Been twitching for years, could i have Tourette's?

Hey there, A full year later...but did you ever seek any help for this? My story is EXACTLY the same as this...same age it came back too. Left eye twitch, strain my neck muscles...and I was working as a presenter until they started back in 2012 :s. I'm waiting to see someone - hoping to get some Habit Reversal Therapy - but don't let it win. I'm a VERY sociable person, and I started shyiny away from seeing people. I'm determined not to let it win.... Would love to chat with you if you're still around. Reply and I'll shoot across my email...I just think you need someone to talk to at times :s

I TWICH MY HEAD EVEY 5 SECENDS WHY IS THAT

Hi friend, I too share your problem, Im 23, nearly 24 and still have the head jerks mainly but sometimes it can take the form of making weird noise at the back of my throat or having to move my neck in a certain way. I can suppress the urges to do it for a while but it becomes overwhelming and I have to do it in order to relieve the stress from not doing it. I too wish it would all go away so I didnt have to worry about how i appear in public whilst doing it. Only thing is i can take comfort in that im not alone in having this problem, Its so annoying, if only there was a cure for it, I would be the happiest guy alive.

Hey everyone, I am a 52 year old male, when I was little about 8 my sister died and I developed ticks of varying degrees and various types. I saw a child psychologist and they said that I did not have the brainpower at that age to deal with such a direct and impactful stressor so there had to be an outlet.
I used to have to touch my nose tip to my top lip by scrunching, do a movement like I was sucking on a hard candy or getting something off of my stuck teeth. In fact, as I type this I am blinking every so often but doing it harder and rolling my eyes quickly while they are closed for a split second...I do this because unless you are focused on my eyes, in passing, you cannot tell I have a tic :) Human adaptation is wondrous sometimes. I have even used my phone to record myself for a few minutes just to see what it my ticks look like. I seem to have 3-4 minor tics at once or one big ass tic and no others. I had a head shaking tic once for over a year. It was not really that violent, much like a lot of folks do to flip hair back, but it caused me, over time to develop a few bulges and a subsequent herniation in my cervical spine. I was blown away as it was not a big tic but over time, plus I used to play sports and lift weights, it exacerbated this and I have serious neck pain. I am actually very confident and am actually known as being a cool customer. I am someone that has been in very high stress situations and have clarity. I can speak in front of people and not get nervous anything more than a healthy feeling. I am very intuitive and can read people well. I am very persuasive.

Anyhow, not to be long winded, over my life I have noticed several things that may or may not help.

Opiates such as hydrocodone make them worse.
Dry eyes and allergies make them worse.
An acute exposure to pesticide, weed killer and/or Chlorine (in a pool) or cleaning product have caused and made much worse my tics.
In fact, I spilt a large gallon from Home Depot of like some house defense pesticide and I cleaned it all up with some towels, etc. I remember having the taste in the back of my throat and smelling it on my hardwood floor (despite intense mopping) for over a day. For 2 years literally from 48 hours after that mess I had tics come back after a 5 year hiatus. 5 YEARS!

Chemicals like that are neurotoxins...they block sodium ion channels and throw off the balance of your system.
(trust me this is not a shameless plug) but try Atropine...made from the belladonna flower, it is an antispasmodic or perhaps choline.

I have had several concussions over the years. I had a major one and after that my tics went away for 10 years...not sure why.
I noticed that in normal situations like looking at a computer screen or talking to a friend, wife and kids that I have tics. It is odd. However, in a stressful situation, like a classic example I remember was when I was taking a test for law school, I looked around randomly in the middle of the test and saw like 10 people bouncing their leg at a desk or tapping their foot but I sat not moving at all...somewhat stoic...crazy huh?

