Tourette"s Syndrome, an Insiders Perspective
Life is difficult, but rewarding if you know were to look for the Brass Ring.
Having Tourette's Syndrome or Tourette's is as difficult some days as it is rewarding oddly enough.
Pain brings due reward of light and love.
And this, being only one person's experience will differ from many others, though our symptoms show a marked commonality.
Tourette's is a Neurological Disorder which produces "Tics" or involuntary movements or sounds, eye-blinks, grunts, snorts, jerking of the head or limbs, or even at it's most rare and obtrusive is Copralalia, literally meaning "Potty-Mouth" to water it down, wherein individuals swear or make other obscene noises.
Copralalia is the most recognized, stereotyped and least understood symptom of Tourette's and has been the most widely used in entertainment, most notably in Comedies.
Only 1 in 10 people on average have Copralalia, and most of us resign ourselves to a myriad of other less innocuous methods of dispelling pent up energy.
I have head and facial tics, snorts and grunts, eye-blinks and leg and arm twitches to name a few, but they are controlled well by medications that I am able to take at a low dosage.
A Tic can be best described as a build up of energy or an obsession, much like an itch that must be scratched, it compels you to produce it by a building up until it is released as some form of body movement or vocalization.
Not realized by most people who encounter individuals with Tourette's (TS), we can sometimes control how we tic and when we do, but stifling it only causes the tics to grow and will eventually be discharged.
I used to have severe arm and leg jerks when I was growing up, so much so that I was fearful of driving a car lest I jerk the car off the side of the road onto some unsuspecting old woman waiting patiently at the bus stop to get her Ovaltine, unaware that this was her last trip to the market.
This fear, fortunately was not founded in reality, for when I finally learned to drive when I was 21, I would tic but all my urges to do something catastrophic were thankfully subjugated to my notion of sensibility.
Most Tourette'rs do not fear most social situations or being in public with their tics in full force, quite the contrary, we have become accustomed to smirks and inquisitive glances as well as the occasional, "What the Hell Was That?!!" Stare.
Actually we are pretty well adjusted individuals for the most part, and ironically we can most times be on average some of the most gregarious people you could meet, due to our desensitization of social fear due to our chronic tics.
Also, when we are concentrating on a task, otherwise unaware of our tics, we tend not to have them.
It is only when the fact that we do, still have TS is when we tend to let our "Flags Fly" and inform everyone in our own way who we are.
TS is many times associated with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), an equally misunderstood and stereotyped affliction of constant hand washing and germ phobia.
Many of us with Tourette's and OCD exhibit widely varying traits.
One common trait I have exhibited with OCD is called "Evening up".
Meaning what I touch with one hand or foot I must touch with another the same amount of times.
We tend to look like the child prodigy of percussion, rapping our hands on everything in sight.
All in all, Tourettes and OCD have been a blessing more than a curse, and I am proud to Tourette as needed to keep my mind humble but in pride of who I am..
A Tourette'r.
Having Tourette's Syndrome or Tourette's is as difficult some days as it is rewarding oddly enough.
Pain brings due reward of light and love.
And this, being only one person's experience will differ from many others, though our symptoms show a marked commonality.
Tourette's is a Neurological Disorder which produces "Tics" or involuntary movements or sounds, eye-blinks, grunts, snorts, jerking of the head or limbs, or even at it's most rare and obtrusive is Copralalia, literally meaning "Potty-Mouth" to water it down, wherein individuals swear or make other obscene noises.
Copralalia is the most recognized, stereotyped and least understood symptom of Tourette's and has been the most widely used in entertainment, most notably in Comedies.
Only 1 in 10 people on average have Copralalia, and most of us resign ourselves to a myriad of other less innocuous methods of dispelling pent up energy.
I have head and facial tics, snorts and grunts, eye-blinks and leg and arm twitches to name a few, but they are controlled well by medications that I am able to take at a low dosage.
A Tic can be best described as a build up of energy or an obsession, much like an itch that must be scratched, it compels you to produce it by a building up until it is released as some form of body movement or vocalization.
Not realized by most people who encounter individuals with Tourette's (TS), we can sometimes control how we tic and when we do, but stifling it only causes the tics to grow and will eventually be discharged.
I used to have severe arm and leg jerks when I was growing up, so much so that I was fearful of driving a car lest I jerk the car off the side of the road onto some unsuspecting old woman waiting patiently at the bus stop to get her Ovaltine, unaware that this was her last trip to the market.
This fear, fortunately was not founded in reality, for when I finally learned to drive when I was 21, I would tic but all my urges to do something catastrophic were thankfully subjugated to my notion of sensibility.
Most Tourette'rs do not fear most social situations or being in public with their tics in full force, quite the contrary, we have become accustomed to smirks and inquisitive glances as well as the occasional, "What the Hell Was That?!!" Stare.
Actually we are pretty well adjusted individuals for the most part, and ironically we can most times be on average some of the most gregarious people you could meet, due to our desensitization of social fear due to our chronic tics.
Also, when we are concentrating on a task, otherwise unaware of our tics, we tend not to have them.
It is only when the fact that we do, still have TS is when we tend to let our "Flags Fly" and inform everyone in our own way who we are.
TS is many times associated with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), an equally misunderstood and stereotyped affliction of constant hand washing and germ phobia.
Many of us with Tourette's and OCD exhibit widely varying traits.
One common trait I have exhibited with OCD is called "Evening up".
Meaning what I touch with one hand or foot I must touch with another the same amount of times.
We tend to look like the child prodigy of percussion, rapping our hands on everything in sight.
All in all, Tourettes and OCD have been a blessing more than a curse, and I am proud to Tourette as needed to keep my mind humble but in pride of who I am..
A Tourette'r.
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