On Twiddling

I read this week that grinding teeth is the brain’s equivalent of twiddling thumbs. Is this true? Grinding is much more reasonable.

Thumb twiddling is bizarre! Who first thought of such an idea? I’ve known only one thumb twiddler and that’s Jamie. He twiddles his thumbs like it’s his art and like he has a GCSE in the skill.

His preferred method is twiddling without his thumbs touching. He likes to go backwards and forwards. And fast and slow and on all occasions will demonstrate high manual dexterity.

Twiddling passes time- well I can think of better ways. Does that mean that those with boring jobs or those in prison twiddle more?

Jamie doesn’t have boring job and isn’t in prison (as far as I know), he still twiddles on the odd occasion.

Apparently thumb twiddling can start out as an innocent activity and can lead to problems if performed in excess. Wikipedia states: “Excessive demonstration of this activity may be evidence of a mental, or neurological, problem.”

He does not perform this activity in excess yet, but I’ll be sure to look out for it. I wonder if I twiddled all day, would I go mad.

And when was the first documented occurrence of thumb twiddling and why? It does not feel like a natural thing to do. Do monkeys twiddle- I’d like to know. I’d like to put this pondering to rest.

Although I’d much prefer to be thinking and writing about it than actually twiddling my life away!

Catherine