Tourettes Rant

Post Reply New Topic

So I have Echolalia tics. I repeat words I hear, sometimes myself sometimes others.
It can be anything from stuttering to shouting random words. But it's always something I've heard recently.

I generally do not like swear words. I don't use them personally, and I prefer that my friends don't use them in my presence.
Recently my tics have been really bad, and I brought it up to my friends who did not know previously that I had tourettes.

Then, because they thought it was funny, they spent an entire car ride with me swearing loudly and incoherently.
Thus leaving me swearing myself. And for me, it wasn't funny.

So there I was in the public government office sitting in a waiting room swearing up a storm, worried that the security guard is going to cuff me or something.
Everyone around me is trying not to look at me, and a few of them mutter to themselves.

And I sit there quietly, ashamed of myself. Nervous, afraid, wishing so desperately to vanish from the world.
And when I explain my tics to people, they say "It's all in your head." or "You're just doing it on purpose for attention."

Because that's what this autistic 19 year old with severe sensory problems wants. Attention.
Just one more reason for me to never leave my house.
/rant

I thank you for that. Now I will add my own.

Why do people think that they know myself better than me? I hate it when people I know bring up the fact that I have autism or Tourette's. It always strikes a nerve with me and makes me want to sceam and them and swear which I don't like doing and normally don't. (My tics are more coughing). But I hate it when anyone mimics it, mocks it, tells me to do it, tells me not to do it, makes me cover my mouth with anything, forces me out of class, talks while I'm trying to work on a test that they don't even notice me taking. I hate so much noise in life. My sister is hard of hearing and ALWAYS brings it up her condition in a conversation. I don't bring up that fact that I can hear too well or that sometimes I would rather have snails eat my brain to death rather than listening to hear speak. Besides, I don't bring up her menstral cycle which I know she doesn't enjoy having but she thinks it's okay to bring up my Tourette's in everyday coversation.

@ idratherbeatree:
I kind of know where are you going through.

I also have some tics. But most of them are movement tics. Vocal tics are rare and are just thinks like coughing or so.
I have one movement tic I'm ashamed of. Sometimes I slap myself in the face very fast and very suddenly. Most of the time I don't even see it comming.

But yours is much worse. I'm very sorry for you.
Maybe medication and a good therapiest can help you controll them?
In my case simple magnesium allready helped a lot.

Last edited by Raziel on 26 Jul 2012, 1:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

That sounds really tough.

I get motor tics and I used to find it really hard to get to sleep because of them. I would pull my back and shoulder muscles and wake up sore the next day. Now I take Zeldox/Geodon and the tics are mostly gone. So as Raziel said, maybe medication may help you.

I don't think anybody IRL realized that I swear so much as a tic that sailors would get tired of me if I didn't be careful about when I let it out! I've learned to hold it when I'm in front of people, be very quiet and careful not to get caught when others are nearby (especially church), and I'm still fairly quiet with it at home.

I've found the biggest social lifesaver has been NOT being in the habit of swearing in a conversation!

This reminds me about what other people say about my tics. If my parents caught me blinking and jerking my shoulders at a party, they would pull me out of the room and growl "Can't you control yourself?"
Well maybe if they were me, they would understand.