One to eleven children out of every thousand have tourette's. Although tourette's is lot more talked about now then ever before there is still a lot of confusion surrounding this disorder. Let alone sufferers or parents of sufferers, even professionals are still trying to make sense of this often misunderstood disorder. I have lived with this disorder for over twenty five years which started when I was just six years old.
What is Tourette's syndrome?
Tourette's syndrome
is classified as an anxiety disorder characterized by tics — involuntary, rapid, sudden movements or vocalizations that occur repeatedly in the same way. Few of the common tics are coughing, throat clearing, sniffing and facial movements.Individuals with this disorder feel the urge to carry out specific actions such as facial movements, coughing etc to release a build up of tension. The actions they carry out worsen when they are in stress and also when they are self-conscious of their problems and forcefully try to put a stop to them.
In any situation that provokes anxiety people tend to have recurring thoughts. At times, especially when a person is feeling emotional, these thoughts can become so strong that it starts to effect simple tasks which then further increase the anxiety level. If these reccurring thoughts continue for a length of time it could become a vicious cycle that a person finds difficult to break. Tourette's fall in this category.