Small hand-held toys known as fidget toys were originally marketed towards children. They were designed to relieve nervous energy, anxiety, and psychological stress, as well as improving the focus of the children. However, when they first saw their surge in popularity, it soon became apparent that adults could benefit from their use too. When you consider the people you know, how many of them fiddle with things or bounce their legs or wring their hands or crack their knuckles? Fidgeting is extremely common and to understand why fidget toys are popular, you first need to understand why people fidget.
Regulating Attention
The average attention span of most adults is thought to be around fifteen minutes. However, there is evidence that this can be overridden by finding a way to focus through movement, which is where fidget toys come in. In addition, some research suggests that fidgeting is associated with how stimulated a person is. Thus, fidgeting could be a self-regulation mechanism that is unconsciously used by the body to either boost or lower attention levels.
That being said, people who fidget a lot generally seem to be more prone to daydreaming or a wandering mind. Fidgeting can be a result of a wandering mind, and if your mind wanders, then you are arguably less likely to perform well in a task, and the same occurs if you are fidgeting while performing a task. This means that fidgeting might indicate a problem with attention, but it could also be the solution. The physiological stimulation that fidgeting provides could bring your attention back to the task at hand and allow you to focus better.
Stress Relief
Another explanation for fidgeting is that it acts as a stress reliever. Fidgeting could be a behavioural coping mechanism for stress. These theories centre around fidgeting behaviours that are classed as self-contact, which includes things like pulling, scratching, orbiting the hair or skin. There have been studies into the veracity of this theory.
One such study induced stress within a group of men by asking them to perform mental arithmetic out loud in front of other people. They found that the people who reported higher levels of anxiety before the test exhibited more of the self-contact behaviours mentioned above. The same group of men also reported feeling less stress during the test, which could mean that the behaviours work in reducing stress. Interestingly, this seems to have more of an application for men who exhibit twice the amount of self-contact behaviours as women.
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What Are Fidget Toys?
Fidget toys are designed to work under the above-mentioned ideas. They act as self-regulation tools that increase attention and focus while also lowering stress in those who use them. They are designed to have a calming effect on people with anxiety, and they boost active listening. The toys themselves come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and textures; they can also be geared towards different ends, like spinners, cubes, tangles, balls, or rings. They are used to increase tactile input and promote movement.
How do the Toys Help?
People who fidget, as mentioned above, need help to regulate their attention and relieving their stress. Fidgeting can help; it gets rid of nervous energy, which frees up the mental space to focus on the tasks. This is because when people have more control or direction over their movements while trying to work or perform tasks, they are often rewarded with increased concentration and focus. Movement and sensory input engage both sides of the brain, which can be incredibly helpful for some people when learning or carrying out tasks. While they can renew focus, they can also serve as minor distractions, which can also be helpful. They offer breaks which can be necessary for boosting focus and productivity when you come back to the task.
Stress, anxiety, and other disorders, including ADHD, can have an effect on the body as a whole, but perhaps their most notable effect is on the hands. For example, an anxiety attack can cause tingling, restlessness, shaking and cramping in the hands. While fidget toys do not claim to cure those issues, they can help keep your hands busy and your mind calmer, which means that you may be less likely to suffer from an attack.
Fidget toys can also be good in the replacement of bad habits for less harmful ones. Think about habits that use your hands a lot; when trying to give up this habit, you are more likely to be aware of how empty or still your hands feel. Using a fidget toy can help you by allowing you to go through the motions without actually participating in the habit. For example, smokers who want to quit smoking often find themselves looking for things to do with their hands. Their hands feel emptier without the motion of smoking a cigarette. Fidget toys can help. Although because cigarettes are incredibly addictive, sometimes fidget toys aren’t enough. Swapping out cigarettes for vaping can help; the vape can act as a fidget toy to keep your hands busy while also allowing you to wean yourself off of the nicotine slowly. If you are looking to quit smoking, then it’s worthwhile reading this guide first.
The Concerns
Most people who have concerns about the use of fidget toys have them because they think that either fidget toys won’t help or they will exacerbate the problem. However, if they don’t work, then the only thing you have lost by trying them is a little bit of money. There is also no evidence that they make fidgeting worse. In fact, it is important to point out that the symptoms of anxiety or stress or ADHD come with their own challenges, which can be just as if not more disruptive to a person’s day. Fidget toys can be a distraction, it is true, but as mentioned above, this minor distraction can bring about its own benefits, which can boost productivity in the long run. The truth of the matter is that fidget toys have not been around that long, and so there is not a tonne of research or evidence which proves or disproves the efficacy of fidget toys. While some people swear by them, others are sceptical, and frankly, there simply needs to be more research done in his area before judgements are passed.
In Conclusion
Overall, fidget toys can be incredibly helpful for combatting the symptoms of many mental health conditions and disorders. The repetitive motion can boost concentration and calm you down. However, it should be noted that the use of fidget toys are not widely accepted in society; some onlookers wrongfully associate them with feelings of boredom, frustration, or hyperactivity, and so they think that those using them are being rude. Fidgeting can also distract others as the movement of it tends to draw the eye. All of this is simply to say that if you are going to employ the use of fidget toys, then you should do so subtly. Try not to draw attention to them.
