- Hey everybody, I have a special guest.
Inés is here from Draw Curiosity and we're gonna talk
about the difference between OCD and Tourette's.
(hip hop music)
- Well, hey everyone, you call them kittens, right?
- Yes I do. - Kittens. (laughs)
Well, I make videos about science, but on top of that,
I also care a lot about mental health.
I used to have a super secret mental health channel
called Squeak Code, now I spend most of my time
making videos, sort of explaining the world around us
and I also like to do that with science and neuroscience.
- Today, we're here to talk about the difference between
OCD and Tourette's Syndrome.
Now, we talked before we started filming about
the difference between a disorder and a syndrome,
and would you care to explain?
- Sure, so, again, this is how I've always perceived them,
the sort of three levels of things people speak
of diseases, where you can get a clear test and you take
a blood test or you measure some levels and boom, you know
what it is.
Often with mental health, it's not always like that.
So, OCD disorder, very clear ways of distinguishing
what it is, you couldn't take a blood test to find out
whether you've got it, but it's quite obvious that something
is wrong and you can trace it back to specific
general symptoms that tell you what it is.
And disorder, it kind of makes your life worse, so...
- Yeah, it makes it, like, if you remember any DSM diagnosis
I talk about, one of the criteria is always that it impairs
your level of functioning.
Meaning work, life, school, whatever it is, any social,
we can't do it, we can't function daily.
- Exactly, and Tourette's, so syndrome basically means
collection of symptoms, so I believe Tourette's is at least
one vocal tick and multiple motor tics, generally on set
before the age of 18.
So that's the syndrome, there's the collections of symptom,
if they co-occur, you would say you've got
Tourette's Syndrome, but there's no test and there's no
necessary implication that it makes your level
of functioning worse.
For some people it might, some people can be really
self conscious about their tics, some people's tics
might actually cause them harm, but in the ideal world
where your friends and the people around you know
that you have Tourette's and they don't care,
in the same way that you don't care if someone just coughs
or, you know, makes a noise or clicks
their fingers. - Sneezes, or yeah.
Snaps. - Exactly. (laughs)
It's just a part of who you are, without necessarily
defining you. - And that's interesting
to understand and just before we really get
into the differences as we kind of tease it out,
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I have older videos about it
if you want the run-down on how it's diagnosed and
what it looks like, but overall in a nutshell, I would
define Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,
it's an anxiety disorder and I think that always kind
of helps us frame what it's gonna be like and kind of
where it comes from.
So the O, the obsession, means that I have this intense,
like, worry, thought,
need to do something and I obsess over it, I think about it
and then I have to do the compulsion, the C,
I have to take action.
And by taking that action, the anxiety's relieved.
And so that's kind of how that cycle gets going,
and then the more we do them and the more that we engage
in that obsession by doing the compulsion, the worse
it actually can get.
And so part of the treatment is to slowly realize
that nothing bad is gonna happen if you don't do
that compulsion, it'll be okay and it's a lot
of anxiety reduction tools, relaxation techniques,
et cetera.
So that's a little bit, in a nutshell, of what OCD really is
and how would you define Tourette's?
'Cause as you know, I don't specialize in treating
Tourette's and it's a little out of my realm, so I'm excited
to learn along with you.
- Okay, I will put it out there, I'm not a psychologist
or a neuroscientist, a lot of this is basically you learn it
because you have it, so you read books about it,
but you know, there's no doctor or therapist
behind my name. (laughs) - And that's perfectly okay,
like you were saying, our experience can be really powerful.
- So, Tourette's is a neurological disorder,
a neurological syndrome.
In essence, what they think causes it,
is in the basal ganglia, which is inside the brain.
- Right in the middle.
- There's overactivity of dopamine that I believe
is what people think causes Tourette's.
The basal ganglia controls body movement and impulses,
so there's actually too many impulses and movements
happening inside. - Interesting.
- As someone with Tourette's, the way I perceive the tics,
in a similar way to OCD you get obsessions,
which are worrying thoughts about something.
With Tourette's, I get sort of repeated bodily urges,
so it's... - Oh, almost like if you felt,
and I know this might be a terrible analogy,
but to help me kind of understand, would it be...
You know where sometimes you're like,
"Oh, I need to itch something",
and like, (groans)
and you have to, you know?
- It is exactly like that and it can be like an itch,
and you know, you have to scratch it.
And if you don't scratch it, you're very aware of it
until you do so.
Sometimes the urge can pass if you don't scratch it,
but generally, it can remain 'till you do so.
But sometimes it can be a bit more powerful than that,
it can feel like a sneeze, so you can't actually stop it,
you just know it's coming, or a need to think or a need
to breathe, so you can tell it's something very defined
that you have to do and your body is saying you need
to do this. - Yeah, just like a sneeze.
