# Can someone with Tourettes drive? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 14, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650 "2011-01-14T21:48:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/1 "2011-01-14T21:48:49Z")
Let me preface this by saying I know nothing about Tourettes, it’s symptoms (other then the mainstream ones you hear and read about) it’s diagnosis, proper terminology, similar diseases etc… At my store we have a lady, mid 40’s maybe, that comes in about once a week. She has, what I would describe as a full body twitch every few seconds. She doesn’t appear to need any assistance, but, based on what I see, I have to assume from time to time she must knock into a wall or trip over something and hit the floor. OTOH, she dresses like someone who jogs and has a slender body like someone who works out, but again, based on what I see when she’s walking around in the store, it doesn’t seem like she’d be able to do something like that. To add to that (if it makes a difference, if she were to stand perfectly still, of even if you were to see a picture of just her face, you’d be able to tell something is wrong just by looking at her…and she’s not very nice to boot, but between the twitching and the high energy conversation she seems to think everyone wants to have, I’m not sure if she’s not nice, has a mental problem, it’s part of the twitching or she has some social issues. Based on this, I’ve decided she has Tourette’s Syndrome. It always seems odd to see her leave the store, get in her car and drive away. So, can someone with Tourette’s drive, legally? Safely? Is it possible that once sitting in a car that she can keep her hands and feet reasonable still that she won’t swerve into the car next to her or stomp on the brake when she’s just trying to slow from 60 to 58? Driving takes some delicate maneuvers…she’s anything but. ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Hazel\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Ms.Hazel\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Hazel_Ice)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/2 "2011-01-14T22:33:54Z")
In short: yes, depending on the circumstances. I know at least three people with TS. One is a coworker who has to travel between 5-8 buildings and always drives himself. TS has a wide spectrum of manifested tics; he is on the minor end. The average person would have to spend a good amount of time with him to begin to pick up on any of his coping mechanisms (coughing, etc.). I imagine that any restriction on driving would be state-by-state (in the US), and would possibly be dependent on any other conditions. I know a girl with TS who also has Asperger’s syndrome, giving her a seemingly unpredictable temperament. As far as I know, she does not drive and probably should not drive. Not all of those with TS are going to experience severe tics that would inhibit driving. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/3 "2011-01-14T22:45:53Z")
Tics can be inhibited for a short time. Also, when focusing on something intensely, tics can dampen down or disappear temporarily. I once heard about a surgeon with Tourette’s who was able to do this. Tourette’s is a neuropsychiatric disease, not a neurological one like Parkinson’s. A person with severe Parkinson’s will not show symptoms one moment and then turn into Flo Jo in another. But Tourette’s is different. It is often responsive to one’s emotional and mental state, and also bleeds into other disorders like ADHD and OCD. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/4 "2011-01-14T22:46:30Z")
And that’s the thing _I_ have no idea what the spectrum looks like. But with this lady, you know something is wrong within seconds of seeing her. The first time I saw her she was walking past the front window, I thought she was dancing…Elaine Benes style. When she walked in I jumped out of the way because I thought she was throwing her water bottle at me. Maybe in the world of TS, this is considered minor. Maybe it isn’t TS at all (like I said, I really don’t know anything about it), but something else, that she can control when she needs to, like, when she’s driving. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/5 "2011-01-14T22:52:39Z")
You’re assuming that the woman has Tourettes. I’ve been acquainted with a woman who could have fit that description following injuries from a car accident, some of which were due to ‘dain bramage’. She wore jogging suits because they were easy to put on. On the other hand, she was slim and in shape because she walked everywhere. Maybe the woman you mentioned doesn’t have a license. I don’t know who would stop her from getting one if she could pass the necessary tests. True story, when I got my license here in RI (after moving from another state), an elderly woman was in line ahead of me and couldn’t pass the eye test, reading trafiics signs on a machine. The tester gave her lot’s of do-overs, saying things like ‘Try not to squint so much honey, you can get this’. Should someone who may lose control drive? No, of course not. But there are plenty of people who shouldn’t drive, and not much done about it. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/6 "2011-01-14T22:59:25Z")
That’s why I added in the “safely” part. Plenty of people drive illegally, but still safely. I’m curious as to if this person can do it safely. Of course short of me asking her if she has Tourette’s and talking to her about it or covertly video recording her to post here (which I’m not going to do), we’ll probably never know. OTOH, a lot of cops eat lunch at my store (a very small store, so everyone sees everyone), maybe someday one of them will see her and ‘ask her a few questions’. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/7 "2011-01-14T23:01:13Z")
Just because someone twitches while walking around doesn’t mean they can’t work out. There are documented cases where people can run normally but then walk like quasimodo (not the medical term for it obviously). I can’t remember the name of the condition. But there was a primetime tv special with this one seriously hot chick who would look like an olympic runner. Then she would stop and her body would hunch up, she would tic all over the place… having that condition would be the worst… I would never want to stop running. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/8 "2011-01-14T23:15:24Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > And that’s the thing _I_ have no idea what the spectrum looks like. But with this lady, you know something is wrong within seconds of seeing her. The first time I saw her she was walking past the front window, I thought she was dancing…Elaine Benes style. When she walked in I jumped out of the way because I thought she was throwing her water bottle at me. > Maybe in the world of TS, this is considered minor. Maybe it isn’t TS at all (like I said, I really don’t know anything about it), but something else, that she can control when she needs to, like, when she’s driving. It could be Huntington’s. But I wouldn’t expect a person with Huntington’s to be able to drive. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/9 "2011-01-15T03:16:07Z")
