Tic sensory issue

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At the moment my tics are more severe, because I'm in stress.

Usually I'm able to tic somewere in private. But yesterday I sat in a lectuare and sensed a tic comming up the entire 1,5 hours. Sometimes I ticed slightly, but it just helped for a minute or two until the tic sensation started again, because I could never really tic. I just couldn't.

So what do I do in situations like that?

Early on in the process, would something like a squeeze ball help?

And if it's a college class, can you just matter-of-factly walk out of the room as if you need to go to the restroom?

As far as stimming, I'm pretty good at finding semi-public places which feel safe, and also at disguising a stim as a rotational exercise for a tight muscle.

I guess, I'll try that



Hm, it's a lecture and it's pretty full because it's by the most favorite professor and ppl are even sitting on the stairs. Unless I would be stitting right next to the door, it'll be difficult to get out and in. And I don't really wanna sit next to the stairs.
I've copropraxia, actually it's just one tic. It means that I've a motor tic that's an insult. (Mainly just in my country). That's one of the reasons I'm afraid to tic in front of others and also I had always problems with that, the tics just don't wanna come, so they just come very slight, like a slight movement of my arm or something that just helps for a minute or to. My other tic that's also embarassing is slapping myself.
I don't have any vocal tics that are embarrasing.

Okay, so the tic is primarily a gesture which is an insult in your country.

I'd like to pitch on a couple of ideas which may or may not be helpful. One is to sit a little closer to the door, just as a fallback position. Other times, when you're really good, heck, sit somewhere else.

Another is to honestly write (maybe on one side of your notes) 'my hand is feeling tense today,' something like that, so you can acknowledge to yourself what is going on and still maintain your privacy in case someone sitting next to you happens to glance at your notes.

And perhaps also experiment with taking the impulse to the side in a sense. For example, if you write in your notes 'the bookstore is crap,' a little minor PG profanity, even with a bit of humorous overlay. And perhaps a couple of reasons, which should be easy enough to do for the bookstore! Or, 'this rule is crap,' and a couple of reasons, again striving for the humorous or at least the interesting if possible.

I also have other tics. I've at least 6 or 7 tics at the moment, maybe more. It's hard to say because some are similar and just one of them is an insult, but it's still embarrasing enough.



Yeah, I'll propably have to do that at the moment since my tics got worse due to the stress, but when they'll be "normal" again in a view weeks or something. It's always like that, that they get more severe and than better again and so on...!



Well, some noticed minor tics and that's alright for me. But I don't like to see others emarrasing or complex tics.

Do you have tics?

No, I don't have tics.

I do like to stim. For example, I like to squeeze and twist a favorite soft T-shirt as I imagine sports or action movies. And sometimes I will make sounds as I perform explosions or fighting sounds (I think). And yes, it is embarrassing. Sometimes I'm able to combine this with creative intellectual work where I type on my computer, bounce to the bathroom talking to myself in the mirror, more stimming, more typing and writing, etc. I'm not able to do as much of this now since I'm back living with my parents after more of twenty plus years living on my own.

I also have bouts of OCD, health worries, worry that I haven't done something right, checking, self-doubt, etc.

Since your tics seem to (kind of?) have a several weekly cycle, do you know about PANDAS which is hypothesized to be related to rheumatic fever and Sydenham's? This is still controversial and some doctors don't believe it, but the PANDAS hypothesis is that some cases of OCD have an autoimmune cause. And maybe some overlap with Tourette's as well.

I've heard about PANDAS and long ago about Sydenham's but forgot about it.
I don't think Syndeham's would fit, because:
1) I can repress the tics for a certain amount of time. The amount of time is associated with the tic sevirity. This is typical for Tourettes, but not other neurological movement disorders.
2) Very often I've a sensory phenomena before of it who is very common in Tourettes, but not for other neurological movement disorders.
3) I've copropraxia.
4) My tics started in the facial region what's typical for tics, but not for Sydenham's chorea, where you also have moment's disorders in the hands. All my tics that are associated with the hands are complex tics, involving the arm and sometimes the shoulder. I don't have any hand specific tics. I also don't have the other with Sydenham's chorea typical movement problems. The only one that's overlapping in both disorders is tics in the facial region. Besides that the movement disorders differ.
4) I've other disorders often seen in Tourette patients like ADD/ADHD.

