My 12 year old son has tourrettes. When he was in daycare before elementary school the teachers asked us if there was a history of this in our family which there isn't as far back as we can find. At that time we saw no visible signs of the syndrome at all. It's important to note that most people are diognosed with this in their adolescent years and it is most common in males. As if becoming a teen wasn't difficult enough right?! My son is now 12 and has for several years progressively moved from having one tick to another to combining some of them but rarely is he calm and still, without his ticks. It used to drive us crazy - the throat clearing, the eye squints, the sniffles, the body twithces, the bending of the neck in obscure stretches, the rotating of the shoulders as if his body is stiff and he's trying to loosen is muscles. The list goes on. If we point it out, he will take a deep breath and relax for a few minutes but can only do that if he maintains concentration on the ticks themselves. We have learned to accept it rather than make him more self concious than he already is. I wanted to refere to your little brother having itchiness 'under the skin' and twitching. Be very careful with having him misdiognosed or being too ready to agree that it must be tourettes. I have two friends oddly enough who after years of fighting with doctors, allergists, and specialists, brought their children to Homeopaths and found out that one of them actually had an internal parasite - not tapeworm or anything that prominent, but there are other microsopic parasites that as humans we can live with and do, without any problems. BUT some people, mostly children can end up with ticks, restlessness, itchiness, itchy nose syndrome, and all kinds of other signs that are often the parallel symptoms for other more easily diagnosed illnesses like tourettes. The other friend who's daughter suffered similar problems and complained constantly about being 'itchy inside' ended up having a rare allergy to specific food additives, preservatives, and colourings. Allergists don't commonly test for the chemical additives to foods because this is not so much a common problem. But knowing someone who's child has found some relief from it - and it took a lot of hard work narrowing down food categories, times of day that she was eating specific foods, keping lists to find similarities, contacting food companies for ingredient information, common ingredients in foods for example processed meats contain nitrates. Often doctors will dismiss these concerns because of the rarity of them or their own unfamiliar experience with them. Oddly enough - both friends' children were diognosed by a homepath. There's something to be said for good natural medecine and diognosis I guess. You might have to be extremely perseverent. It won't be an easy road getting medical professionals to admit or aknowledge this could be a seriously uphill battle for you. Good luck.
Of course you wouldn't want to leave your boyfriends if they are good people. Tourette's is not contagious or completely debilitating - most people who have it live happy, functional and otherwise normal lives just like everyone else. Please seek help through local or national associations for Tourettes. Many of them have local chapters that meet regularily, have wonderful people who lecture, or provide information or talks on it, and it is a great place to find more info and be able to share with others about how to live with Tourettes, how to be a loving friend to someone with Tourettes and how to deal with these nervous tics and sometimes awkward behaviours. I am including a few web links that might be able to provide you some direction on finding local groups or at the very least some more informtaion. And please, by all means, continue to love and enjoy your partners as you have been. The ne thing that almost all Tourettes people agree on is that they don't want to be singled out and need people around them whothey are comfortable with and who care about them regardless of them having Tourettes.
http://www.tsa-usa.org/
http://www.tourette.ca/
http://www.hopepress.com/html/resources.html#tourette
http://www.ability.org/tourette.html
Best of luck,
~C
the Canadian Phoenix
I actually think it would be nice to know if I do have it, as I could explain to people that I have it. I know they see my episodes, but no one has ever said anything about it. My wife tries, I think, by saying things like "Sometimes I have to redo something repeatedly if I don't do it the same way I usually do, do you do that?" Problem is, I DO! I have many little routines that I MUST follow, or I will start over.
So given all of this, can anyone tell me if there are any other explanations to this? Oh yeah, I forgot, my actions grow stronger if I have caffiene in my system. I think at least.
Anything anyone can offer on this, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much,
d
We have taken her to many doctors and specialists. Childrens Memorial Hospital in Chicago didn't see anything wrong either. One doctor suggested that she see a psychiatrist and that it was just all in her mind. We did and it helped for a short period of time ( 3 months). My daughter says that she feels the back of her throat itching and that is why she coughs. I just came back and her pediatrician suggested we now see an allergist. She has taken allergy medication and that hasn't helped. I have heard of turrett before and was thinking that this might be a symptom. Is it? Has anyone ever come across something like this? I am desperate to find out what, if anything, will help my daughter. Her cough is loud and seal-like. It is distracting in her class as well as every where she goes. Please help.
good luck,
-matt
I have, for two years experienced neck twitches, and a general grunting/throat clearing, finger twitches and just the general need to spontaneously move random muscles.
Please feel free to tell people about your tourettes, and argue me if you feel that I am wrong, but before I twitch it is almost like a mounting pressure in the area and it builds and builds until you release it by moving that muscle.
There are also cases where certain medicines/chemicals have caused a severe attack of these tics and twitches. So I believe there might be a chemical aspect involved.
I have however managed to manifest this syndrome in a positive way and have turned it into being a neat freak when typing on the keyboard.
yes...both of them.
anyways, when i was younger i did 'involutary' movements. ex: eye blinking, face stuff, smelling hands, rolling eyes ect..
now its better because i know when im doing it, but i still do it sometimes(more when im under stress). Its not O.C.D because O.C.D people feel that if they dont do there ''ticks'' or movements that something bad will happen.
If I dont do them, i just feel really stressed out and cant forget about it until i do it. No, i dont yell out cuss word, or even words. Sometimes i do this thing with my mouth, and recently i cant stop biting off my tast buds..it really hurts. Anyways, if you think you have turrets i hope this helped. Over all i have about 30 different tics, but i cant name them all. IF you think your child has it, maybe they do. In boys, normally, it makes them REALLY hyper. However, if a girl has it(like me) we dont tend to be hyper hyper, but Daydream...a lot. But like i said, when i was little I had NO idea i was doing it, so how could i stop? even if i did know when i was doing it I couldnt stop. But go with intuition, i was mis-dyignosed 2 times and just a year ago found out i had A.D.D.
but dont freak! Almost no one knows i have turrets unless i tell them or they know what to look for. Right now im on meds. to help with the A.D.D.
but frommm...6th-10th grade i didnt take any at all. And i dont regret having turrets, its really made me a better person.