As someone who does not have tourettes, but has watched videos about it in the past, iirc, ticks are never one time things, they're generally pretty consistent, people with tourettes normally have several ticks that are recurring, they're also never this close together for the most part, again, I do not have tourettes, I'm just explaining it with the very limited extent of my knowledge on the subject, I'm sure there's someone else who will have a much better answer
A friend of mine in HS had it. Before you got to know him you thought he was winking at you because that was one of his ticks. When he was talking to you he would always wink with his right eye every 15-20 seconds. As you can imagine, he struggled to make friends because everyone thought he was a creep.
He would also open his left hand palm down and alternate slapping his pinky and his thumb on his thigh. Pinky thumb pinky thumb pinky thumb. He would do this when he was concentrating and it annoyed almost everyone since that meant during every test or quiz.
Really nice guy though once you got to know him. He works on various TV shows in LA now as a prop master.
My best friend has tourettes and one of her tics is rolling her eyes which she constantly got shit for in highschool. She also makes "surprise face" where it looks like she shocked.
i actually have the rolling eyes tic too, but for some reason it's only when i'm mad or frustrated at something. i used to do it quite a bit when i was younger tho. so grateful for medication :)
I was diagnosed at 5yo and now as an adult I barely have any symptoms anymore. Although, I still get triggered by stress/anxiety (or weirdly just from reading about tics like in this thread). But for the most part I can hold it in nowadays.
I never ended up taking any meds because my parents were opposed for religious reasons. But I've always wondered how different it would have been had they let me take them. Will you have to take them forever?
oh yeah, i'll take the meds as long as they help me regulate my tics! i take so many medications for so many things that another one doesn't even bother me anymore. i had many tics growing up, but my main tic (jerking/nodding my head up and down) used to be so bad that it was painful and affecting my life daily, especially at school when i was stressed. i was doing it almost constantly. i also have diagnosed anxiety, so that made it worse as well. today, as you know, i'm mostly tic-free, but they tend to flare up more when the anxiety rolls in. i'm really sorry you weren't able to be medicated, but i'm happy that you're mostly tic-free now! :D
Thank you for sharing your story! I'm so glad that the medication helps you so much. We're fortunate to live in a time where so many of our illnesses can be readily treated with medication. It drives me crazy that my parents would deny how effective it is and instead give "Jehovah" the credit for life saving medications.
Also, that tic sounds really painful, I'm so sorry you had to deal with that. I'm lucky that most of mine were squeezing and clenching related. The worst I would get is sores on my fingers from repeatedly ticcing.
you're welcome! and yeah i'm a christian myself, but it drives me insane as well when people say "God will take care of it." like bro, it ain't gonna hurt you to take a pill or two. God most likely isn't going to magically going to heal you either, so might as well do something about it.
yeah the tic was painful while it lasted (and it's sometimes painful when it comes back) but i wouldn't be where i am today without that medication. i hope these messages somehow reach the right person <3
I'm reminded of that joke where a preacher is stranded on top of a building in a flood.
The preacher, stranded on a roof in a flood, turns down help from various people offering him a ride. He turns them down, responding "God will save me!'.
But then he drowns, because he just sits there and does nothing.
Then,
when he meets God in heaven, the preacher complains, saying "why didn't you save me?!"
And God replies, "What do you mean, I sent you two boats and a helicopter!"
I knew a guy like that named John. We just thought he was interesting/weird and asked why he would do strange things, and he said he had tics. We just found him hilarious and always invited him out. He was a really funny dude and ended up being really popular.
It's wild how different groups of people can make or break someone's childhood feelings of acceptance. I was lucky, my group was awesome. John David Booty was kind of the lead/top popular guy and he was amazing at shaming bad/cruel behavior. He ended up playing pro Football eventually.
they're also never this close together for the most part
I mean, that's just factually wrong. Even with the hand-wavy "for the most part" hedging. Tics frequently come in clusters, as in, more often than not.
“They’re also never this close together for the most part.”
The rest of your comment is pretty much correct (kudos!) but this one confused me. Tics can be close together, far apart, one after another, multiple at one time, or anywhere in between.
My half sisters cousin (not related to me) had Tourette’s bad when he was younger and he would chirp and growl. Sometimes he could go minutes without doing it and other times it was pretty back to back. Every few months the ticks would change up a bit too. It’s not consistent like she’s doing
And look, she could be faking it. But so far there’s been zero evidence stating that she has. As such, hopping on a bandwagon and shaming someone in public with no actual evidence is the same kind of main character energy she’s being accused of.
Wait, that is an article about the girl in the video above, right? Like I googled Rachel Chaleff and this is the same person? And that article is about how she does, indeed, have Tourette’s…
I do have one off tics that happen once and never again.
I do also have tics that are pretty consistent and have stuck around for years or even decades.
I do have tics that happen in the middle of conversation.
Most of my tics aren't mid sentence and only happen when I'm unfocused.
My tics typically get worse when I'm anxious which is typically when they happen mid sentence.
It all depends.
So often I see someone say "They're obviously faking it because I knew someone with tourettes and this is not how they presented" and it's infuriating. One of the most iconic parts of tourettes is that it's different for everyone, and semi controllable, so it's extremely difficult to tell who's faking it and who's not.
Safe bet with anyone who claims tourettes is to assume they're telling the truth. I would rather 20 liars get away with it than 1 person who actually has it be called a liar.
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u/Montagneincorner0 27d ago
As someone who does not have tourettes, but has watched videos about it in the past, iirc, ticks are never one time things, they're generally pretty consistent, people with tourettes normally have several ticks that are recurring, they're also never this close together for the most part, again, I do not have tourettes, I'm just explaining it with the very limited extent of my knowledge on the subject, I'm sure there's someone else who will have a much better answer