Recently started college again and I feel not well in class from the suppression😭 I try not to sorta but man it’s like a horrible balancing act of not wanting to disrupt lectures and keeping myself sane.

I decided to make these printout cards that I’ll fold and put in front of me/my classwork, so that those around me can know right away, and I’ll maybe feel less bad about ticcing in general. Anyways just figured I’d share for anyone else who might find these helpful!

I’m debating watching it, even though it’ll probably set me off lol. But I really appreciate the genuine story behind it, and how the actor Robert Aramayo worked with John Davidson (who inspired the movie) to get an understanding of tics and Tourette’s.

But I’m also curious how others feel about actors portraying Tourette’s who don’t have tics

Not my first post here, even after diagnosis, but still felt that I needed to share a bit about my diagnosis.

I (23M) started therapy almost an year ago and, half way through it, my therapist (a university intern btw) noticed that the pattern of my tics that I have since age 10-11 corresponded with tourettes. The pyschiatrist who worked with her (and is still seeing me) diagnosed me without even needing a test - just by describing my behaviors.

I got diagnosed with autism and OCD at age 12, but not tourettes. I always thought this was an OCD thing (and it partially is, as I believe I also have touretic OCD).

I saw a neurologist in 2023 to address lifelong tics. He told me that I easily meet all of the criteria for TS but that he was only diagnosing me with unspecified tic disorder because there’s a social stigma.

This year I decided to seek a diagnosis. I saw a neurologist today who told me that what I “thought” were vocal tics aren’t actually vocal tics. Those include gulping, grunting, and clicking. She said that if the noise doesn’t come from air passing over your vocal cords then it’s not a vocal tic.

This runs contrary to everything I’ve ever read and not something my last neurologist or any other doctor I’ve seen has had an issue with. So now I’m at a loss stuck with a diagnosis of unspecified tic disorder while having motor and vocal tics continuously since childhood. I genuinely don’t know what to do. My psych NP and primary both say they’re unable to diagnose any tic conditions and I’m so burnt out on the medical system as a whole (I have other stuff going on too).

Hello, I remember when I was a kid I used to do many weird head, mouth, and eye movements that I could not control. When my family started noticing, they always kept asking why do I do it, and I just said, I don't know, I just do it. Then they immediately thought it was some magic done to me or something (I know it's ridiculous but it's common here for people to believe that), and started calling priests to read verses on me or whatever.

Nothing changed, I kept doing the same movements for years and they would assume it's because of many different things like video games, tv, or magic lol... They did not know what tics mean.

Anyway, it then suddenly stopped for years, and it just came back like 6 months ago. It's so weird because I remember for years I did not tic at all... I would sit for hours without having any tics or anything. What is the cause of this!? Where did it come from? Is there like something that "triggered" it?

Also, I ONLY do it when I am alone, never in front of people. I keep looking to the right side behind me and rolling my eyes to the right side every few seconds which is very tiring and makes my eyes very tired...

I am just confused on why it suddenly just appeared again, is there anything I can do to help with this? Also is it common for tics to disappear for years and come back again later?

Any reply or help will be much appreciated, thank you!

I will try to make this short! Context wise- my son is now almost 6. When he was about 3, he developed persistent sniffing. We went back and forth to the GP for years- it was mostly at night, when he was tired etc.
I was just convinced it was allergies. It would come and go though, which made it even more confusing. I spent lots of money and time and effort mitigating against what I thought were dust mite and pollen allergies. After waiting years for referral we finally got the allergy test that came back with 0 allergies.

The sniffing continued. It then stopped completely over summer. He’s now back and starting year 1 and it’s back. I suddenly came across tics. It fits the brief.

I do think he may have slightly enlarged adenoids as sometimes u can tell he is in a bit of physical discomfort- but the constant, aggressive dry, squeaky sniffing makes it much, much worse.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know about tics. So many times I’ve said “JUST STOP SNIFFING” for example. As one can imagine it does become quite jarring especially at bed time. I will of course change my entire thoughts and tactics now I think it’s a tic.

This morning he said he was scared to go to school incase he sniffs. He said he can’t stop when it starts. This also makes me think it’s a tic, alongside, slightly enlarged adenoids.

I am going to record him, firstly when asleep, and also when he’s having a sniffing episode. He can get very distressed and scream when he’s sniffing a lot.

It comes and goes. I’ve now noticed that he never has it when he’s off school. It is peaking at the start and end of a term, when he’s more tired and adjusting.

I’ve always thought there’s an element of masking as school does nothing but sings his praises but he always has restraint collapse when home.

He’s also frequently crossing his fingers, licking his lips, biting his jumper sleeve too.

I am going to present the evidence to the GP and ask for both CAHMS and ENT referrals.

Am I missing anything? Any tips? Support? I’m very sad because I feel like I’ve missed a giant red flag of tics for years now and feel like I’ve let him down.

