I first posted this a couple of months ago, but I want to share it again now!
My name is Johanna. I have Tourette Syndrome. All I want is to be recognized as a normal person. My hope is that with enough “shares” we can spread tolerance & acceptance! Tourette is not a swearing disease — that’s called coprolalia, which only 6 percent of people with TS suffers have.
Remember to embrace who you are! You’re amazing don’t let ANYONE tell you different!
Feel free to share!
I am 17 years old and live in West Covina, California. I was diagnosed with Tourette at 7 years old. As I grew older, my tics got much worse. I would yell and twitch my arm and move my head. Third grade to 5th grade were my worst years. My tics really acted up, and people would make fun of me for being that one odd or weird kid.
Finally, after teaching my class what Tourette was, people understood it more and things got easier. People didn’t make fun of me anymore and helped me. Now, I’m a junior in high school and my Tourette is very minimal. Most people in school don’t even know I have Tourette because of how mild it is.
I would like to become a blogger because I’ve been through all the teasing and problems a person with Tourette has, and I would like to give others help and advice on their problems with their tics and how to go about their Tourette in school and public.
About a week ago, I found this website and came to see what it is all about. I hope to meet new people and help others that need advice. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or send me a message
Today was the second and last day of the Training School. Tomorrow, the annual meeting will start.
Today was all about behavioral therapy and how to use it as a therapist. In the morning, a video of me was shown from about 12 years ago! I knew that tape existed, but I hadn’t seen it before. It got a bit emotional, because I remembered the feeling I had back then (300 tics in 15 minutes and always feeling down) very well.
Later this morning, together with my (former) therapist, I did a role play about Exposure Response Prevention. It’s a type of behavioral therapy that I’ve had myself. Because I got so good at it, we didn’t do the role play with tics, but with symmetry behavior instead.
We had five empty bottles of water which I put into a perfect position (in line, labels on the same side etc.). Then my therapist moved the bottles a bit, to make me have the “itchy” feeling you get when you have to do a tic or a compulsion.
Later on, I did another role play with Habit Reversal, another behavioral therapy. Continue reading
Mental illness is something that needs to be out there in the open more and become less stigmatized. A Lifetime movie is getting mental illness out into the open. Although I would have been a little more excited about this if OCD or generalized anxiety disorder was in there, I am excited about it none the less!
Through the five shorts named after each title character — Lucy, Eddie, Allison, Grace and Maggie – powerful relationships built on hope and triumph raise a new understanding of what happens when a loved one struggles with mental illness.
“Call Me Crazy: A Five Film” stars Academy Award and Golden Globe winners Jennifer Hudson, Melissa Leo and Octavia Spencer, Sarah Hyland, Sofia Vassilieva, Brittany Snow, Ernie Hudson, Jason Ritter, three-time Emmy Award winner Jean Smart, Lea Thompson, Oscar nominee Melanie Griffith and Chelsea Handler.
And don’t forget to the fantastic mental illness PSA by the actors of “Call me Crazy!”
When Amanda Silvers first contacted Spotswood Public Schools to gauge their interest in having the New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome & Associated Disorders’ (NJCTS) in-service presentation on TS come to their district, Director of Special Services/Programs Daniel Silvia was thrilled and offered to have Silvers come talk to three psychology classes at Spotswood High School.
Imagine how thrilled Silvers was when, following her third presentation on March 28, a thoroughly impressed Silvia sought out three more classes to which Silvers could present that day. All told, Silvers spread awareness about Tourette – a misunderstood, misdiagnosed, inherited neurological disorder that affects 1 in 100 children and adults – to six classes and 138 people total.
Silvers, an East Brunswick High School senior and an NJCTS Youth Advocate who has been giving presentations on behalf of the organization for more than 2 years, spent the majority of her time answering the questions of students on the heels of a query of her own:
“How many of you have ever heard of Tourette Syndrome or know anyone with it?”
Just 3 out of 75 students and teachers in the first three audiences – advanced placement and regular psychology classes taught by Colleen Meyers – answered “yes.” After Silvers gave them a primer about Tourette – the definition of vocal and motor tics, when children are often diagnosed, who is affected by TS, etc. – she fielded an array of questions. Following are some of those queries, in question-and-answer format: Continue reading