Hey everybody, today I want to talk to you
about tourettes disorder
What is it?How do we diagnose it?And then
what do we do to help ourselves?
So like I said today I want to talk
with you about tourettes disorder.
And the reason I'm even bringing this topic up is because
I received a question from Melissa aka
Idranktheseawater, if you haven't checked
out her channel on youtube
hop on and check it out.
She puts on a lot of videos about this
and other things going on in her life
and it's just wonderful content
so she sent me a question,:
I'm going to read you what she asked
Why is tourettes syndrome in the DSM when it's a neurological disorder
And I didn't know the answer
I said I'm going to look into it
What a good question!
I had no idea
and that's the great thing about
our community is that you all challenge me
to learn more information,
to put out more content,
to do more research to figure things out
so we can disseminate the information,
right? That's what our community is all
about, so thank you Melissa for asking.
And what I found out... drum roll please..
is that, and I'm looking in my handy dandy
DSM, and I also have my notes so if you
see me referencing that's what I'm doing..
I found out that Tourettes syndrome is a
neurodevelopmental disorder, and you're
thinking Kati what the heck does that mean
A neurodevelopmental disorder, and I'm
just reading what they say, "is a group of
conditions with onset in the developmental
period" so when we're very young and our
brain is still developing. "The disorders
typically manifest early in development
often before the child enters grade school"
so very young. Tourettes has the average
age of onset between 5 and 7.
"They are characterised by developmental
deficits, that produce impairments of
personal, social, academic or occupational
functioning." Now that is all of the
neurodevelopmental disorders, but that
just gives you and idea of what they mean
when they call something that. And tic
disorders as a whole fall under that.
And a tic disorder or a tic (if any of you
don't know what that is) um.. is like a
sudden, rapid movement.. what do they say
"a rapid. recurrent, non-rhythmic motor
movement or vocalisation." Now some people
and I have many of these people in my life
will clear their throat, and that's their
tic, or they'll sniffle, and that's it,
they shrug their shoulders, or they may
shake a hand out real quick. Those are all
different examples of tics. Now everyone's
are different. Some people have
a combination of things they have to do
all at once, but all of those things fall
under different tics. Now Tourettes itself
has, and I'm just gonna read you what the
DSM says: "has both multiple motor and one
or more vocal tics." We have both. We may
have a shoulder shrug and a vocal tic,
like "ahem", and these have to have been
present at some time during the illness
although not necessarily concurrently,
meaning they don't have to happen at the
same time,but they both have to be present
The tics may wax or wain in frequency, but
have persisted for more than a year since
the first tic onset. So at least a year
someone has been struggling with this.
Onset is before the age of 18, and the
disturbance is not attributable to the
physiological effects of a substance. So
you can't be under the influence of
alcohol, cocaine, any kind of substance,
or any medical condition. They reference
Huntingdon's disease a lot in this because
I guess it can give you a lot of tics.
So that's how we diagnose Tourettes.
So now we know what Tourettes Disorder is
and usually when it's diagnosed. Like I
said, it happens in early developmental
years between the ages of 5 and 7. And in
the DSM they report that those who have
tics and Tourettes disorder as whole
usually don't even get treatment. Often
times the symptoms are not severe enough
to really impair their functioning, so
they don't really need to do anything
about it. But other people can find it
very impairing, and it can be very
difficult for them to get jobs, and meet
people, and just feel ok while they still
have their tics or whatever. So those
people may seek treatment. So then what
kind of treatment are we looking for?
Now, the stuff that I looked into said
that first of all there's no cure for
Tourettes disorder, and like I said, some
people it's not really even severe enough
to seek treatment and it may not even be
necessary, but no medication works for
all Tourettes disorder symptoms, but some
may help. And they reported that stimulant
can help, antidepressants can help, and
botox can help, which I found very odd,
but it makes sense if you have facial tics
that could stop you from actually doing it
So those are the 3 that are most common.
But the one thing they say works the best,
is, drum roll....
THERAPY! ta da! people like me, someone
who probably specialises in tic disorders
or anxiety disorders because they say
that they kinda run together. And a lot of
the things I was reading about Tourettes
sounded a lot like OCD, because they
report that one of the things that helps
in therapy is behavioural therapy, where
we maybe tell you to not do something for
just a minute longer and hold that
uncomfortable feeling where you're like
but I reeeallyy wanna do it, and then the
urge to do the tic can go away
And so that is one of the treatments they
talk about,so if you work with a therapist
who's great with OCD and tic disorders
and anxiety disorders, they'll do a lot of
behavioural therapy, which is part of the
CBT world. And they'll have you try to
fight those urges because the interesting
thing about tourettes the more I read
about it, is that even though it can feel
like it's a completely involuntary response
like oop I have no chance to even not
do it, within our brain they say that it
is actually voluntary, and if we can tap
into that we can actually stop the tics.
Now it takes a lot of work and a lot of
time with your therapist, but they said
that for most people it goes away. So
that's great to know if you've been
struggling for a long time thinking when
is there going to be relief from this?!
They also talk about just basic
psychotherapy, just talking things out
cos it can help you cope with the
tourettes, as well as the accompanying
symptoms. They talked a lot about how
anxiety and depression coincide with
tourettes and how people really struggle
with those at the same time. And so as we
know, just talking things out and
processing through how we feel can really
really help us feel better. And the last
thing that I wanna talk about is the fact
that along with the behavioural therapy is
that if you can just find a CBT therapist
in your area, because I know many of you
in the UK and Canada and different parts
of the world usually only have access to a
certain type of therapy, and certain
therapists. And I know that CBT is very
common... know that CBT therapy is great
for this. It's all part of that behavioral
therapy, it's all part of the same therapy
family. So, please if you're struggling
with this and this is something that has
been going on since, let's say you were 6
years old, know that you can overcome.
A lot of it is sitting with that
uncomfortable feeling, working with
someone as you talk it out and you fight
through those urges, because trust me, all
the research, all the reports I read, said
that you can overcome it and it does go
away. I hope this has been informational
Melissa, and to all of you, keep your
questions coming! Like I said,
you challenge me to learn more, to do more
research, to find other specialists in
the area, as we as a community just keep
growing. It's amazing! And so don't forget
to subscribe because I put out videos all
the time. And give this a like if you like
this type of video where it may be a
different type of disorder that I'm
researching and giving information out
about.
I didn't know how to stop and so I just...
Subtitles by the Amara.org community