PANDAS is possible, so far I know you can't dx PANDAS with certainty. I don't know that much about it and I'm not sure anymore how my tics started. I know I had a spitting tic being 8 or 9. I was, when I was outside, spitting on the floor a lot and just couldn't stop. This tic is associated with Copropraxia. That's the first tic I do remember, but I don't know anymore how it started or if I maybe had any tics that I had before. But I don't remember having an infection before the onset.

I can remember one dinner when I was age 11, the stress of our family having company plus a particular desert item, I had trouble eating and breathing normally. And this whole issue and the worry, including the worry about the worry, lasted about a good six months.

When I was 16, there was increased stress in my family, so there is abundant psychological explanation but I still do wonder about PANDAS, I began taking hour long showers plus pre-shower and post-shower ritual, plus hand washing so that my skin became dry and red, plus a lot of worry about whether I had done enough for health.

As I understand the theory with PANDAS, antibodies to strep inappropriately attack the brain's basal ganglia. And this is a part of the brain involved in (?) emotional rhythm and senses of well-being and safety or alert (?). Now, this part I do not understand as well, but I would be happy to post some links if you're interested.

I still struggle some with OCD to this day. Once I "focus" on a health issue, very hard to let it go. I put off brushing my teeth, brush in stages, try and do it "perfectly" without overdoing it, etc.

Problems swallowing is associated with Sydenham's chorea.

"Fifty percent of patients with acute Sydenham's Chorea spontaneously recover after 2 to 6 months whilst mild or moderate chorea or other motor symptoms can persist for up to and over two years in some cases (for example a patient in the UK who has suffered the illness since 1999).[citation needed] Sydenham's is also associated with psychiatric symptoms with obsessive compulsive disorder being the most frequent manifestation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydenham%2 ... #Prognosis

Thank you. You've got me interested and I'll probably look some stuff up.

I'm not a great believer in wikipedia, one person posts, four other people re-write, that kind of thing.

Yes, that's the problem with wikipedia.
I don't have enough knowlege about Sydenham's chorea to tell with 100% certainty what's correct and what not. But I guess it's worth looking into it in your case and I'm interested what you know about PANDAS and the links you have.

edit: I read somewere else that 10% of the ppl with Sydehan's chorea keep some restsymptoms.

Last edited by Raziel on 26 Jan 2014, 4:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

i think the only thing to do is to relieve the stress involved in the tic.

I have a neck tic generally caused be various factors including stress and migraines. During my own studies, all I could do is let the tic happen as its not repressible. Stress dictates the amount of tics at the least for me and while being under the pressing with getting things done, limiting the stress, reduces the number of tics.

I may be lucky considering even I was visibly ticking in front of people, it either went un-noticed or unquestioned. Otherwise ticking is often associated with heavy drug addicts in my culture.

Yes, but also not to think about it and not to meed with other Tourette patients.
(Some ppl with Tourette tend to "steel" other tics and after meeting with other ppl with Tourette tend to have more tics, sometimes even for several weeks).
I'm not good in not thinking about it when they get more severe and that pushed them even more.

Also even if I wanted, I just can't really tic in front of other ppl, it just doesn't really work. My tics come when they want and they decided just not to show up in certain situations and so on. I can just control them upto a certain degre, besides that my tics do what they want.



Why would it be associated with drug addiction, I've never heard that before?

I have an incling that often than not, heavy heroin addicts that are suffering from withdrawal symptoms suffer from shivering or feeling cold. This sensation can manifest itself in any number of ticks, including that of verbal anomalies.

It is true that a number of people could develop Tourette's from a heavy drug addiction as the drugs damage nerve endings. Otherwise proof of this is rather sparse, I honestly don't know why there is a view with people who suffer from ticking disorders are grouped with heavy and recovering drug addicts.

Hi, here are some links:

Mass. Gen. & Harvard (of course might still be wrong!)
https://mghocd.org/ocd_pandas/

International OCD Foundation
http://www.ocfoundation.org/uploadedfil ... 0sheet.pdf

And here's a post I made where I took quotes from a book in which a mother talked about getting help for her son:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5805341.html