My psychiatrist wants me to see a neurologist. He thinks it’s likely that I have Tourette’s syndrome. After reading several websites about it, I’m pretty convinced myself. Anyone out there have it or know a lot about it? Especially what the treatments are?
In the meantime, until I can see a neurologist, I’m on Buspar.
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Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
Opal, IIRC there was a topic on this same subject fairly recently (couple of months, I’d say). My search engine having been on the fritz for I don’t know how long, perhaps you’ll have better luck.
Well, what do you know?! Must be my lucky day…
http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/003148.html
Hope this helps.
P.S.: Flypsyde started another topic on the same subject on Dec. 10th. Haven’t yet mastered the intricacies of “double pasting”; you should have no trouble finding it though.
PP.S.: Hope things turn out all right for you
Opal, one of Oliver Sacks’ books, I believe “An Anthropologist on Mars,” beautifully discusses Tourette’s, its symptoms and treatment, centered on a case study involving a man with Tourette’s who is a surgeon. Worth a read.
“It’s my considered opinion you’re all a bunch of sissies!”–Paul’s Grandfather
Thanks omni, but that thread pretty much just talked about the swearing part, which doesn’t apply to me…
Here are the symptoms I have…
From the time I was a little kid (at least 3, maybe younger) I’ve had a tendency to twitch. It is usually brought on by stress, but once it’s there, it can take literally years to “calm down” enough for the twitching to stop. When I say twitching, I don’t mean those involuntary tics like your eyelid does sometimes… it’s a voluntary motion, but one that I can’t control well… like I’ll blink extra hard, or twitch my nose, or breathe in “spurts” like huff-huff-huff-inhale-inhale-inhale-huff-huff-huff or I’ll nod my head in little jerks, or I’ll tense my elbows rhythmically…
When I was younger I used to grunt rythmically also, and rock back and forth. I outgrew that by the time adolescence hit though. I still have an urge to grunt at times, so I’ll hum instead.
It is very much like scratching an itch. I can concentrate on “not twitching” but I can’t do anythign else while I do that, and it’s frustrating. It is about as hard as having a really bad itch and just staring at it. As soon as I stop concentrating, it comes back on its own.
It makes me look like an idiot, but it is also physically uncomfortable. I get muscle cramps in my face from moving certain muscles so much. Imagine how your face would feel if you flared your nostrils once every 5 seconds for a year. It isn’t a good feeling.
I also do rhythmic tapping, that I can only barely control, and then only if I notice it. I am always tapping out patterns with the button on my trackball, for example, and I rock my feet when I sleep.
Anyway, the more I read about Tourette’s the more it sounds like what is going on with me… and I guess I want to hear from other people who have first or second hand experience with living with it and treating it…
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Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
Opal, your description is very interesting…my co-worker does ALL of this. He’s like a one-person rhythm section. We’ve talked with him about his rocking/tapping things, and I’m sure he’s unaware that it may be Tourette’s. Thanks for sharing your info! I hope you find the answers you’re looking for.
A deaf person with tourettes is interesting. People say, ’ I heard you say some nasty stuff.’ The deaf person like, ‘No, I didn’t say anything.’
OpalCat:
Your symptoms are classic for Tourette’s Syndrome or Sydemhams Chorea. Sydenhams Chorea is caused by an infection and Tourettes is not.
There’s not much difference other than that. You may feel like doing something over and over again, until it’s done just a certain way. Verbal ticks include the facial movements, blinking, huffing, or sniffing. Erratic or repetative motions of parts of your body are a symptom. Picking at your skin or pulling on your hair is also a symptom.
Irratants or stimulants can make the condition worse. Paint fumes, smoke, certain class of drugs, or being around someone that has the same problem.
The treatments are mostly psyco-reactive drugs. Let people whom you are in normal contact with, know that they should tell you, if you start acting strange. Some of the drugs can have the permenant side effect of making the condition worse. They can also affect your personality. You need to identify this is happening as soon as possible.
Without medication:
I personally will breath in and hold my breath until I have to breath again. My body feels like it’s pulling to the right. My eye blinking is terrible, and I sniff a lot. I had it get to the point where I had to get Biotox shots around the eyes. The shots parallize the muscles where injected. My blinking was so out of control I had to shut them for hours at a time. I constantly flex my abdomin. My leg will bounce uncontollably. My right side is more affected than the left, and March is my worst month. My previous medicine made the hand movements and knee bouncing worse in the end.
