Tics question

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Tics, twitches, spasms, whatever you want to call them. A physical manifestation of our condition, which we usually can't control.

Anyway, I just want to see if this is entirely down to me or is actually characteristic - lately I've been, well, slapping myself in the face. I can't entirely help it, although recently I've been able to stop it just occasionally. It's like any other twitch that I have that I can't control, it feels the same way - but is this actually because of Asperger's or is there something else going on?

I have AS and also have some vocal and physical tics. They are not quite frequent enough for a diagnosis of Tourette's though.

According to what I have read and to my Neuro-behavioural specialist, tics can occur with AS.

And tics generally get worse with stress, so perhaps this could be why you are slapping yourself in the face at the moment?

If your tics are getting really persistent, it might be worth contacting a medical professional.

Come to think of it, they have been less frequent recently and I've been under less pressure. Plus the fact I can control them more correlates.

i know i am nervous when i get ticks in my right eye. they are quite unpleasant. i've got them more often in last two years when i've been under pressure more than usual...

I enjoy several physical and verbal tics but mostly only when I am excited -- and alone (or in public but don't think people are paying attention to me).

Mostly the verbal tics are almost like growling noises coming out through closed lips, growls are usually followed by wimpers as I'm trying to calm myself down. When I'm home alone I sometimes have logical vocal outbursts, but I don't know if that's a tic or something I'm doing just because I'm lonely -- but I guess considering that it just happens and I didn't realize it was going to happen until It happened, that makes it a tic.

Physically, I slap my face rapidly (but rather lightly) occasionally when happy (and again, alone). Uhm. Unfortunately. In public. I've been found to be slapping my butt. But that stopped a while ago...

I don't really know why I get 99.9% of my tics when nobody would notice them, but I guess I should be thankful. It's like my family and friends turn around and are like "But you are so normal seeming" but the simple fact is that they aren't around me all the time. *shrug*

Yes! The rapid face ones when happy! Absolutely I do that too. I just find that the less pleasant one is slapping myself once really hard

This has basically just confirmed that it is in fact a symptom, so I can just continue to try and work on it. Good to know.

I have got Tourette syndrome as well as AS so I know how annoying tics can be. Depending on your age, how frequent the tics are, how many and whether you get regular motor and vocal tics... you know I don't know where I am going with that...

If it is causing you enough distress, you need to see a specialist, preferabally someone who is specalised in neurological conditions. In most cases doctors and psychiatrists can be REALLY useless. I slap my face, bum and punch myself in the chest and it hurts...

I was diagnosed with Tourette's as a kid, and I found that the symptoms decreased drastically as soon as I began using drugs and drinking. The thing is that when you are around people who're ret*d out of their skulls all the time, you don't stick out so much, plus they alleviate anxiety in general. NOT saying this is the way to go or anything, just that I think that most of my tics resulted from stress.

This dovetails with the concept of Somatic Experiencing of emotions.

We are either unable or not allowed (or a combination of the two), to express emotions, our right brain products, our life preserving instincts and intuitions, in a fashion similar to those around us.

This stress can become manifest in different ways through the body. I may have mentioned before that my neck will seize up so badly that I can't turn it at all, this being preceded by a "pop" and a feeling of hot liquid acid flooding the base of my neck. I used to get headaches all the time, frustrated rages, broke stuff, there was more hole than wall in my room, bedwetting, loss of appetite which came back when I was alone.

So, it wasn't just "tics" I was dealing with, the problems were much more fundamental.

I actually think that these stims (I use that interchangably with tics now) help us greatly, and while I used to be ashamed of them and was sure they were a sign of mental illness, I realize now they might be our greatest strengths.

The more I talk to (and believe it or not, I mostly listen here) people on WP the more I realize that these "narrow interests" are not such at all. In fact, by immersing ourselves in our interests, by giving in to them totally, we are actually studying ourselves.

By focusing on psychology, psychometrics, women, economics and political theory for most of my waking hours I have finally been able to stick it all together into a cohesive whole. Yeah, this house I've built still has gaps in the walls, it's a bit drafty, yard needs some grass planted, but it has a roof, its warm inside, and most of all its a place in which I can finally relax and put my feet up, even if its on a coffee table made from an old cable spool that followed me home from a construction site. IT'S MINE.

Slapping is an awesome stim. When I exercise, I need loud uptempo music with a great bass lick (I LOVE bassy music and good drumming! RHCP, Primus, RZA, Beck, etc.) and sometimes I like to methodically slap the parts of my body I want to exercise.

It gets the adrenaline going and releases your body's natural opiates. It seems we get pleasure from pain, and this is okay, as long as there is no damage to yourself. Kurtz's law - do what makes you feel good up to and until it harms another person.

So, when I slap at my arms, chest and stomach like a UFC fighter does before going into the ring, what it does is make me hyperaware of how my body feels, and beats any warmup you can name.

Yeah, I get ticks or, more specifically, twitches that are like mini convulsions. I used to have seizures quite a lot, but they have abated over the past six years; the tics/twitches are still with me though. I've noticed that I can't control them very well, but they do seem to appear more often when my level of stress/anxiety is on the rise.

I've always moved. I've always had repetitive movements my whole life. At first I thought I was completely in control of them. Then, people told me I was doing my "air flute" playing when I didn't even realize I was doing it. That was a shock. The past few years I've been getting little spasms or something at night when I'm trying to sleep, which shock me awake. Or, if I try to suppress them, the feeling builds up inside of me until I go crazy. I call it bugs. I tell my husband "make the bugs go away", and he'll rock me in bed, or quickly rubs his hands all over my body. That makes it go away, that feeling that I need to move.

But this morning, EARLY this morning, it went too far. It's happening in my sleep! Now that's just really not fair. I woke up at 5am this morning to every muscle in my right arm burning with pain. As I slowly came out of sleep, I realized that my arm kept going into full spasm/convulsions. I kept hoping it would stop, and the pain would go down, and I could go back to sleep, but now it's almost 8am, so clearly sleep won't be coming again this morning. I put some of Leanne's wonderful sore muscle cream on my arm, and after ten or fifteen minutes it felt better. But then, since I was forcing my arm still, the bugs really built up!

In the three years I've known I have Asperger Syndrome, I thought these movements were what they call "stims", short for self-stimulating behavior. But in the past week, since I'm coming out of denial, I've been trying to learn more about myself. And the more I read about stims, I've learned that sometimes that description doesn't apply. I do stim, apparently, but most of what I thought were stims were this other spasming thing. I was even wondering earlier this week if it was simple partial seizures, since sometimes my arm and my foot on the same side of my body will move at the exact same time.

Anyway, I never understood the term "stimulating", since my movements were to get the bugs out, to get rid of the extra stimulation that was lurking in my body. I never figured it out until this morning. All my life, I thought I was making it all up, or just moving for fun, but doing it in my sleep, and until my arm is killer sore -- well, that means it's real and I need to stop denying it as well.

So, after looking on the internet a bit, this sounds like the exact definition of tics. Guess I just needed to talk about it this morning.