Tourette Syndrome

Hi,

I've struggled for as far back as I can remember with my mental health. I know where it stems from, I know the traumatic event that set the dominos tumbling. But I've always "raw dogged" life. No doctors help, no medications besides self-medicating of course. Just me & my crumbling thoughts against, well me.

Until recently, my thoughts and the darkness in my mind became so bad this time I couldn't find a way out. I have been so lost. I have seizures, and I had a spell of them really bad for a couple months and my husband strongly suggested I try to seek medical advice. So, I did. Now, I've always had this thing with my hands feet and neck that I do and certain sounds that I make, that I've always chalked it up to anxiety because they do show themselves a million times worse when I am in a manic or anxious state. Once my mental health started declining rapidly, my weird "quirky" habits became unbearable, and loud, and uncontrollable. When I start seeing doctors and specialist for my seizures, all these diagnoses started flowing in, I was diagnosed with ADHD, OCD, PTSD, Bipolar Depression & Tourette syndrome. I am literally a walking dumpster fire. I cannot medicate one without setting off the other, my doctors have a hard time even trying to find medicines that'll help me in all aspects I struggle with. They almost act as if they are afraid to treat me. I feel good to know that there are underlying reasons for my mental state, and it does help to know that it is not all in my head. But now i feel almost worse in some respects because I feel like a lost cause. I just feel so lost, just with a diagnosis now. I'm not sure that I am even looking for advice, I just need a safe space to vent. Someone if anyone to hear me while I'm vulnerable.

Hi,

I've recently been diagnosed with ADHD, Bipolar Depression, OCD, PTSD, and Tourette syndrome. -I know, I am a walking dumpster fire-

I can tell that both my neurologist and psychiatrist are very unsure how to go about medicating me. I can't take ADHD meds without setting my Tourette in HIGH GEAR, and my bipolar meds work to stabilize my moods and "suppress" my Tourette's, but they don't do anything to help my ADHD which drives me bonkers. I can't focus on anything, and when I do I hyper fixate on one thing for days at a time and everything else is in the shadows and neglected.

I don't honestly know why I am even posting here, maybe I'm looking for something else to hyper fixate on or maybe I'm just looking for someone to relate or give me tips on coping skills. I hate being medicated in general, I'd rather feel intense emotions than nothing at all.

I keep looking for ways to make my tourettes worse, and i keep looking for ways to make my life worse, wondering if anyone knows whats wrong with me? Or can relate?

im constantly watching videos that trigger my tics and i dont know why, its like im addicted to it. I am always not drinking, not eating properly, but on purpose to hurt myself. Does anyone relate?

Hi, im a 14 year old girl who was just diagnosed with tourettes but i have been ticcing for a year now. I experience swearing, yelling tics, rude gestures, but also some very minor, hardly noticeable tics, (blinking, shrugging, breathing)

I wanted to spread awareness for tourettes syndrome but also for its related issues (anxiety, depression, ect.) In this post i wanted to talk about my experience at home with tourettes. I would also like to say, this is myb personal experience. Not everyone with tourettes syndrome will have the same experience.

Before being diagnosed with tourettes i was quite suicidal and depressed, and since i was 9 i had been experiencing social anxiety. I remember thinking to myself, whilst on a vacation to see my family in New York, that i will never see them again because i will for sure kill myself, but i was actually wrong. for some reason, i had an idea in my head that what i was going through was not something that was happening to me, but it was apart of me, and would be forever, because i had been struggling for so long. For anybody out there who is struggling with something similar, you are not alone and there is nothing wrong with you.

But exactly a year ago, after i finnaly was starting to see a future for myself i started twitching my head and making a small kind of sqeak-gasp noise, this continued and i was told that it was unlikely tourettes as it was quite minor and it is actually somewhat common to develop tics, but it just escalated and escalated until around the foru month mark, i developed a tic where i would make an innapropriate gesture (the middle finger).
My mother did not take it well. She didnt fully understand what was going on with me because nobody in her family had ever had tics before and we didnt know what they were until i started experiencing them. Keep in mind that most of the time tourettes has a very slow build up, for me this was all happening quite suddenly.

Around the six month mark I was having incredibly innapropriate tics, (F*** off, f*** you, p** on me, ect.) I was also picking up multiple tics from an influencer named Rachel Chaleff on tiktok, as when i first started having tics i would look at alot of her videos because they made me feel understood. Alot of my tics sound similar to hers because of this, which has led to alot of fake - claiming. It is incredibly hard for me to deal with.

My mother is still getting used to the innapropriate tics, but so far so good, nobody else in my personal life seems to have a problem with it.
My brother always laughs whenever i have a swewaring tic tho. I mean, sometimes i laugh too, but its like… ALL THE TIME!!!!

At home my mom and dad were quite supportive I think my mother, who is incredibly close to me, thinks of it as slightly annoying and actually in my control.

I remember when it was getting quite bad, and i had to be put on antipsychotics to treat the tics, my mom sat me down and begged me if there was anything i could do to make it stop. I carry that really deep in my chest up to this day.

Im sorry for getting all dark and venty about this but i think its important to me that people know that tourettes syndrome is not just making noises and swearing. There is so much to TS that you cannot see.

-Sierra