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Beating Tourettes For Good

Posted by PS on Nov 22, 2012 in Curing Tourettes | 5 comments

I have decided to create this site after watching a re-run of Channel 4’s program “The Town That Caught Tourettes”.

My reason for doing this is simple: I’ve had this condition since I was about 9 years old – and I have, by and large, managed to conquer it. It took some years, lots of deep frustration, trial and error, confusion and discomfort to be sure. But it was also a journey of self-discovery.

Analyzing The Town That Caught Tourettes

Posted by PS on Nov 22, 2012 in Curing Tourettes | 18 comments

The documentary “The Town That Caught Tourettes” did its job of alerting people to this condition, and it also reached out to people like me, who’ve had first-hand experience with it. So, as far as that was concerned, I liked it.

But I’m not sure how much I liked some of the other stuff in it. The title for one thing. I realize they didn’t literally mean that Tourettes can be “caught” and only used that title to point out the unusual clusters in which it was recently discovered. But it was somewhat misleading.

A Case Study – My Own

Posted by PS on Nov 22, 2012 in Curing Tourettes | 5 comments

Tour… What?

I didn’t know my condition under the name of “Tourette’s Syndrome” until I was about 40 or so. I always referred to it as “nervous tics”. When I was first afflicted by it at the age of around 9 in the late 1960’s, none of my doctors called it “Tourettes”. In fact, they just plain didn’t know what the heck it was. Most agreed that it was some kind of a “neurosis” (huh?) but since I also had a mild chronic case of rheumatism, they opined that it was a “neurosis with a rheumatic background.” Most doctors, though not all, were of the opinion – in all their wisdom – that I was faking it, or that it was a bad habit and/or attention seeking on my part! Bless their charity. Those goddamned tic-faking kids!

Possible Causes

Posted by PS on Nov 22, 2012 in Curing Tourettes | 1 comment

I’ve pondered the possible causes of “my” Tourettes for years. As a child I even invented some “causes” and – strangely – my half-assed theories were very much in line with the “transference” idea. I looked for “traumatic” events in my recent life and then tried to make them responsible for the sudden onset of my symptoms. But at least I knew that it was baloney. Nothing even remotely traumatic happened to me, and what little there did, happens to everyone all the time.

The one thing that – also as a child – I considered to be a possibility was a throat infection I had some time before Tourettes hit. Today, I haven’t entirely dismissed that theory, but it doesn’t convince me either.

In fact, I’m more inclined to think that Tourettes is closer to OCD than anything else. Only problem is that we’d then have explain OCD – and the other problem is that OCD is actually quite curable with psycho-therapy, while Tourettes doesn’t seem to yield to any conventional treatments, psychological or pharmacological.

Tourettes Dos and Donts

Posted by PS on Nov 22, 2012 in Curing Tourettes | 8 comments

Advice for the persons suffering from Tourettes

DON’T…

• Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Feeling sorry for yourself will weaken your resolve and will misdirect your energy to blaming the whole world for your troubles rather than trying to get a grip.
• Don’t avoid people. Their unintended pressure for you to “conform” will provide a VITAL boost to you. Just don’t take their “rejection” personally. Go to school or to work – whatever applies.
• Put yourself in positions where people stare at you and even mock you. Don’t worry. It will make you much stronger and will build your self-confidence.