Do I have Tourette's?

I'm 24 and ever since I was a little kid, I've had various tics. Of course, I didn't know what "tics" were back then and I never associated it with Tourette's, because Tourette's was always portrayed to me as someone who swears uncontrollably. But, after learning a bit more about it fairly recently, it occurred to me...have I had Tourette's this whole time? Is that what my tics are about?

When I was little, I used to have this weird tic where I HAD to click my teeth. Well, not really to click my teeth, but to quickly tighten my jaws together, I guess...which results in my teeth clicking. So, it's more about the muscular thing than the clicking. But, I never thought about why...it was mostly a subconscious thing. Most of the time, I didn't even notice it happening and it would happen at the most random times -- like in the middle of a sentence while I'm talking.

This went fairly unnoticed...until my aunt started noticing. And my aunt is...well...kind of crazy. She has a temper like I've never seen in my life (even to this day) and literally every single little thing infuriates her beyond belief. And if she was mad at you, oh she'd let you know it. Needless to say...as a young child, she pretty much terrified me. And anyway, she noticed my teeth-clicking and it would make her really angry and she would yell at me. She repeatedly told me to stop or she'd never visit me again/get me Christmas or birthday presents again/let me see my other aunts and cousins again/let me keep my toys...all kinds of lovely things. I think she thought I was doing it on purpose or something. That was the first time I felt I had to control it and it was so hard. Whenever I tried to make myself stop, there was just this overwhelming urge to do it, so much that it was all I could focus on. So, I was afraid to even speak, because I was afraid my teeth would click without me even knowing and I'd get backhanded or something.

In the end, I think my fear of my aunt overcame my jaw tic and I learned to suppress it...but even to this day, if I think about it, I feel the urge to do it again. It's actually happened a few times as I've been writing this, lol.

Another one that I never noticed until recently is my foot. If I'm sitting or laying down, my foot always seems to have to move...to stretch or rub against something. Mostly, I think it's the stretching/tightening of the muscles. Another muscular thing. Like the jaw thing, I never noticed this until my boyfriend pointed it out. It really annoys him (because it happens a lot in bed or if we're sitting together on the couch and my feet are up), but I don't even realize it's happening until he says something. (That's actually what spurred me to write this post, actually. He just pointed it out again, lol.) But, when I have to suppress it...I feel that same overwhelmingly agitating urge to move, just as I did when I was a kid trying to suppress the need to click my teeth.

I'm sure there are more, too, but I never really notice them unless they're pointed out to me.

Could these be symptoms of Tourette's? I've never been checked for it before, so I'm really not sure. Or is it just me? Am I just weird? lol

Three weeks, 75 views, and no responses... I wish I had known there wasn't an "edit" or "delete" option before posting. -.-

Hi there,

No one here can diagnose you, so you'd have to visit a doctor to get a diagnosis. But I do a similar thing with my foot and I don't think it's Tourette's. For me it's rather a stimming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimming) method. A lot of people does it, actually.
Tourette's is far more serious than this, I think. I'm not sure but it's often impossible to control it. Can you always control your "tics", however unpleasant it may be?

Maybe I can help you. I have had Tourrettes almost my entire life and I am 47 do I can shed some light for you. Tourrettes is a combination of tics and sometimes vocals, but not always, but the tics are usually done so fast (the normal person cannot complete our movements and as quickly with so many combinations) and in a certain pattern that the brain must fulfill and also to complete a mental and physical cycle. It took me almost 35 yrs to be diagnosed and no meds have helped so I just go without. Yeah, I got made of fun of. That say I an one of the older patients known with such bad Tourettes. I don't let it even bother me anymore although I live with the mental scars from all the bullying

It's possible that you have a tic disorder, but Tourette's Syndrome usually includes a vocal as well as a motor (movement) tic. This is a really good website with helpful answers: http://tsa-usa.org/aMedical/whatists.html.

sarah162004 wrote:Maybe I can help you. I have had Tourrettes almost my entire life and I am 47 do I can shed some light for you. Tourrettes is a combination of tics and sometimes vocals, but not always, but the tics are usually done so fast (the normal person cannot complete our movements and as quickly with so many combinations) and in a certain pattern that the brain must fulfill and also to complete a mental and physical cycle. It took me almost 35 yrs to be diagnosed and no meds have helped so I just go without. Yeah, I got made of fun of. That say I an one of the older patients known with such bad Tourettes. I don't let it even bother me anymore although I live with the mental scars from all the bullying

I'm new here to this site but not to TS. I'm 47 and was diagnosed with TS at 6 or 7 years of age. I agree that the he does not have TS.

Lots of people have tics of sorts and do not even realize it but that does not mean they have TS. Full blown TS is much, much more severe than what he described.

Only way to know for sure is to seek professional help. Nobody, not even a mental health doctor can diagnose you online.

Even in person some diagnoses are sometimes nothing more than an educated guess but online it takes the educated part out of it and leaves nothing more than the "guess".

Ray