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Told parents I have Tourette's

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Told parents I have Tourette's

Postby ryan358 » Sat Apr 19, 2014 11:30 pm

Just a couple hours ago I told my parents I have Tourette's and now my dad is acting weird and treating my like I'm autistic or something and baby talking (I also said I have compulsive lying). I am so embarrassed probably more embarrassed than I have ever been in my life. I do have Tourette's but I don't want them to know that and I'm wondering how to convince them that I just made that all up?
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Re: Told parents I have Tourette's

Postby seabreezeblue » Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:44 am

would your parents not already know that you have tourettes..?

Don't worry about how your father is reacting right now.. tourettes is nothing to be ashamed of.


In my opinion your father is probably trying to change his perception of you from the child of his without tourettes to the child of his with tourettes.. the sympathy in my opinion is probably because he's thinking back to all the times that he told you to stop chewing your sleeve.. all the times he told you to stop sniffing.. to stop jumping.. to stop clearing your throat (whatever your tics are) and feeling embarassed that he both didn't notice and didn't get you help for it before..

Give him some time to gather himself back together and if he's still being overly weird with you just bluntly tell him ''i have tourettes but am still the same person, don't treat me like i'll break please''


As for telling him that you lied.. i'd be way more embarassed by lying than a disorder - you choose to lie in order to manipluate the situation.. no-one chose to have tourettes.. just see it like a birthmark that you have to live with.
I advise that you learn to accept your tourettes yourself and other people will follow suit.. if you're ashamed of it then other people will think ''bad.. tread carefully''


Ps.. you may wish to look at your preconceived understandings of how autistic people are and are treated.. they're/we're very much individual.
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Re: Told parents I have Tourette's

Postby Jasper » Tue Jun 03, 2014 5:38 pm

scepticalblahblah wrote:would your parents not already know that you have tourettes..?


The parents of ppl with Tourette's don't necesserely know.
My family doesn't. My family have a "tic reducing" effect on me, so I don't tic all that often in front of them. My Tourette also started to get more obvious very late, in my late teens. But from time to time my tics are obvious even to my family but those are convinced that I suffer from magnesium sufficiency. I told them once, I've tics but they believed their theory is right. So I didn't argue about it. :roll:

Don't worry about how your father is reacting right now.. tourettes is nothing to be ashamed of.


Tourette's, the tics have their own "personality" and can't get controlled fully by the person who has them. This means that tics usually then occur when you don't need them. Tics have a socially provocating character. So I do understand when ppl who have it don't like talking about it.

But of course, Tourette's is actually nothing to be ashamed of. So to the OT, don't worry about your family, they'll calm down sooner or later. When I told my family about me being Transgender and my autistic thought patterns, they reacted the same. That's also why I didn't tell them other stuff. It doesn't matter that much what names your conditions have, family is very often a different matter when it comes to the own mental health and telling them what's going on in the own mind. Just make your thing and don't worry too much about the rest. You're not obligated telling your family about your health, physical or mental.
"Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress." - Milan Kundera

dx: depression, schizotypal PD (with autistic and paranoid tendencies), Tourette's, Transgender
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Re: Told parents I have Tourette's

Postby seabreezeblue » Wed Jun 04, 2014 6:47 am

The parents of ppl with Tourette's don't necesserely know.
My family doesn't. My family have a "tic reducing" effect on me, so I don't tic all that often in front of them. My Tourette also started to get more obvious very late, in my late teens. But from time to time my tics are obvious even to my family but those are convinced that I suffer from magnesium sufficiency. I told them once, I've tics but they believed their theory is right. So I didn't argue about it. :roll:


^ interesting.. i don't have Tourettes but had a lot of tics as a child, looking back they were probably a type of stimming - either that or they were simply tics that i've mostly grown out of..

I can see how your family may be able to miss the signs though if your tics aren't as frequent in front of them so thank you for that - it wasn't something i'd considered.
Best not to argue, they'll come around (or not) in their own time.. i don't have aspergers according to mine, there's no such thing :roll:
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Re: Told parents I have Tourette's

Postby Jasper » Wed Jun 04, 2014 8:04 am

scepticalblahblah wrote:^ interesting.. i don't have Tourettes but had a lot of tics as a child, looking back they were probably a type of stimming - either that or they were simply tics that i've mostly grown out of..


ppl with autism spectrum disorders have a twice as likely probability to develop a tic disorder. Many children have mild motor tics who are even unnoticed by the environment in many cases if the tics are mild. Tourette's is more rare. Many children with mild tic disorders will grow them out during puberty. My case is more rare that it gets more severe during puberty, but it happens from time to time. So it's even the norm to have mild tics just as a child.

You can distinguish tics and stimming very easily in many cases. Stimming usually occurs more far away from the body, like flapping with the hands. Tics on the other hands are very frequent in the face, like sniffing, blinking and so on. Also ppl with tic disorders can "feel" their tics coming in many cases. It feels similar like sneezing for me. But many children with tic disorders don't have that, because it usually develops later that you can feel them beforehand. Also stimming change more frequently according to the literature, but in don't think that's a good point to distinguish them, because also tic disorders can change frequently. Tony Atwood writes in his book that most ppl wth Aspergers who also have Tourette's, also have ADHD in most cases. Actually many ppl with tic disorders do have ADHD and/or OCD in addition, especially when they have full blown Tourette's.
The easiest way to distinguish tics and stimming is still to look how far away from the body the movements are. Also tics are something you "have to" do, stimming is something you " like to" do.

I can see how your family may be able to miss the signs though if your tics aren't as frequent in front of them so thank you for that - it wasn't something i'd considered.
Best not to argue, they'll come around (or not) in their own time.. i don't have aspergers according to mine, there's no such thing :roll:


I guess such behaviour of the family is even the norm than the exception. :roll:
My mother totally freaked when I was dx with HFA several years ago. In the meantime I got re-dx with schizotypal disorder with autistic thought patterns or tendencies or whatever. For my mother everything that starts with "schizo-" is the worst that can happen to a person. So I even didn't dare to tell them about my rediagnosis. :roll:
"Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress." - Milan Kundera

dx: depression, schizotypal PD (with autistic and paranoid tendencies), Tourette's, Transgender
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