- Have you ever seen an old rusty car?
You know you can only open and close that door
so many times before it finally falls off the hinges.
That's kinda like what my body's going through.
Like, you can only have so many tics
before something's gonna break.
- Hi, I'm Georgia.
- Hi, Georgia, I'm Janelle.
- Hi. - Hi.
- I'm Desmond.
- Good to meet you, Desmond.
- What are we here to talk about?
- We are here to talk about Tourette syndrome.
- What is that?
- Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder
that causes people to have tics
and body movements that they can't control.
Like, see what I just did right there,
that's part of it.
- Oh.
- And some people, very, very, very few people
have a condition that goes along with Tourette's
that makes yell out words uncontrollably.
But that's really, really rare.
What do you think about that?
- That would be pretty sad if you couldn't control it.
If you just yelled something out,
people could hear what you were talking about.
- I know, or what you're thinking,
'cause it just comes out of your mouth sometimes.
- That's terrible.
- But mine's not like that.
Luckily.
But I have other tics that make
my body move and make it jerk,
and most of the time that's pretty painful.
- What does the pain feel like?
- Oh, that's so hard to describe.
Like, if you take your whole body and you tense it up,
can you do that?
Like, make it really, really tight, and release it,
and really, really tight, but do that a million times a day,
over and over and over again.
- That's tiring.
- Yeah, and then like it feels like you're gonna get
like an electric jolt kind of.
- How come sometimes when you talk you have tics
but other times you don't?
- I can't control it.
It hurts if I try to hold them back.
And sometimes, like today,
I am holding them back a little bit,
so when I go home later they're gonna be really, really bad.
When I was younger I couldn't hold 'em back at all,
I would just let loose and my arms would go flying
and my legs would go flying and it was hard to walk,
and sometimes it was hard to eat and breathe and chew.
- Are people mean to you?
- Sometimes they can be kinda mean.
Sometimes they're rude.
And that's when I just use humor
and I say something real sarcastic back.
One time a guy, I was at the chiropractor's office,
and a guy was really irritated with the Tourette's,
and he said, "Well, you should tell people
"you have Tourette syndrome," as though it was
my responsibility to make him feel comfortable.
So I walked around to the other six people in the room
and I said, "Hi, I have Tourette's, hi, I have Tourette's,
"hi, I have Tourette's, hi, I have Tourette's,"
just so he could see how silly he sounded.
I felt like he should tell everybody that he's a jerk
as soon as he walks in the room.
Like, hi, I'm rude.
(laughing)
See, you get it, huh, Georgia?
(laughing)
- What should I do if I see someone with Tourette's?
- I think you should just talk to them
and let them know that they're safe around you,
and that you've learned about it
and you would love to learn more.
Because everybody with Tourette's is different,
and you might meet somebody who maybe has a tic
where they scream, or they blurt out words,
and even if the word is offensive, they don't mean to do it.
They just want to know that you're okay with it,
that you see their Tourette's,
'cause it's okay to see the Tourette's
but that it doesn't mean that you look at them
as being any less important or any less able
as any other person.
Tourette's is my thing, so what your guys' thing?
- I know something for Dessie.
His elbow is double jointed and it's really weird.
- Mine it too!
Can you do this?
Show me. There you go!
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Thank you, can I have hugs?
- Yeah.
- Ooh, ooh.
Thank you.