I dated this girl a long time ago...she was this sexy, beautiful thing...I always tried to hide these tics but sometimes they would pop out. I remember one time I was opening up to her about something, maybe telling her how great she was, I was looking away briefly during my convo with her in a normal fashion but out of the corner of my eye I saw her blinking in a classic tic manner. When I moved my eyes and looked at her I remained focused directly on her eyes and never moved away for several minutes. She never did the blink tic. Then I looked away again and in my peripheries she did it again.
Well, I confronted her about her tics and we opened up about them...that was the piece of trust that acted as a catalyst for our romance. I have been married to her for quite some time so there is a success story there for any of you that may think you are different....well you are not. Just because you blink your eyes or move your hear or clear your throat versus the other 90% of people that bounce their leg up and down at meetings or maybe they talk a lot....perhaps they wiggle their toes and you cannot see it (BTW doing the toe thing really helped me get rid of some tics....be persistent just as you would a workout routine. Anyhow, thanks for indulging in the musings of the OG of tics.

*****Be true to yourself and you will never fall*****

Thank goodness. Somebody that knows my troubles. When reading your post I was able to tick off all of the things that you have said. It frustrates me as it prevents me from being steady and those other things you have said I struggle with too!

Hello everyone.. Im turning 24 and i've been having all that tics and glitches (almost everything you've all mentioned) since i was a child.my parents used to get mad at me and get angry . i believe it's a habit, i really didnt know what to do , sometime it gets worse that i cant even speak, read a sentence out loud or even walk properly, and im glad to find out that im not the only one, sometimes i can control it in public especially the formal interviews and that stuff, but i also read here between the replies guys in 40's and 50's are still having it , which freaked the sh*t out of me, so there's still no cure for this sh*t..
but the good news is.. it's a developing habit, and you can only break a habit with another habit (exactly like using chewing gums to stop smoking)
so here's what to do:
1- this sh*t habit doesnt go alone, it needs a deep cooperation and patient from your side
2-imaging yourself in the future with your kids , and your ticing infront of them ..its completely embarrassing
3-NEVER use drugs to stop it
4- since its a habit, try to stop it gradually, like try to stay still for a short period of time and see how long will you hold on
5- try to practice 1 daily activity without doing the tics, then increase the number of the activities (without doing the tics)
6-NEVER give up if you fail to maintain yourself (tic-free) for most of the time, if you give up , it could get worse .. remember its a habit and habit doesnt go away smoothly
at the end im still ticing but its waaaaay less than its used to be for the past 2 years.
and i know the fact that most of you all readers tried/will try the above mentioned points, and most of you will fail at the bigining, but seriously how could you expect to stop a 10+ years old habit in one day, week or even a month? its all about practice ..
i'll be reviewing this page monthly to see the updates because we need to sort this out together
thanks for sharing..

You are the closest to understanding this entire forum. tardive dyskinesia is what you should look up

I sound like im sneezing but im not an twitch only comes now an again but with a vengeance gets worse feel ashamed in front of people hoping they haven't heard me, Ruth.

I'm 38 and I have had this as long as I can remember. I can kinda control it when Iowa's working. I changed my tic to taping my leg. But since neck surgery it has come back worse. My dad had this tick and two of my daughters do too. I trued telling my personal physician about it a few times and since I'm so old he blew me off. But it's got to be genetic. Who knows but when no was on zanax it wasn't as bad. Now I'm off meds it's gotten bad again. I didn't take zanax for it I took it for sleep from neck pain.

Same here I've been doing it since I was 4 and people have asked me if I have Tourette's and it has been happening more (hence how I found this article because I'm 14 and use the internet) my teachers and other people have told me to stop. I personally since a teacher is concerned am going to see a doctor soon about mine

Hi, does medicane really help get rid of tics as I had it for a year now and it happends mostly in school or when I'm sitting down like at a restaurant. When I'm sitting it haooends since I have to look up and also it has gotten worse as I am in my first week of school and over sunner it was decent but now my hands feel shaky and I think I have bad anxiety but I'm not sure and I would like to go to the doctors but I haven't even told anyone about any problems I feel because I'm 17 and this is my last year in high school but I just don't know how I'm supposed to survive the year like this and be social and engage in classes :( it's ruining my life

My mate has developed twitching over a few months ago. He can not spend 20 minutes without twitching. What could it be?

It’s related to Neurodiversity. You could be on the spectrum or have ADHD.