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Caught Flapping on My Webcam

05/17/2020

So now that I have my shiny new blogging platform at hand I find myself thirsty for unique me-oriented content. Noting a lack of anything too special between watching bad sitcoms and chowing down on boxes of Lucky Charms, it occurs to me maybe now is time to update my explanation of this odd behavior, frequently caught on my webcam, and elsewhere:

Seriously, da F is that?

That is me "flapping". It's technically not "flapping", it's more like a soothing tickling of the back of my neck. I call it flapping because when I did this as a kid I did it full hand-hands-to-the-front which was by definition flapping. I literally flapped my hands.

Over time, this behavior was naturally admonished by my mom and dads, and subject to some degree of mocking from my dear siblings. The resulting pressure between the compulsion to do it and the shame and ridicule to not, gradually morphed the act into the somewhat compact and concealable act of "neck tickling". The vernacular of it as "flapping" nonetheless survived, as did the behavior itself, into modern adulthood.

I mostly do it while under stress, but I also do it while thinking rapidly about matters. It's like a mental tell I suppose. You can harmlessly refer to it as a "tic" if you like although I tend to think of tics as being more involuntary. This is not involuntary by my standard of the word, I crave doing it! I can get frustrated over time if I can't.

The medical genesis of this behavior is a wild card matter. Sure, it's the stuff of autism if you turn down the squelch on the meaning of that word (and sure, my mother claims a doctor made just such that suggestion, just as that and "Asperger" were coming to the fore).

My philosophy on the over-diagnosis of what is in my opinion, at some point of high functionality, a personality type, leads me to dismiss that. I'd sooner blame chomping on lead paint chips and messing up the wiring somewhere during my neurological developmental years.

I mean, okay, I happen to be great with computers and sure, there is that train thing I have going on, and maybe a few oddball obsessive fascinations here and there -- but, hey, like I said personality type.

Some dudes get high jumping from bridges while strapped to rubber bands and we don't say they have a contemporary buzzword affliction, do we? They're just adrenaline junkies! And for some reason, without a care for trains in the world, they are even admired.

So if you see me flapping on the webcam, or maybe roundabout at work or in the streets, do not be concerned. It just means I'm letting off mental steam if not processing an internal algorithm of some sort.

Now if you'll excuse me, I notice the second of my thirteen spoons (from the bottom of the stack) is slightly shifted to the left in the utensil drawer, and I absolutely have to correct it or there's gonna be a lot of flappin' going on!

By Dave for Personal Blog.