Nervous Habits
 

With my Discrete Mathematics midterm coming up tomorrow, and me being completely mindblown by the class (Proving the most mundane mathematics is a lot harder than it should be) and the notation used in it (I had to look up over half of what the teacher was throwing out like we should've known it for years), needless to say I'm pretty nervous. I've studied a lot over the past few days, but to be honest I'll take any grade that isn't failing.

I noticed, though, that I've been biting the lower left part of my lip over these past couple of days, mainly because I'm nervous about the test. Needless to say I've had a lot of bleeding going on because of such.

How about everyone else? What do YOU do while you're nervous, even if you may not notice it till later?

I have two things I do when I get really nervous. I either drum my fingers on a surface, like a book or a desk, or I play with my stud earings. I have three piercings on each ear and I always find myself turning them around or just fidgeting with them.

I draw on things and don't realize I've done it until later when I'm not nervous anymore.

I tap pens and pencils on hard surfaces, chew on my bottom lip, and especially chew on the skin around my fingernails when I'm nervous. I've tried my hardest to stop doing the last one and I've had moderate success, though I still do it when I'm really nervous.

I tend to take out more pencils/pens than necessary if I happen to be worried during an exam. I didn't realize this habit until last semester when someone pointed it out. I may also chew gum during an exam.

I think the one that many people do, whether they're nervous or not is shake their left or right leg rapidly. I'm one to tap my fingers or right foot impatiently when an answer doesn't come to me right away. I have also caught my self bringing my lips together inwards and then popping them outwards to make a "pop!" sound, or clenching my teeth and inhaling through the mouth to make a "whoosh!" sort of sound.

<3 Discrete math... makes up most of my favorite courses when I was in college.

Anyway, I've never really gotten into nervous habits for exams or whatnot. Sure I might be somewhat worried/anxious before it, but I'm relatively calm and relaxed for exams, despite generally cramming my ass off the night/hours before.

I usually only express "nervous habits" when I have to talk to peole. This is before talking to them, i.e. gathering my thoughts/preparing what to say. My go-to moves include the head scratch, shoulder scrath, leg scratch, back stretch, and finally, the head turn. Now this turn may be left or right, and I'm strill trying to figure out what causes the type of turn. :p But once I actually get to the talking, I'm pretty okay.

Now that I think about it, this habit also applied for most of my brainstorming in general, from something like coding projects or reports to something smaller such as this forum post. So maybe it's not really nervousness... just a habit. :/

I chew on pencils. Don't know why, haven't been able to stop.

On a side note, Discrete Math and Statistics are the only math courses I've ever truly ENJOYED. I've done fantastically well in the Algebra and Calc progressions and they're certainly strong points for me, but Discrete and Stats were the only classes I actually LIKED.

Well, I'm not saying I don't enjoy Discrete Math. It's just a challenge. I started off terribly, but I've been gripping the most recent concepts pretty well (just finished mathematical induction, number theory, and euclid's algorithm). The professor's tests are notoriously difficult, though.

He does grade on a curve heavily-leaning towards A's, so at least I have that to rely on. Still nervous about it though.

I play with my hair sometimes, though I do that out of boredom too. Quick glances at the surroundings is something else I've noticed myself do. Maybe so I can make a quick getaway if things get too intense?! Nah.

As I think is quite common I tend to get quite fidgetty when I'm nervous, or impatient for that matter. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but I tend to bounce my legs up and down, bouncing the heel of my foot with the toes on the ground. Usually only one leg at a time, but it's something I've done for years. There's probably other things I do but I'm not particularly aware of them.

I scratch my nose alot. Not sure why, I guess it just keeps me busy.

This isn't so much of a nervous habit as much as a bad habit, but I like to just randomly pull on my hair or do weird things with it.

As for nervous habits... I always seem to crack my knuckles. I'll even do it when I can't crack them anymore... pretty bad.

When I weat my glasses, i try to raise them without my fingers. I hate this twictch

I also make a strange sound with the corners of my lips (it sounds very rough)

I just found out recently that I tend to play with the zipper on my pants when I'm nervous about singing somewhere and will be standing behind something while I sing ._.

I crack my knuckles, drum my fingers on the table or whatever is around, pat/drum on my hips with my hands, chew on the skin on the tip of my index fingers and thumbs, and bite/chew on my lips or inside of my cheeks. I also feel my face with my hands. I don't know what it is about the smoothness or just a little bit of stuble but I always catch myself rubbing my cheeks. I guess that's not so much a nervous habit, as it is just a habit.

I bite my pen and also rest my head on my thumb and pointing finger. I also tend to lick and bite my under lip.

I do the classic leg shaking, but I tend to also do it when I'm bored or irritated with the situation.

I start tapping my feet, like I'm drumming or something, so both my feet, heels-down, bouncing on the ground constantly throughout whatever i'm doing at the time, it drives people insane but I have no idea i'm doing it.
Also whenever i'm behind a mic my hand just goes to the back of my head and starts messing with my hair, again I don't notice it till i'm finished

I find myself bending my wrists backwards and forwards.....if any of you have taken akido, then you know the exercise I am talking about.

Something internal starts acting up which creates a fairly noticeable noise similar to when one gets hungry. It sucks cause there's not much I can do and the thought of other people being able to hear me makes me even more nervous. It's a mental thing I think. I'll start drawing something and it usually goes away.

I have a nervous chewing habit. I chew on whatever I can fit into my mouth. Once I was chewing on a metal mechanical pencil that had a metal cover over the eraser that you can take off. So I put it in my mouth and started to chew on it. I did this for several days until one day in sixth grade I swallowed it. I got to skipped most of school that day and the metal cover was passed days later. Though my mom is a health occupations teacher and she made me search through my escretions to find it but apparently the passing of it was one day I went to get the gloves and I came back to the pot and my brother was escreting on top of my escretions. Therefore the tip was lost forever to the confines of the sewers.

I have plenty of nervous habits for sure. I've always been a nail biter, but that seems to occur more when I'm reading or watching movies for some reason or another. I've lessened my nail biting habits alot through the years, but I still seem to always do it to my thumbs.

I also do this thing where I bite the inside of my mouth, right at the edge. It makes me look kinda stupid. My mom always told me about it, but I never payed it much attention. In my TV productions class the other day, I was playing the role of a reporter doing a stand up before the feature for people learning how to shoot the subject. Before I started talking I did that, and I had to see it played back on tape later.

I usually shake alot before giving oral presentations (as well as during). I tap my fingers too, but I think that's more attributed to the fact that I'm a musician.

I play with my hair or I have this really wierd habit where I bit the insides of my cheeks.

Yeah, the thing with the cheeks is what I was trying to say before. I also run my fingers through my hair all the time now that I have long hair.

I bite my nails and the skin around them, the insides of my lips/cheeks. When I know ahead of time that I'll be going through a stressfull period, I carry some toothpicks around in my pockets and I slowly chew on them over time. It really helps me focus and reduce stress.
But when I'm just plain anxious and nervous, I keep repeating a phrase over in my head. Usually it's "let's leave" or a lyric from some song that's stuck in my head.

Also, I too enjoyed my Discrete Math courses. It helped that I had one of the best profs in the universe, but I do genuinely like the subject matter.
<3 nerdy kernel jokes