I tend to run into things on the right side hard enough to hurt my self. I will hit the light switch that sticks out a whole half inch. I wipe out those hooks that stick out from store shelves, or just hit a store display. I go to pay the cashier and I see the blood running down my arm.
I went from about 16 years old to about 34, before I went back to medication. Right now being on medication is better than not for me.
Any specific question OpalCat? I tried to get a little more specific for you. Get a good nuralogist and work with him. It takes months to adjust your medication and see it’s final results. I had to change after 3 years to a new medicine.
I’m only your wildest fear, from the corners of your darkest thoughts.
Opal-
You’d fit in well in a software company. About half the people I work with are like that, and they are the best & brightest. They’ll rock while typing, be constantly fidgeting with rubberbands or other things.
One guy chews pens until they are completely destroyed - his desk is covered with them - and he’s the smartest of us all.
“You may feel like doing
something over and over again, until it’s done just a certain way.”
Isn’t that OCD?
OCD has some relationship to tourettes, effecting the same area of the brain. Basal Glanglia or somethin.
Obsesive compulsive disorders are one of the symptoms.
I’m only your wildest fear, from the corners of your darkest thoughts.
Thank you Phobia…
I am already on antidepressants for my bi-polar disorder… and now they’ve started me on Buspar to try to counter the tics… I hope to see a neurologist this spring… I have no idea how to go about finding a good one… sigh DAMN MY ABNORMAL BRAAAAAIN!
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Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
Hi OpalCat. My best friend’s son has Tourette’s, and I helped raise him for his first 5 years. The Tourette’s wasn’t diagnosed until he was about 12 though. He was also bi-polar, and I’m wondering, hearing that you suffer from the same, if there is any link to bi-polar disease and Tourette’s.
There was another Tourette’s topic a while ago, http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/004126.html (which is different than the other one linked above). I posted some links in that one, and I’ll put them here for you too. Perhaps they might help you find some answers you’re looking for.
http://neuro-www2.mgh.harvard.edu/TSA/AboutTS/myths.html
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/patients/Disorder/tourette/tourette.htm
http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~infinit/tsfaq1.1.html
As for finding a good neurologist, you might want to check your local phone book and see if there are any Tourette’s organizations in your area. If there are, I’m sure they can help you with referrals. Perhaps there is even a support group you could join.
Is there a teaching hospital where you live, like UCLA or Barnes Hospital in St. Louis? Those are always the best. Or do you have a primary care physician? Ask them who they’d go to if they needed a neurologist.
I wish you the best of luck in finding a physician who can give you a diagnosis and help calm some of the anxiety you’re feeling, and in finding a treatment that will help alleviate some of your symptoms. Just don’t feel like a freak, ok? We all have our little idiosyncrasies. You are definitely not alone. {{big cyber hugs}}
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
My brain is similar to Op’s although the way it expresses itself is not quite as profound. At any rate, I refuse to medicate myself, I would rather just stand in the fire of dysfunction & take the heat of uncertainity.
handy, I guess if you had diabetes you wouldn’t treat that either?
sigh I have no patience for people with that attitude… really… when I don’t take my medication for my bipolar disorder, I am impossible to live with, even for myself. Would you like to see the scars? I’ve dented walls with my head and done all kinds of other self-mutilation and attempted suicide… it is a medical condition that is easily controlled with medication… the medication takes away the insanity and lets me live my life. I realize handy didn’t say that everyone should refuse medication, but I ust really had to say that I think the attitude is foolish, ignorant and damaging.
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Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
Not everyone needs medication. Yes, I believe certain people should get medicated, of course I do. Do you think when I have an infection I sit there watching it ooze?
I’ve probably been to more doctors in my life than anyone I know. But Op, you have to remember it’s easy for you to get medication. In order for me to get any psychiatric medication, I have to find a certified interpreter [$50 an hour + & they hear everything in the session], pay the shrink $150.00 an hour or more, go for several hours & it adds up. Free Clinics? Still need the interpreter.
Just isn’t that easy for me to get medication of that kind. Getting antibiotics is okay.