I have Tourettes Syndrome (TS) which is a disorder in the brain. I causes involuntary tics such as facial twitching, and in some of the more severe cases, screaming or "yelping" out loud. It can run in families (we think my mom has it). For me, my worst tics are head twitching, working my throat muscles, or eye blinking. I also used to make a little noise with my throat. In most cases, the tics improve as you get older.

I am not pissed about having TS. What I am pissed about is when I tell people what I have and they ask me if I swear out loud. The people who have TS who swear out loud are the very rare and very severe cases. I just went to a camp full of kids who have TS and I didnt meet a single one whose tics involve swearing.

I wish people would take time to learn about this disorder instead of getting their information about it from South Park.

Heres a link if you want to know more about it.
http://www.ninds.n...etail_tourette.htm

People are lazy. People who have Tourettes are always portrayed as the swearing, twitching, screaming type. They've no motivation, until meeting someone like you, to look into it further.

Thankyou for understanding! My tics really don't interfere much with daily life(or exploring for that matter!). When I was younger, I used to be HORRIBLY embarrased by it. Now if someone asks about it, I tell them the truth. If I could have chosen not to be born with TS, I wouldn't have. Its just who I am. Btw, do you know anyone who has it?

No, I don't. I just know people are mean and stupid.

Posted by SaraBellum People are lazy. People who have Tourettes are always portrayed as the swearing, twitching, screaming type. They've no motivation, until meeting someone like you, to look into it further.

That's how I am in everyday conversation.

Hmmm funny this comes up. While I was never diagnosed with Tourettes, I used to have a head twitch so bad it would move my whole upper body. Kids in school dubbed me "twitch" because of it (horribly embarrassing, yes). Back then I thought it was just another effect of my ADHD. Now I think it was an effect brought on by the ridiculous amounts of Ritalin they had me eating from 1st grade to 8th. There was also a time period where I would make noises in my throat and scrunch my face up really tight.. It was so bad that just talking about it now brings back painful memories. Man kids were cruel.

Anyway, around high school I started smoking huge amounts of pot.. I also refused to keep taking that evil Ritalin.... And the tics and involuntary behaviors just kinda slowly faded away.... I dunno if one single thing helped or a combination of all of them, I'm just glad it stopped.

To this day though I still have some obsessive compulsive behaviors I believe stem from the original disorder. Certain hand movements and such. Mostly just the need to touch things with odd textures, LOL. It's hard to describe.. it's like you just don't feel right unless you do a certain thing... an extreme craving you just have to satisfy... Luckily none of these behaviors interfere with my life anymore.. They just make me look like a weirdo when I start rubbing and squeezing random objects. ;-p

Posted by ActionSatisfaction Esq. Anyway, around high school I started smoking huge amounts of pot.. I also refused to keep taking that evil Ritalin.... And the tics and involuntary behaviors just kinda slowly faded away.... I dunno if one single thing helped or a combination of all of them, I'm just glad it stopped.

Actually, in most cases, the symptoms of Tourettes seem to diminish with age. I'm 16 and not as bad as I used to be.

To this day though I still have some obsessive compulsive behaviors I believe stem from the original disorder. Certain hand movements and such. Mostly just the need to touch things with odd textures, LOL. It's hard to describe.. it's like you just don't feel right unless you do a certain thing... an extreme craving you just have to satisfy... Luckily none of these behaviors interfere with my life anymore.. They just make me look like a weirdo when I start rubbing and squeezing random objects. ;-p

Lol. I have that same thing. Wouldn't call the urge 'extreme' but when I'm in a clothing store, I feel the urge to touch everything. I know what your talking about.

Posted by SaraBellum I just know people are mean and stupid.

Fuck you, too.






Yeah, it must suck for that to be most people's first thought when you tell them.

The usual swearing depiction of people with TS is extremely insensitive, but it truly does lead to some excellent comedic situations. Just think of all of the times when something is funnier simply because you know that you cannot laugh out loud. The first sentence I saw when I went to Wikipedia for "Comedy" is "Much comedy contains variations on the elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations." All of which can be exquisitely matched with coprolalia (the spontaneous utterance of socially objectionable or taboo words or phrases).

So, I guess what I'm saying is.... Please don't take away our fun, cuz that shit is funny.



On a similar note, it drives me fucking nuts how people think Schizophrenia means Dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder). Not really related to TS, but it is a commonly recurring misconception.

I had some small compulsive behaviors when I was a teen that simply went away as I got older. I too, used to scrunch my face up, hit my ankles together every so many steps while walking "stupid habits" as my parents called it.

Kind of like how the older brother on "everybody loves raymond" has to hit the spoon to his chin before putting the food into his mouth!

My friend, however, does have the compulsive swearing part of TS. We're all adults now and sometimes we laugh our asses off when he does it; and he laughs along with us. But when we were kids, it was different. That poor guy was tormented all through school.

We are taking our son to see if he has a mild form of TS. He yelps outloud but not often, he doesnt tick, he more or less just make noises and has social behaviours that look like TS. There has never ever been any swearing. I have met a couple others with TS and the only reason they swear is because they want to, not because of the TS. The only thing they had was mild ticks. I think it is very narrow minded to think people with TS swear, I wish people would educate themselves before asking a question. They might get there answer that way instead of asking stupid questions.