rocking

I was told it was a natural way to self soothe.

Babies do it.

I am not sure it needs to be pathologised in of itself, but shows you are distressed.

Maybe work on the underlying concerns, but go with the rocking as it will help relax you and prevent you becoming very up-tight.

Gentleigh Bentleigh is fine @Former-Member

Hi @Former-Member, I rock a lot...but I do have a diagnosis of autism. I find it calming. It doesn't bother me that I do it. If it bothers others that I do it, well that's their problem I guess.

@Former-Member I am a rocker too, especially when things are weighing heavily on my mind. People have commented on it in the past and i simply state it is my self soothing mechanism for stress. I even do it in bed before I go to sleep at night, so I'm pretty incessant with the rocking. It doesn't bother me though.

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@lapses wrote:
Caught myself out rocking today. Its happens now and then. Can't linkbut in with any feelings or thoughts, but know if I saw someone in the street doing it I'd be concerned. And I know autistic people do it (not in spectrum, that I know of). So, just wondering if anyone else rocks? What is it?

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@Former-Member

i used to rock myself to sleep

sometimes when I have a bad night my husband tells me that I rock sometimes and or talk

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@lapses wrote:


Phoenix_Rising, glad i made you giggle today (my post), do you know why you giggled? Rocking & giggling in public might raise questions, but I'd be glad you're happy. Good you don't care what people think.

If Rocking soothes, go for it! In waiting rooms people read, twitch, play with phones, chatter, swing a foot... why not rock!

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Hi @Former-Member,

Sorry, I probably didn't word my post well. It wasn't your post per se that made me giggle, it was the fact that I noticed myself rocking in a public place just a couple of hours after talking about it to you. I never really think about it that much because I've been doing it for a long time, and it was only because we'd been talking about it, that I kind-of noticed it.

You are right that people do lots of things to self-soothe. Among the autistic community, it is often a point of frustration that it is deemed acceptable for neurotypical people to swing their foot, bounce their leg up and down, play on their phone etc, yet rocking and other stimming (i.e. self-stimulating) activities that autistic people do, (such as hand flapping), are considered unacceptable. I think a lot of what is and isn't considered "normal" is very arbitrary.