Oliver Sachs wrote one of his little vignettes about a man with fairly obvious Tourette’s who makes a living as a surgeon and who not only drives but also flies an airplane. Tourette’s has such a variable presentation that you really can’t make a blanket statement of safe/not-safe to drive. It would have to be examined on a case by case basis. Disorders like cerebral palsy can make for some pretty peculiar walks and gesturing, too, but again, whether a person with that is safe to drive depends on the individual concerned and how their disorder manifests. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/10 "2011-01-15T05:43:55Z")
[Article](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1335737/) about the surgeon above. [Comments](http://www.tourettesyndrome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=4770) on driving from a Tourette’s Board. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/11 "2011-01-15T06:03:15Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > But there was a primetime tv special with this one seriously hot chick who would look like an olympic runner. Then she would stop and her body would hunch up, she would tic all over the place… having that condition would be the worst… I would never want to stop running. [This chick?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpe1u4cKbTk) It gets weirder, she started speaking in an ??Australian?? (non-American) accent. She also said that she wasn’t allowed to drive as she jumped into her car. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/12 "2011-01-15T12:40:07Z")
I knew a guy who I believe had Tourettes, at least I think that was what he told me. He did exhibit both motor and verbal tics. He was a local distributor for something the store stocked and he did all the driving and unloading. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/13 "2011-01-15T19:50:56Z")
A former co-worker of mine has a brother with OCD and Tourette’s. The disorders often come bundled together. I can’t remember his tick, because I never met him myself, but my co-worker told me he did have a physical tick. I think it was something like waving or flapping on arm or something. She said it was really interesting, because the tick would completely vanish while he played video games. He could sit there for hours with a gaming console and never once even flinch. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/14 "2011-01-16T10:01:51Z")
For New York cab drivers, I believe it’s mandatory. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/15 "2011-01-16T14:55:01Z")
[quote=“psychobunny, post:10, topic:567650”] [Article](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1335737/) about the surgeon above. [\quote] Huh - I was going to post about this man - I’ve worked with him for the past 16 years. Fromwhat I can tell Touretts doesn’t stop him from doing much of anything. He’s also rather nice and has a good sense of humour. I suspect touretts must have dergees of severity. As said in the article - he lives in BC and flies a small plane to AB when he’s lecturing. ---
**Author:** ![LeTourettesGamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@LeTourettesGamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeTourettesGamer)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/16 "2016-05-16T01:26:54Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Tics can be inhibited for a short time. > > Also, when focusing on something intensely, tics can dampen down or disappear temporarily. I once heard about a surgeon with Tourette’s who was able to do this. > > Tourette’s is a neuropsychiatric disease, not a neurological one like Parkinson’s. A person with severe Parkinson’s will not show symptoms one moment and then turn into Flo Jo in another. But Tourette’s is different. It is often responsive to one’s emotional and mental state, and also bleeds into other disorders like ADHD and OCD. You DO realize that Tourette’s Syndrome is a neurological disorder, right? ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/17 "2016-05-16T01:56:04Z")
perhaps with proper medication they can drive just fine? Psychiatry Res. 2011 Dec 30;190(2-3):382. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2011.05.033. Epub 2011 Jun 12. Cannabinoids improve driving ability in a Tourette’s patient. Brunnauer A, Segmiller FM, Volkamer T, Laux G, Müller N, Dehning S. PMID: 21664699 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/18 "2016-05-16T02:31:01Z")
For every person with Tourette’s who’s diagnosed, there are probably several, at the very least, who aren’t. Most of them lead otherwise completely normal lives, and that does include the ability to drive. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/19 "2016-05-16T03:33:41Z")
Jim Eisenreich was a major league baseball player with Tourette’s, in the 1980s. I knew a woman who was a greeter at WalMart who had Tourettes, which would seem to be a particularly inappropriate profession for such a condition. Every condition can, in some cases, render a person incapable at times of driving a car safely. But most condition can be controlled to enable safe driving performance. Deaf people can drive, or those with vision in only one eye, or paraplegics. I once had a co-worker who had no use of his legs, but drove a stick shift in competitive rallying. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650/20 "2016-05-16T03:51:43Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Tics can be inhibited for a short time. > > Also, when focusing on something intensely, tics can dampen down or disappear temporarily. I once heard about a surgeon with Tourette’s who was able to do this. > > Tourette’s is a neuropsychiatric disease, not a neurological one like Parkinson’s. A person with severe Parkinson’s will not show symptoms one moment and then turn into Flo Jo in another. But Tourette’s is different. It is often responsive to one’s emotional and mental state, and also bleeds into other disorders like ADHD and OCD. I’ve read things written by people with Tourette’s and they make it sound a lot like trying to resist the type of impulses that go along with both ADHD and OCD - they _can_ be repressed at least for a while, but it’s psychologically uncomfortable and eventually you more or less have to give into them. That makes sense considering a lot of scientists think there’s a common root cause to all three disorders (and schizophrenia too). As for the OP, the one person I know for sure who has Tourette’s drives. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-with-tourettes-drive/567650.md?page=2)