The significance of support

Posted on March 6, 2012 by RowenaM

There is no strength without unity.
~ Irish Proverb

Hello everyone. Last week was a pretty good week for me. I am getting much better grades in both Geometry and Biology. Stress has been lifted off of my shoulders as I persevere to the finish line in all of my courses. This is all because of a schedule that was made to help me feel less stressed and more comfortable, and my parents are cheering me on.

My tics have been up and down, but they have been mostly down. They still only get high when I become agitated. But, strangely, on Leap Day, my tics were extreme, and I honestly don’t know what it was that caused it. The day before Leap Day and the day after, my tics were barely around. I found that unusual and, yet, fascinating.

I have been out of gummies for a few days, and I have only one pill of Zoloft left. I am hoping to get both of those refilled soon so that I don’t have huge roller-coaster emotions like I did when I was in Miami two years ago.

I am writing a lot more in my book, “Sky Ward.” I have two other friends who are writers, and they are a great help with my editing. But it will take awhile for me to edit. I just got done editing chapter 1, and there are at least six chapters that I have written. So, I will still keep you guys up to date with my book. Continue reading →

Tourette’s gets tougher when even teachers poke fun

Posted on January 23, 2012 by RowenaM

My name is Rowena, and I was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at 11 years old. I was in sixth grade when it happened. Before 11 years old, I was making weird movements and sounds, such as tapping and humming.

I went, and am still going to, Rothman Center in St. Petersburg. The first appointment took six hours until we were finally done. My doctors are amazing and have helped me so much the past five years. I went to West Hernando Christian school when I was diagnosed.

My sixth-grade teacher was very judgmental and disrespectful toward me. I didn’t know why she was acting this way. It was as if she was a completely different person. But one day she asked my mom if they could talk privately.

After they talked, my mom came out of the classroom and rushed me to the car. I asked her what happened. She told me that my teacher thought that I was lying about my Tourette’s. Of course, mom was very angry, and so was I. Continue reading →

You can be bitter or you can be better

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Caleb Davidson

Hello, my name is Caleb, I have Tourette Syndrome. When I was 6 years old, I started making funny noises with my nose and throat. At first, we thought that It must be a bad habit that I had developed. We then decided that It must be my tonsils, because I just wouldn’t stop making noises. I got my tonsils out at 7 years old, but the noise just kept coming and coming.

After that, the noises went into what you could call a bit of a recession for a few years. Then, when I was about to turn 11, they gradually started again. They soon dispersed. We had forgotten about the strange things until about May 2011. I soon started flexing my arms and legs randomly. I started to kick my feet out in front of me and my arms would reach toward them, sort of like I was stretching for a basketball game.

But they wouldn’t stop, and I would randomly have to stand up when in the car and shrug my shoulders. I would roll my feet, jerk my neck and walk as if I had to hit each square of cement evenly with both of my feet. At first, me and my parents believed that It was my anxiety acting up, for I had always struggled with anxiety- and depression-related things.

After a while, it was really starting to hurt me. My arms and my neck were in so much pain toward the end of the day it was unbearable. It hurt my parents more than me. They began to research things and taking me to different doctors until we were at last sure that I had something that I knew nothing of. I had Tourette Syndrome, and I was one of the 100,000 Americans that suffers from “full-blown” Tourette’s. Continue reading →

Being diagnosed with TS as a teen is tough

Posted on December 13, 2011 by RuthieP

When did I fist realize that I was a little different than the rest? I don’t know that there was one eye-opening moment. It was a realization that came with time, that came with looking into myself and figuring out what made me the person I am.

My parents knew I was different from the beginning, but pretended not to. They pretended there was nothing they couldn’t fix with a little discipline and preaching of “self-control,” a word which I had heard too many times.

I wasn’t officially diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome until I was about 16, and I’m 18 now, but I had known for a long time that there was something different about me. My tics started getting bad around third grade, and although I had no idea why I did these weird things, I just couldn’t stop.

I did things such as suck in air with my mouth, make slurping noises, tighten my muscles in my throat and my stomach, jump, skip, twitch my eyebrows, sniffle, cough and stomp. On top of that, I had many compulsions and obsessions as well. I was made fun of a fair amount and I hated doing these things, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t stop. Continue reading →