Possible Causes

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.

Since I managed to conquer this condition, I have the unique perspective of looking back and analyzing myself as a kid. I have by and large eliminated the suspicion of a viral infection and I’ve definitely discarded the transference idea. So what else could it be? Some physical trauma? Sure, I’ve had a bunch of those – which 9-year-old doesn’t? But nothing out of the ordinary. Nah.

At length, I took a different view.

I asked myself what I could compare my experience with Tourettes to. One of the first things that occurred to me while I was still really young – maybe 12 or 13 – that these nervous tics are not unlike spontaneous laughter…!

If you have an active funny bone, did you ever try to resist laughing at something you consider utterly hilarious? If you’re like most people, you may find this kind of derisive laughter extremely difficult – if not impossible – to control. And that’s a pretty close analogy to what Tourettes feels like – except it’s not quite that funny.

Another similarity is sneezing. If you’ve got a sneeze coming on, boy is that hard to stop! And if you ever had a sneezing fit, you know there’s nothing much you can do about it until it’s passed. Or hiccoughs. Similar thing.

Well, these nervous tics are a lot like that. They’re involuntary and extremely compelling. But to say that they’re a psychological condition would be like saying that laughing or sneezing are psychological conditions! Sure, they have a psychological “component”, but they’re PHYSICAL.

For the purpose of this informational website, I don’t think it’s necessary for me to discover the real roots of this condition. Let’s leave that as a mystery.

What matters here is that it CAN be treated – or rather: it can be SELF-treated.

The only external support that’s really needed is understanding of the mechanisms and setting the correct goals for yourself. Rolling with it instead of opposing it.

Would I rule out meds or drugs?

Absolutely. Until there’s proof POSITIVE and the root cause is known, taking – and prescribing – drugs is IRRESPONSIBLE.

Anything natural – as long as it is generally good for the body and helps restore the general physical balance. Sure. Why not. But Tourettes can be beat by the MIND. Just like when people learn to control their heart-rates, Tourettes sufferers can learn to control their tics.

The end-effect is the same as a cure. If you look at me today, you’d probably never know that I was once a raving, shaking, ticking maniac. So, while we should continue looking into this and trying to discover any psycho-somatic root causes, our focus now needs to be on just plain-old getting better – and never mind the theories!

A Theory

If you push me to theorize (and it won’t take too much pushing), then the underlying cause is actually pretty clear to me. It’s ELECTRICAL. I think of it as stray charges firing off here and there on the “grid”.

When you go to your GP, they sometimes bang your knee with a little rubber hammer, right? And then your leg gives a mighty, involuntary kick. That’s your nervous system – the electric grid – that’s transmitting signals.

When a person suffers from Tourettes, it’s probably the same as saying that they’ve got a power leakage somewhere. Or an over-charged battery. Whatever.

What this implies is that anything which either (a) utilizes that extra energy or (b) discharges it – is going to help relieve the symptoms. This is why Tae Kwon Do was such a God-sent to me and why I was so unusually fast. This is why it is possible to control this thing with your brain – electrical impulses! You just need to learn how to operate your grid!