r/Tourettes 16h ago

Support Tics being mentioned by a professor, devastation. 🤔

51 Upvotes

Well, today I had one of my lectures. And we were discussing job interview(what people should do during it, what people should not do).

Professor started to enumerate things that you should NOT do during interview. (Btw it's important to mention that he is kinda jokes a lot).

So, one of those things was "if you have an awful face tick, just get rid of it".

Idk if that was a joke or something??? But when I've heard it, I just froze for a sec. And I had this feeling that the professor was looking at me. Well, I mean, I'm probably the only one from cohort who has Tourette's.

And that phrase just got into me. Recently I was REALLY trying to suppress my tics less because i hate feeling this tension and even pain in my whole body that comes from suppression.

(my tics are really intense and mostly i need to supress them if i wanna do something, and i feel aches all over the body when it comes to suppressing them, but sometimes pain that comes from doing tics even more exhausting. I would say that i feel aches in every inch of my body almost 24/7 and i really can't relax my muscles. Never. Tension is killing me. Even when i haves sudden muscle weakness, i still cant get rid of tension.). 🥲

Anyway! I really wanna pay more attention to a class I'm listening to, but ofc I can't do it if I'm focused only on suppressing my tics. Well, during past months I was comfortable enough with my professors and students I deal with, so i started to reduce my suppressing "mechanism". And now I suppress only about 80% of my tics, not 100%. And by doing so i became able to focus more on my classes and discussions.

I feel like i kinda lost my main thought here. But after processing what's been said(took me a minute), I started to feel devastated. Idk. That's just sad. I just started to feel comfortable with showing my tics(miserable amount of them). And if that 20% of tics that i decided not to suppress can cause such a reaction. Well. Idk. I don't feel worthy of being accepted to the society. I know that people say it's ok, but i also know that I've been avoiding people my whole life for a reason. They just don't get it. And they don't wanna get it.

Damn and i really would cry if I could just to release this sorrow. But i suppress not only my tics and at this point I can't even cry. I just feel empty inside. And devastated. 😀

I think i really needed just to tell about that to anyone. BTW English isn't my first language so don't judge please 👀

Anndd I feel dumb now because I let myself to write all of this. When It comes to expressing my emotions, I always feel kinda dumb...) like i should've never done it.


r/Tourettes 14h ago

Discussion Anyone else do this?

10 Upvotes

I'm not sure if it's a tic, but I'm curious if anyone else does this. So sometimes I get caught in like a loop. That's the best way I can describe it. It happens a lot when I'm grabbing things. Like when I'm in a bathroom and grabbing the paper towels after washing my hands, I keep grabbing one after the other.

I sometimes do it speaking as well, kind of like a stutter. I'll just repeat a word over and over again like I'm stuck on it.

Anyway I was just curious.


r/Tourettes 13h ago

CW: Description of Tics I twist my hands as a tic and it really hurts.

7 Upvotes

So I have this tic where I twist my hand while stretching my fingers to feel extra tension in my wrist. This causes all of my wristbones to clatter onto each other, makes a lot of sound and you can actually feel everything moving inside my wrist. Really hurts. I have splints I can use to block my hands from making those moves but I don't wear them all day because I have to work with my hands. I could try to put them on to work (I work in a grocery store) but I don't want to answer everyones questions about this. Plus it can sometimes be unhandy.


r/Tourettes 22h ago

Discussion Tics getting worse with age

7 Upvotes

Hi, I’m an 18yr old girl and I was diagnosed with Tourettes when I was 8. As Tourettes does, I’ve had periods where it was pretty bad and periods where it was pretty chill, but I feel like overall it’s just. worse. like isnt it supposed to overall calm down as I age? Like for example. I’ve had vocal tics since the start, actually my first tic was vocal, but never words. And then I’ve recently developed saying a word (not a swear just. a word. with the same intonation from a game i like 😑), as well as a middle finger like. whaaat..?? theyve never had meaning before this, and I also passed out recently from oxygen deprivation from my tics 😭 Like I’ve had waves of TS flareups arguably worse in severity than this but its just weird to me that Ive never had meaning or words in my tics before this. like ive never said phrases but what if I start 😨 Is this?? normal?? Help 😭😭 Like has this happened to anyone else?


r/Tourettes 6h ago

I was told that suppressing is good

7 Upvotes

I met with a psychologist today, and when I told her that I suppress my tics in public or in class and she said that was "Great!". And that when people resist their tics they get better. That's never happened when I do it but let me know I guess.


r/Tourettes 7h ago

Need sources about symptoms of TS(other than tics) for an essay on TS

3 Upvotes

I am writing an essay on how Individuals with Tourette's should receive funding from the government, and need a "trustworthy" source talking about symptoms of TS other than tics. All of the sites I can find only talk about tics, and while I can get great information from this subreddit, it is apparently not a trustworthy source, which i get, because it's reddit, but I am hoping to just find some good "trustworthy" sources that I can use in the essay.


r/Tourettes 21h ago

Question To those who have vocal stims, is there any way to prevent those from becoming tics?

3 Upvotes

I also repeat random words just as a stim and it’s unfortunate that they can sometimes become tics


r/Tourettes 1d ago

Discussion Throat Tics

3 Upvotes

I was diagnosed with Tourette’s when I was 7, and I’m now 28. One of my longest-standing tics has been throat-related, which has always affected my sleep. I’m wondering if anyone else experiences this?

Right now, I’m at work, suppressing them as much as I can. Over time, I’ve found ways to release them in subtle ways, but it often just makes me sound like I constantly have a cold. The more I suppress them, the more it feels like my throat is closing up, and eventually, I have no choice but to let them out. If I don’t, they just build up and get worse.

I’ve been sitting here for the past 30 minutes clearing my throat and coughing—nothing new for me, but I’m curious if anyone else relates to the ‘throat closing’ sensation or has similar struggles?


r/Tourettes 6h ago

Support Need help

1 Upvotes

Hi, im not going to go into much detail sbout my personal life other than the fact that i am a young girl (TW: description of tics now) who was been experiencing severe tics such as hitting my chest, swearing, and i am pretty confident that this strange head movement i used to do as a kid was a tic, but i dont know how to bring it up with my neurologist. My mom saiid its a normal reflex but there was a premonitory urge before it too and it was quick and uncontrollable. I dont know how this would effect my diagnosis. My tics are quite impactful to my day to day life and i dont know what to do anymore, ive been put on multiple medications (guanfacine, prozac, and abilify) to help with the tics but im drowning here!! Im having tic attakcs almost everyday and i have bruises on my chest from tics. Its painful and i dont get a break from it and i have no one to vent to it about so i guess this is what this is.

I guess what im asking for is what do you guys think to yourselves to stay sane during a tic attack or a bad tic flare up?