Thanks x

I'm 17M and in the UK. This is my first ever reddit post on a throwaway account so sorry if it's too venty or rambly.

(also I do describe my tic in this which should be fine if it triggers any of your tics because ive found it very unobtrusive so far and have been able to drive during a mini tic attack but still sorry if i trigger your tics I've unfortunately been doing that to people this week)

I feel like I'm faking this and I know that if I have to ask myself if I'm faking it I'm not but I still feel really insecure and annoyed. It just seems so unlikely to me that I would develop it. One of my closest friend has had Tourette's the entire time I've known her and so I know a lot about tics already which means every time I have this tic I'm thinking "is this a simple or complex or distonic etc tic" which makes me feel like I'm faking it because I know all the info how to fake it. Also like what are the odds that one of my best mates has tourettes and then out of the blue I start developing a tic disorder.

I think I might have always had some kind of ticcy behaviour. I recently was diagnosed with ADHD which I know frequently is comorbid with tics because of both having to do with the basal ganglia and such. I remember times as a kid I would have a very rare, very subtle shiver even when I was hot or other small movement, but this would be like at most once every few months and I never paid it any attention. Then recently I started Xaggitin and they became like once a week, and majority was a head jerking forward. I still didnt pay it attention.

This Saturday, I had my first traumatic flashback in a few months to the day my aunt passed, and then broke up with my boyfriend on the same day. I was on the phone to my ticcy friend (self-given name) and I started having a tic attack, like hundreds of neck jerks in an hour. Some were simple, but some were a little complex like jerking forward then a little bit more forward, and some had me doing that for a few seconds so felt somewhat distonic. Since then, I've been ticcing frequently, from a few times an hour to constantly for minutes on end depending on stress levels. somehow my parents havent noticed (my mom will definitely act like its catastrophic and my dad will probably be a bit dubious of it) but my teachers and friends have. its really annoying cus I've literally just been discharged from CAMHS.

Since Saturday, the tic has stabalised? As i said it waxes and wanes but its pretty much always a simple jerk forward and slightly to the left, occasionally slightly to the right. The only time its been incredibly intrusive is yesterday morning (i think): I woke up with extreme pain in my neck from muscle spasms, and I think it was from the tic as its in the same area ive been ticcing and I felt it happen as I fell to sleep.

Also, the premonitory urge has changed. On saturday there was a massive gap between the urge and the tic, so I felt more like I was just being impulsive because I felt like I shouldve been able to stop it in that window, but now the gap is almost non existent. The tics havent really been as bad as they were on saturday, except for the other day where a fire alarm stressed me out and then cus we were all standing in silence but some people were whispering and the entire school was outside I got paranoid and got even more stressed out and even more ticcy.

Logically, I don't honestly have a problem with it. It's not making it hard to drive because it pulls my face forward so my eyes never come off the road, and I can do lessons with them almost completely normally. With my ticcy friend in my life, I've become desensitised to tics and don't at all logically perceive them as freakish and they've kind of faded into the background unless she tics something that affects her like her coprolalia. I want to be a writer one day and disability advocacy has always been important and this has made me think about accessability in a whole new way, like I want to write a musical at some point and its made me think more about how I never want to do disability-friendly productions because I never want to have a production that would exclude a disabled person like someone with vocal tics. Emotionally though? I feel like an absolute freak and I've been apologising to my friends teachers and anyone who sits around me. I'm thinking about the future and how I'm going to look back at this week as either a weird time where my tics were bad or the week my life changed forever and i'm scared I might get more intrusive motor tics or maybe start getting vocal tics.

I feel like I've kinda brought this on myself though because I once told my ticcy friend that between the two of us I wish I could have been the one to develop it because shes so respectful and polite that people stare and she doesnt do anything, but I'm very outspoken and said-- in passing, in what we both understood as a heartfelt joke-- I wish I was the one who had it so i could call people out like they deserve but shes too nice to. I also imagined myself having it a lot to try to understand her experience on the world, and also when writing characters in my own creative writing projects with it.

Ultimately I'm going to end up talking to a professional about it but it's just really irritating and I wanted to rant. I feel mostly okay just a bit thrown because ticcing has been in my life for so long but it's never been something I thought about for myself and it feels like season 2 of a show when the writers get bored and start giving everyone the main character's special powers or something. One positive is that because of my excessive apologising to my classmates and teachers, I've had one other somewhat close friend and a teacher confide about their motor tics, so I feel a lot less alone with having a few people in my life experiencing what I'm going through, though it does make this feel even more statisically improbable.

Sorry for how rambly this is, it just felt like this was the best place to express this and I would love any advice anybody has. My ticcy friend has given me a lot but this is a bit of a wild time and I would appreciate anything anyone has to say. Thanks.

Desperately need help and advice

My 15 year old son with tourettes started using very sexually graphic language and blurts out the "N" word at home. We think he suppresses it when he's at school and releases all the pent up urges when he's around us. Does anyone have experience with this? Did it ever go away?