Maybe I do, maybe I don't

For all my life I have had these urges to do things. Only now do I find that this may actually be some sort of condition.

I don't expect a diagnosis here on a forum, and I really don't have trouble living with what ever this is, but it is nice to see that other people seem to share the same symptoms that I do.

Never really bothered me, just figured it was "how I was made" and left it at that. I would however be ask once in a while "why I do that".

Some of these things I seemed to have trained myself to not do over the years. Even though the urge is sometimes still there.

And some new symtoms have replaced older ones.

When I was a child, I would shake my head for a split second every so often. Just had the "urge" to do so.
Doing something with my fingers was always an urge too, such as figeting with something or other.

I don't shake my head anymore, but I do have the shutters once in a while, where I just feel like I need to crawl out of my skin. Mostly when sitting. I get this urge under my left leg. I have to lift my leg and reposistion it. This is especially while driving.

Latley I've had this strange eye urge, where I have to blink/squint every so often. Funny thing is though, I can mostly supress this urge while I'm by myself, but when I talk to someone, or look them in the eye, this is when I get this urge.

It's nothing I can't handle, I'm 28 years old now, been like this all my life, I suppose I can handle it.

Hello Andy.

I have had tics since I was 14 years old, but other disorder over shdowed any tic diagnosis.

I do know what you are referring to. When I was a kid, and now, I have a head shaking tic. I just feel the urge to do it at times, and then at other times its like a reflex (no warning). I used to have arm flailing (to where i would throw my arms in the air) although I have grown out of that. I also used to have Palilalia (repeating your own words) and Echolalia (repeating other persons words), and I have gorwn out of all vocal tics except noises when I am excited. My leg and neck tics seem to have replaced my vocal tics. And my eye tics have increased.

I believe it is normal to change tics as you get older, as well as switch out of one and into another.

Do you think that it's based on nerves, andyc24301? Samm has indicated that what you have are tics, but I'm not so sure of that. I think that you will find more relevant info if you look up 'stimming', which is part of some disorders. To be honest, however, the differences between stimming and tics are very slight (if there is any difference at all). I sometimes had strange movements when I was younger too but I was never able to control them. They were more like head movements mostly. I would just be sitting down and my head would jolt to the side (not much though).

Kevin

Actually, as I have looked into this over the weekend, I have discovered that Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder can exibit TS like symptoms. And while any TS symptons I have are mild at best, the symptoms of OCPD that I expirence can be very severe, have already ended one marraige, countless friendships, and can be a general pain in the butt.

It has prooven to be useful at my work though as it seems to give me an unusual attention to detail. Everything has to be just right. If things are not right for so long, I go off the deep end. Sometimes if I get stressed out about it enough, I start the blinking thing.

I'm quick to stop people from doing a task because I feel like I need to do it myself so that it's done correctly.

My wife has long accused me of accumulating to much junk.

Many people in my family trust money for me to "hold" because I'm tight with a dollar and always have money stashed away somewhere.

I've been known for occational risk taking.

And I can be very stubborn.

Perhaps I should be evaluated. However when I brought this research to my wife's attention, she got kind of a kick out of it. I humourously defended my personality, and stated "what's wrong with striving for perfection, maybe it's the rest of the normal world that has the disorder".

Stimming:

I just looked that up, and yea, that sounds like me to, however that seems to be a more regulated practice. Playing with my hair is something I've always done. Rubbing the side of my face is another. Ever since I was a kid.

However the eye blinking and leg rotating is more random. There is another motion I do that is kind of stimulating. When I get excited... I can't really explain it, it's like my whole body shreiks, you almost have to see it to know what I mean. My wife thinks it's cute. I've had to be careful, sometimes my arms would slam down on my ribcage to hard during these shreiks, and it has made my rib cage sore a time or to, so while I still do this, I've tried to train myself not to "hit" myself in the process.

I still get the urge to shake my head. Sometimes it's all I can do not to. It just looks to "weird" so I try not to. I've having a tough time with this eye blinking thing though.

You're not the first person to have noticed the similarity between OCPD/OCD and TS. I noticed a fundamental similarity between the two a long time ago. in fact, i think that all addictions have some similarity to OCD too, on a fundamental level. I used to accumulate stuff too, but learning about OCD made me realise why I accumulate stuff and then feel anxious and angry about it. So, I learned to stop doing it and instead started to throw stuff out instead. If anything, learn everything you can about OCD, OCPD, and TS so that you can know yourself better, and can therefore control your life more.

I hope that makes sense

OCD and TS are commonly comorbid. A lot of people with TS have OCD. And chucky, I wasnt implying that "Andy has tics and it only can be tics". I was just saying it sounded farmiliar and that I have tics.

Well, I'm sure an evaluation by a professional will diagnose me with something. But the only trouble is, I've been thinking about it, and I'm not sure I want an evaluation because I'm afraid they are going to want to treat it - what ever it is.

And I'm not entirly sure I want it gone. Some of the "symptoms" I look on as a quaity. I don't want to be "to laid back" if that makes in sense, or, I don't want to take drugs that would atler my personality and change the person that I am. Many people in my life, have gotten used to the way I am, some think it's comical.

I did make a massive donation to the local habitat store about a month ago, it was tough to do, but the clutter in my basement was creating a complex for me, and was driving mood swings. One the one hand, I hated that everything was out of order, getting cluttered. I was not able to "put everything in it's place" because I was running out of places to put things. On the other hand, I hated to part with some of the stuff.

Over the years I've been trying to avoid yard sales. I caved 2 weeks ago and purchased a push mower that I didn't need. I just couldn't say no to a $5 push mower, even if I did already have one that worked fine.