Just a few: the swimmer/surfer nose grab, knuckle popping, toe tapping, weird musical sounds, weird faces, nervous laughter, throat clearing, looking around awkwardly, itching my facial hair, stroking my imaginary beard, erratic toe movements, dancing around like I’m about to wet my pants, awkward humor, head bobbing, repetition of stupid phrases like soo, anyhoooo…., teeth chattering, tongue biting…....
Mostly a biter. Cuticles, nails, lips, hair, pens/pencils…..
Also general restlessness…..cornered rabbit syndrome, tapping feet…...I could go on and on…
I should add, I usually try to hide it, so appearing calm and distant is probably another.
@delirium I’ve tried so many different methods to stop biting, but when it comes down to it, I think it’s just part of my psychological makeup. Plus it doesn’t help that my fingers tend to follow me around everywhere I go so they’re easy targets.
I came across (let me rephrase that, my girlfriend picked me up) some anti-biting clear polish for my nails, but I was able to bite through that too. Not cool.
I have some of the gross tasting stuff but it seemed to get everywhere, and I ended up ingesting a lot of it, which was worrying me.
I agree about the easy target thing. I’m a girl so I can get away with the Victorian style lace gloves to protect my fingers but ultimately I really just wish I could leave them at home. (the fingers, not the gloves.)
I bite my fingers- not just the nails, pretty much everything around my fingers. I also chew on me cheek and lips, both of these even when I’m not nervous. Also, if i decide to not shave for a day I’m constantly rubbing the scruffiness =P
I pop my wrists.
Sometimes, when I’m really nervous, I do it too much and they dislocate.
It’s really gross.
and REALLY painful.
I’ve gotten it checked out before, I have to wear braces at nighttime now. :x
YES PEEDUB IMAGINARY BEARD! Greatest thing to do especially in really serious situations.
I also partake in…..
cracking various joints(i always get weird looks from back and neck) , looking around awkwardly,chewing on pens/straws/other random objects/inside of my bottom lip(didnt do this until i randomly started recently)/twist a piece of my hair around my finger(only seems to happen when im reading)
weird thing is i dont consider myself nervous and/or stressed.
I remember the parts of songs that aren’t the lyric – the filler syllables. When I’m nervous I start humming those parts under my breath. “Wella wella wella well”/ “wo wo wo”/“etc.
ALSO I start vocalizing sounds I hear around me. Tink tink tink. VVVVVVV!
“Okay!” “Brrrrrrrr!” I got it from playing with the new baby in our family. No one notices, though, as far as I can tell. It’s just underlying backup vocals.
Scamp, you’re right!
Here’s something from a book called DYING WELL (in a section about lung disease):
”.. smoking is a self-nurturing behavior. The sucking and immediate oral gratification develop as a way of taking care of themselves. It feels good in the short term, or at least it did when the habit began. Often people who go on to have severe chronic pulmonary disease…have a history of being emotionally neglected as young children. Smoking constitutes a calming and reassuring form of self-care… a form of self-mothering. (They) tend to remain emotionally needy, unable to feel affection from others because of a vague sense of unworthiness.”
Good lord!!! do you think all of us mouth-centric nervousness-calmers are in this category? Embarrassing!