Outbursts resembling Tourette's Syndrome?; onset 18 yrs old

Hello, I am 18 years old and I have various mental conditions. Although I have not officially been diagnosed with schizophrenia I think it possible I have it. I know that diagnosis's aren't allowed on here; but I would like to talk about one specific and rather disturbing "symptom" I've been having lately. Very often I will make noises in weird tones or voices and sometimes say things in a weird way. I also feel my facial muscles working along with these "outbursts" and sometimes my hands too. I can control the symptoms for the most part. I will often repeat phrases that I hear people say over and over in my head. I don't know why I do it but I feel this "tension" that builds up and need to finally release it at some point.

The big reason as to why I do not think it is Tourette syndrome is because symptoms began 18 mos. ago and I am 18. Isn't that rather old for Tourette syndrome onset? I've also heard that Tourette syndrome can resemble behavior seen during episodes of psychosis. I was officially dx'ed with Psychotic disorder NOS in December '13. Basically I was wondering how you can determine the difference between Tourettes Syndrome and psychotic outburst? Also what are the chances of developing Tourettes Syndrome at 18 years old after having no symptoms all through life?

I do not have any symptoms of psychosis, but I do have late-onset Tourette's Syndrome, so maybe I can break down TS and tic disorders for you.

Late-onset TS means that the child had either motor or vocal tics before age 18, but got the other after age 18. I got two motor tics when I was four or five, but I didn't get vocal tics until two months after I turned 18. The diagnosis was then TS because it does require vocal and motor tics, but it was late-onset because of half the symptoms coming later.

There is such a thing as a general tic disorder for people that either have just motor tics, just vocal tics, or tics that come after the age of 18. There is also an illness called PANDA's that has TS symptoms come suddenly. If you haven't looked into PANDA's, I would suggest checking it out. That is a more serious illness, so it would be good to rule it out.

The way you describe how the tics feel is just like how tics feel with TS. I would get the tics checked out by a neurologist, because it sounds like you could possibly be dealing with tics in addition to the psychosis. If you have more questions about this please feel free to message me, but I hope that broke it down for you.

-- Sun Nov 30, 2014 8:35 pm --

Also, TS does require the tics to be present before age 18. While it's most common for tics to first appear by age 8 or so, they can appear as late as age 15-18. I know of a girl on youtube that has late-onset TS like I do, but she didn't get her first tic until she was 15. She had that tic for years, but she didn't get more or vocal tics with it until she was in her 20's.