Autism and self-inflicted oral lesions

So, I've known for a while that self inflicted oral lesions (cheek/lip biting) are more common in autistic people, but something I didn't realize is that it's technically a form of self-harm. 

And I think this is worth discussing in the context of higher and lower support needs...

For me, as a lower support needs autistic person, chewing my cheeks and lips is a stim I've had most of my life. And it's been for self soothing purposes...

It can be hard to imagine someone banging their head against a wall as a self-soothing stim, but when I realize my own stim is technically a form of "self-harm"... it makes a lot more sense to me. 

I'm sharing this because I think higher support needs autistic people are by far the least understood, and I feel like this can bring some people closer to understanding it a bit more. 

To be clear, stimming isn't inherently harmful. But when it causes (sometimes severe) injury, that's when doing it to self-sooth can get especially complicated.