- Exactly. - You have no ability,
even if you try to hold it, it's still like...
It still happens.
- Exactly, you can sort of delay it a little bit
or you could maybe draw it out, but eventually you
have to do it.
- And so, is it overall, like the main difference between
OCD and Tourette's is the worry,
or the fact that it would get worse if we didn't do it,
verses getting better if we didn't do it?
- I think that is ultimately the key, the key difference.
Because as Katie explained earlier, with OCD, if you give
in to the compulsion, it temporarily relieves the anxiety.
But later on, next time you get that obsession,
you really have to do the compulsion or the anxiety
gets worse and it's just a snowball.
The more you do the compulsion, the worse the anxiety is,
the more times you have to do the compulsion.
- 'Cause almost in a way, every time when we have OCD,
every time we act out and we do the compulsion,
we're almost telling ourselves,
"Oh, that's why nothing bad happens, 'cause I did this."
And we're kinda like affirming it, affirming it,
affirming it.
Where as in Tourette's Syndrome, if you don't do it,
it gets worse. - It does.
So, it is possible to hold in tics or to hold them back.
Some people, and when I say hold them back, for some people
that can be a few seconds, for some people it
can be a few minutes.
Other people can do it for hours, so you get people
with Tourette's, you know, they go to school.
I was actually like that, I would hold it in at school,
I did not know I had Tourette's when I was at school,
but I was very self conscious of these movements
I was doing.
But then when you get home at the end of the day,
you tic so much more than if you'd just been ticking
throughout the day.
There's a clear difference between OCD where the disorder
itself makes life hell.
- Yeah.
- Where as with Tourette's, I find it's generally
how other people are perceiving you.
- 'Cause if you feel okay, if you're able to do the tic,
it sounds like it's not soothing, but then you feel fine.
- Exactly, as long as you're accepting of it,
as long as it doesn't affect your own personal self esteem
or you don't feel you're less in some way
because you have tics, which you absolutely shouldn't
because it's just a tic, it's just having an extra cough
or an extra hiccup.
- So maybe that's the work in therapy, as like a side note,
'cause I always think medication with therapy
are the best outcomes.
It would be more, my work with a client who had Tourette's,
would maybe be more of the accepting.
Because I've always talked to you about when we
get new diagnoses, like if we get a bunch of diagnoses
at one time or just a new diagnosis or change,
it can take us a while to understand it,
make sure you're asking all the questions about it
and accepting it as either, I always like to say
it doesn't define us, but as part of who we are, you know?
And I think that that takes us a while to be like,
"Okay, yeah, that's something that I struggle with
or something that I do,"
and you know, that might be the process
in how therapy can help with Tourette's.
- And yeah, I will add the only caveat I'm thinking,
very severe cases here where people might actually cause
physical harm to themselves from, you know...
- Oh yeah. - Such as people who might
sort of punch, hit themselves, or some people have
violent neck jerks, for instance basically, I don't want
to discredit those who have more
serious symptoms. - And everyone's experience
is different and if it is really severe, please talk
to someone, you know, see what is available to you
because this is, we're just having a discussion
in anent to sharing her experience.
So, like I always leave in the comments, you know,
your experience, and just to end our conversation,
what advice would you give to someone who's finding out
maybe they have OCD or Tourette's?
- Okay, so, my advice to anyone going through anything
like this, number one, find someone you trust and tell them.
That can be a parent, it can be a friend,
it can be a sibling or it can be a doctor.
Or it can just be somewhere anonymous on the internet
or on your forums. (laughing)
But I think the very first step is being able
to tell someone, it will provide a bit of relief,
I think, and in most cases you'll never be alone
in these things.
Second thing, talk to a doctor.
If you think you've got OCD, tell them you think you've
got OCD, they will be able to offer some options,
might be able to refer you to a psychologist,
they might offer you medication.
(hip hop music) Advice number three,
like you said, recovery is never linear, it's gonna
be a couple of steps forwards, a few steps back.
Sometimes it might even feel like you're back to square one.
But you're not, because things go up and down, but even
if it seems like they've gone back to square one,
you've been through that path before so it's actually easier
to go back down that. - Yeah.
Well, thank you so much for sharing.
I hope you find that helpful.
I know that it's kind of, for me, it was educational
to learn the differences between Tourette's and OCD.
But leave in the comments your experience,
check out Inés's channel.
I'll put the links in the description
and we did a video over there,
so make sure you click over there and check it out.
Don't forget to subscribe and we will see you next time.
- Bye. - Bye. (laughs)