Tourettes - 'Acquiring tics'

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So... I seem to have 'found' a new tic over the past couple of weeks (and my first non-face/head tic). Very strange.

I had only two facial tics and one vocal tic (a nasal vibrating sound) all through childhood/adolescence, but have acquired a head shake/neck crack, a sniffing, and now a weird "piano playing" thing with my fingers, all in the past few years.

Is this 'normal', to add tics in adulthood? I'm 27 now.

Yes. It is about around te age of 35 that they begin to settle down and by the age of 50 or 60, they become harder to notice unless you have severe Tourette's.

35 they settle down? I am very curious in this.... I've had very minor tics since childhood, but about four months ago I had several severe tics manifest abruptly. Legs. arms, torso, a nasal snort, and stuttering. I WAS going through several stressful situations at the time which I am certain triggered the "new" tics (also occurred concurrently with several major meltdowns, one of which landed me in the E.R.). However, I worked through the stressful situations and they are over, I'm in a peaceful environment, but these "new" tics are still as prevalent as they were on my worst days of being stressed out. Is this something I can hope for regressing to what I would consider "normal" or should I accept the fact that they may have had an adulthood onset and something I will have to deal with indefinitely? I could deal with the stuttering issue easier than the physical twitches as my usual line of work is maintenance/technician work. With the severity of the physical jerking, working with tools is not only difficult and aggravating, it can also be dangerous. for instance-- if I let a strong tic slip through while using a power drill, it is entirely possible to put a drill bit through my hand, arm, or leg. The tics have affected my ability to work one of my personal hobbies-- card models. I keep cutting my hands and fingers with the razor knife I use to cut parts out.

I think everyone is different. Changes can always cause tics to appear, disappear. There is a wide rage of ages in my TS group and a wide range of tics.

The thing with Tourettes is that it doesn't stay the same for very long! My tics regularly change, get better or worse. That is normal apparently. I also have a bad habit of 'absorbing' people's quirks/habits so as you can imagine, coming back from Tourettes meetings is always an interesting one! I had a 'piano playing' tic although mine only affected me when I was ACTUALLY playing piano! My little finger did what I called it's 'little dance' and twitched all over the place and squashed all my other fingers as I tried to play! So irritating!

As for when or if it gets better, for most people it seems to improve in the late adolescence/early adulthood, but some it can be later or never. I am 23 and haven't seen any improvement yet. One person I know improved in her early 20's only to have a sudden relapse in her 30's. Personally, because I have a moderate/severe case of TS, I am not holding out too much hope...

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I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

I started showing symptoms (a high pitched buzzing sound, eye twitch, and a sniff) when I was 9 or so. Wasn't severe enough to actually 'get help' (I was just told to 'just stop that').

But I would have a bad day now and again, but I don't recall having any REALLY bad periods (other than an hour here or there) until I was 18. That summer was -excruciating-. I even scheduled a neurologist appointment, but I had no tics when there, and he just wrote them off as nervous tics. Then they mostly went away until I had another bad tic-spree at 23, then again last summer, when I started acquiring new tics for the first time since I was 9.

I always seem to have a predominant tic; for years, my dominant tic was my eye twitch, with my nasal grunt taking over every once in awhile. Last summer my nasal grunt and head shaking did battle. Now, I've got my 'piano playing' tic on my right hand and I keep doing the Vulcan 'live long and prosper' sign with my left hand every once in awhile. Blegh.

Luckily, I've mostly been able to hide my tics at work.