Is it normal to rock back and forth?

i do this to all the time when im sitting on the couch watching tele or listning to music but im so aware im doing and when family or friends are with me i dont do it or feel the erge to do it (no1 part from mum bros n sis no i do it ) but it just comforts me helps me think and relaxes me.. im justy aqbit worried when i get pregnant if itl harm my baby i dont no if ill be able to stop for good as ive been doing it for 19 years now!

OMG!!! i do this all the time too... my whole family gets freaked out when i do it but i dont even realize it it relaxing though. i find it very soothing. my mom especially hates when i do it but i do it whenever i sit and arent doing anything else.. i always thought this wasnt normal and that i was the only one this is reliving!!!

Yes its normal for some an not for others. I started at the age of 1 an have continue into adult hood. My Mother did not mind me doing it. My husband dos'nt mind me doing it. Its soothing to my soul. If anything it keeps me balanced. I found to my delight that those that rock have less wrinkles in the Neck compared to none rockers.

yes it is. i do it unconsciously. but i stop immediately when i realize what i'm doing fearing that i look mental

It's all good rockin'! That's why we have rocking chairs! The idea is that a controlled rocking motion of the body is quite therapeutic. We were all rocked in our mother's arms as infants if you forgot. lol Cheers!

i rock back and forth a lottttttttt. It really scares my mom, she yells at me when I do it.. like she thinks i'm developing some kind of mental disorder. Anyway yeahh, I definitely think it's normal!

yes i do that too! i hope its normal xD

It's called self stim. You do it to calm yourself down. Chewing gum will do the dame thing.

Some people need to move their bodies rhythmically to be able to think or to relax. I think it is fairly normal.

I'd say it's normal. I do the same thing most of the time.:)

It could be a sign of childhood truma. Or anxiety.

I have been doing this since a small child, before I can remember and im in my 30s!! used to drive my parents mad and make them embarrassed like i was a freak or something. Only toay have i done some reasearch into it and found so many people to be the same! When I was kid my mom used to "go into one" and shout and holler all the time and scream she couldnt cope with life, ( dont ask me what she meant I had no idea) and I think this was a reaction, like some kind of comfort and became a habit. I was always able to control it and I think this was because they made me feel so abnormal I only even did i in private! I have no mental disorders except a brief spell of mild depression which I got over on my own, so i guess its just one of those things like nail biting, but not as socially acceptible!

I'm doing it right as we speak. I can't do anything unless I have a rhythmic pattern to do it to. Such as listening to music, thinking of ideas, doing school work, just relaxing, swimming, and so forth. I don't rock back and forth swimming though, I twiddle my fingers. LOL... always moving.. But, think this, while you are doing that, you a burning calories. I am not a weight freak, but it's good that you aren't lazy. :)

my partner does this quite a fast rate too , frightened the life out of me at first I caught her one day with her headphones on and swaying back n Forth, it did concern me to be honest but it's her way of relaxing so never mind , I love her I'm marrying her in October

I'm rocking in my chair as I type this comment lol. I'll stop to finish this comment. I've been rocking ever since idk how long. Sometimes when I rock I would make up songs and start singing to myself. I would do it right when I wake up or if I'm not doing anything else right before I go to sleep. Hours can go by and I'd be rocking away. It's peaceful and soothing to say the least.

Im 32 and have been rocking as long as i can remember. I always rock while driving or sitting on the couch. Now here is why i feel its genetics. One of my brothers and my dad have rocked their entire lives. 2 of my 5 uncles on my dads side have rocked their entire lives. Both my aunts rock but not all the time. 3 of my cousins have been rocking their entire lives and a few more but not all the time. I can say for all my family that as it might be relaxing we just do it out of habit. We cant sit still while driving or sitting on the couch. Some of us even rock a little while sitting in a chair at the dinner table. It was so funny growing up because we had a caravan and here my dad would be rocking in the driver seat my brother rocking in the middle seat and me in back rocking. The looks we would get.lol
I still get some stares and occasionly a car full of teens that will mimic me but hey, its just habit and i could care less what anyone thinks about it. Rock on guys and gals! !

My father(56)has rocked back and forth all his life and I(32)have rocked back and forth all my life. We both have always done it for hours a day and even in the bed. Its was called “rocking, beating or bumping your head. It was a family secret so much that we never even spoke about it to each other until a week ago. We both said the same thing...basically rocking helps us enter into a trance like state, i.e. an altered state of mind(a really good place). There we both are able to travel deep deep inside our minds and then are able to see the world with great clarity. We both describe this state of mind as like being in a "super computer." As a result of spending hours of our life deep inside our minds, we both share hyper-awareness to our environments. It can be best described as the real life "Limitless." I mastered the piano after 1.5 years of teaching myself to play it. I did not own a piano or keyboard and had limited access to them. I would just read the books and practice when I could. Holding this secret in and thinking he was the only one who experiences this amazing and unfathomable gift my father turned to a life of alcoholism. As for myself, I learned early in life how to use it to my advantage. Essentially, how to manipulate the environment around me, always in my favor. Of note, my father was absent for the first 30 years of my life. When we found out we both shared this we were completely overwhelmed. We both thought we were the only one in the world. His words, “I thought I was an alien” and for me I thought I was the only real person and everyone else were robots. We both say we realized this gift around 5 years old. I know for some this sounds crazy and unfathomable but I'm hoping there are others out there who experience this. Anyone who does will know immediately what I'm talking about. The ability to speak things into existence does exist.

I have done it all my life and still do it. Only thing is now I get a little lightheaded when i do it but I still rock. I dont care if it's normal or not. It makes me happy. I just don't like the woozy feeling I get now when I rock.

Yes its normal. Im 11 yrs old and i did since i was a baby. A while ago well maybe 3 or 2 yrs ago, i was concern about me rocking. And she said that i have no problems because the doctor said that i nothing wrong with me. So its ok if u rock. But im still concern about it. i always dont really play with people that much because i rock. So i need a little help with this question. Is this a mental or austim problem?

I think it's normal. Rocking back and forth is- as someone else already mentioned- a form of stimming. Stimming is a repetitive body movement (think hand flapping or leg shaking) and a way for someone to decompose or relax. Don't be fooled by thinking only autistic people stim. Everyone stims in some way or another, whether or not you have a learning disorder or mental illness.

I will never understand the stigma against stimming. Biting ones nails (which is a stimming behavior, by the way) is more socially acceptable than rocking back and forth. Sure, it's seen as a habit people should stop, but it's not connected with mental disorders or autism. In people's minds, it's a normal human thing. Things like pacing around or rocking, however, are looked at as symptoms of mental disorders. If you pace around while on the phone or doing some other task, people conclude ADHD, and if you rock, you're looked at as either autistic or mental. It's completely ridiculous. It's a calming behavior that helps you focus. It's more common that you think.

I've been doing this my whole life as well. It is the only way I can listen to music, watch TV or play video games. I however, am very aware when I'm rocking and never do it in front of people. Now that i'm in my 30's I am looking to get some help because it's somethng that has gotten worse as I've gotten older. I can't even sit at my computer chair anymore because I can't rock in it. I have to be sitting on my couch or in my recliner all the time. I just wish I had medical so I can go on something for my anxiety because I think that would help. Although I have to say I can't imagine not rocking to my music and having the same enjoyable experience.

not unless you have a dissorder.....................^o)

its normal and not because people with certain medical dissorders do it and could be a sign of a mental disorder but it can be normal cbecuase people need to rock back and forth to think straight i do it