errm...I make strange noises with my mouth when either stressed or concentrating...Today I started blowing pops and farts in a coffeeshop, and diverted myself into whistling the blue danube waltz...

I feel like I am . . well, how I described it to my therapist was 'I feel like my brain is too soft and I can make a habit in a day (when it's supposed to take six weeks to make a habit).' I feel like maybe in this place, we're highly prone to addiction - anything to escape, anything to try and gain a sense of control, but an addiction only exascerbates the issue, making us feel even more out of control.

Secondly, I wonder if we're grasping for anything that 'self-soothes' . . ?

I know I developed the behavior of 'defaulting to panic' . . .I also find myself trancing, very easily . . a trance is really a self-hypnotized state and is a survival technique, however, the goal is to learn to live fully present.

I won't tell you my weird things. I don't do them anymore, but I think dbpalm has it right. I think my weird things were efforts to self-soothe. I thought I needed to forget my fear - or at least push it out of my head for a little while to keep what was left of my sanity. Like a small child, I longed for comfort and security. In a world that didn't seem to have any real comfort or real security anymore, I settled for temporary, sometimes crazy pleasures. They didn't really work, by the way, and I'm convinced now that they delayed my healing, too. For me, healing finally came when I stopped running. This is going to sound crazier than the crazy weird stuff, but I finally just let myself feel terror to the point that it almost paralyzed me, but I didn't let it stop me, I started talking about what happened to me, too, even though that made me relive it. It was hell. Pure hell. But after a while, maybe a year, the past finally lost it's power over my present and went to live in the dusty closets of my past. I don't relive my trauma anymore. I haven't even had a nightmare about it in years. It's over.

i self stim by flicking my fingers in front of my eyes and rocking. both are very soothing to me. sometimes i'll finger spell whole songs in front of myself. it's as if enough external stimulus cancels out the bad stimulus or overwhelms it or something. i also repetitively count things like letters on signs.

I think we all do things that, if we were caught, would amplify the already free-standing sense of shame that many of us feel.

Sometimes, I wish I were caught in the act of doing some of the strange things I do...that are totally out of character for me when I am around others and am getting my emotional needs met.

I know that I get left a lot to my own devices.

I send looooooong insulting e.mails to people.

I make noises all the time.

My daughter is used to it and she started doing it because I do.

It has become fun for us

Very odd, I actually never thought about any of this -- but I always thought of them as "ticks". sometimes i'd having strange breathing, or little facial ticks.. ects.. and my family and close friends would notice it. I would try my hardest to minimize it when infront of others and they realized it was a result of my increased anxiety.

However, when I was finally diagnosed, and I started taking meds, when my anxiety is under control, I don't have those issues.

I'm not sure if writing loooong nasty emails is a coping mechanism or just one of my things.. but I do tend to do that too, when I'm upset and need to vent! It helps!

No need to be embarrassed. We all have our ticks, or little things that make us.. us. Embrace it!

I have a habit of starting fights with people - especially if I'm in a relationship. I've spent so much time disassociated from emotions that sometimes I want to feel any emotion at all, so I start fights. It drives my girlfriend insane when I pick fights with her. I also get insanely jealous. I'm usually a really laid back person, but sometimes I can't help.

I tried drugs a lot a couple years ago. Drugs and alcohol. And was very promiscuous. I'm a lesbian, but I find myself engaging in acts with males simply for the attention.

Sometimes at work I tap my feet or my fingers. Or I make weird fart noises with my mouth or hum one note for as long as I possibly can. Sometimes I just randomly get up and start pacing the office, or I get random spurts of hyperness and skip down the halls. It's really strange.

i grit my teeth when stressed and make weird noises..

I do have a few habits related to stress and PTSD. I pick at my skin- do it a lot if I am really anxious. Nose picking is a self- soothing habit I wish I could stop. More recently I have had problems with making strange noise- gulping, gasping, snorting- when I inhale. Happens at least one a day and I can't figure out why,

What I do in my spare time....to self sooth is of an adult nature and most effective. Daily, yes, yes...and yes. Endorphins rock in a way that meds and drugs never will.

At least it is not fattening, because I have food issues too. I don't want to get grossly fat again.

I isolate.

I get quiet. Into my head. I'm lost in my thoughts.

I will unintentionally ignore you. I space out.

Honestly, I'm not embarrassed about sex and my need for it when I am unwell. I'm not even apologetic. :)

I constantly twirl my hair in a fit of nervousness.

A more detrimental activity is my obsession phases. I constantly overthink situations, texts, people, things that were said or could be said. I obsess over them so much that I have to turn all of my electronics off in fear I will respond to someone with anger - over nothing really.