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Show me another »Do I have Turret's Syndrome? (Doctors Please)?
All my life I have had both physical and verbal ticks which bother both me and those around me. It started when i was very very young, about 4 or 5, with throat clearing. I was constantly clearing my throat, and if I tried to stop, I would get a kind of tightness is my throat and feel very distraught.It moved on to a sort of ticking noise I made with my nose by closing the opening between my nasal areas and my throat then releasing the tension while breathing out. It was very loud and I did it often.
Over time it has escalated to quite a few very dramatic ticks, such as:
Clearing my throat
exhaling quickly and sharply
my hands twitching and flexing sharply (not just my hands, also my legs and neck and arms, but mostly my hands)
Blinking hard and profusely for up to 2 minutes at a time, like a spasm, which I cant seem to control.
Breathing out harshly and occasionally whimpering or even crying out softly.I have noticed that when i am happy and relaxed, such as when i am having a conversation with a very good friend or when i am just drifting off to sleep, I don't have any spasms, or at least very few. But when i am upset, such as if my parents have yelled at me or I am nervous or I have just gotten in a fight with a friend, I make them very much, and very strongly.
Also, it seems that when I try to go through something in my head (talk with my parents, opening night for my play, talking with a crush), I make them a lot too.
As for how voluntary and involuntary these spasms are... I do not have much control. i can generally tell when I am about to have one of my hand or eye spasms and I am AWARE of the fact that I have all of these ticks and often know they are going on (except for the breathing ticks, those I often don't recognize until someone points them out). When it comes to the physical twitches, it almost seems like I have the ability to stop, but I just can't muster up the willpower to because if i stop I will feel an even stronger need to twitch and jerk.
I can't say i get any sort of pleasure out of these twitches, but if the urge comes on and I try to resist, i become upset, distraught, and the place which wants to be active feels tight and tense, and sometimes I can even get so upset as to want to cry.
Please, any help, any at all, with my issues would be so appreciated! I am veryembarrassedd by these,becausee I can't explain them, they are annoying to me and others, and some people actually think that I do these things on purposee.
So please, could anybody tell me if I might have Turret's Syndrome? And if you think I do, how exactly should I get it check outprofessionallyy?
If it helps, I am 15, about to turn 16, and as I said my first memories of having these ticks are at ages 4-5.
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
There are 2 types of tics. One is Simple tics, such as eye blinking, and the other one is Tourette Syndrome. Tourette Syndrome is made of multiple motor tics (brief, intermittent, repetitive, nonrhythmic, unpredictable movements), and/or vocal tics (such as sniffing, snorting, involuntary vocalization). Some people, which very rare can also have Coprolalia (compulsive utterance of obscenities). All these tics may be associated with OCD, ADHD or mood disorders. They worsen with stress and go away during sleep. Based on what you said, it does sound like you have Tourette syndrome. I would recommend that you see a psychiatrist. There are many medications that are very helpful in controlling these tics, even for children.
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- Thank you so much! I really appreciate the extra information on Tourettes and tics, so thank you very much!
