(suspenseful music)
- Go away!
- [Diane] Stop!
- [Alex Voiceover] This is not what you think it is.
- Stop!
- [Alex Voiceover] It isn't bad behaviour.
It isn't bad parenting.
- She's an idiot, I hate her!
- [Alex Voiceover] It's far worse.
- I've got a weapon, give me back my ball!
(dramatic music)
- Are you fucking filming again?
- I just don't understand - - Stop it!
- [Alex voiceover] This is the dark side
of a debilitating disorder called Tourette's Syndrome.
(Cameron screaming)
It's a personal prison and there's no cure.
- Stop!
[Alex Voiceover] But these rage attacks and vivid illusions
are a side of Tourette's most of us never see,
never knew existed.
(Cameron screaming)
- You sort of see a change come over the face
and then anything could happen.
He can be wanting to hit us, destroy things,
he sometimes imagines we're Casper.
- [Alex Voiceover] That's Casper the Ghost.
- Where did Casper put my ball?
- [Alex Voiceover] A regular illusion.
(child screaming)
- Stop touching me Casper!
(guitar playing)
- [Alex Voiceover] And the most heartbreaking victims
of all, the kids themselves.
Like 13-year-old Cameron Schubert.
- [Alex] What's the toughest thing?
- When I have hyper-manic episodes, it's pretty bad.
I'm not myself, I turn into a different person.
And, like, I go like, full on rage, I like
(sad orchestral music)
try and hurt people and I throw stuff, and yeah.
- You can't help it.
- Yeah.
(Cameron whistling and grunting)
- For those that don't know him,
Cameron's Tourette's creates an at times
awkward and embarrassing series of tics and outbursts.
- Fuck! (beep)
- I think most people just think
it's swearing and yelling out.
- Don't look at the camera!
(Bruce laughing) - Sorry.
- But underneath all of that going on in here is-
- Mental. - Anxiety.
- [Cameron] Tourette's is just the tip of the iceberg.
(suspenseful music)
- [Alex Voiceover] And it's when Cameron's rage attacks
strike that the Jekyll and Hide nature
of the condition appears.
- Go away!
- It's not a build-up, it's a sudden switch from
calmness to uncontrollable rage.
And there's no in-between, there's no build-up
it just is so sudden and there's nothing
nothing he can do, there's nothing we can do,
you can't reason, they have to come back down themselves.
It's very, very difficult.
- Stop. Stop.
- Let go.
- No, I won't let go.
Recently, we were outside a shop
and he was yelling out at the top of his voice
that I was not his mum, called the police.
You don't know what you're gonna get.
- (Bruce) Put it down!
- Do you know what you're doing?
Is it you that's doing it?
- No. I go to the back of my head.
The person comes from the back of my head
to the front of my head and I turn into him.
And then, I know what's happening
I can see it, because like I'm in the back.
But I can't take over control.
It's like they're basically driving the car,
I can't stop the car.
- He often refers to it as Cameron Two.
- And is there anything you can do
to stop the rages coming on?
- Personally, I don't think there is.
- Generally, no.
- How long does it last?
- I think one of my longest has been two or three hours.
(Cameron screaming)
- You stupid piece of shit!
I hate you!
- After they've been through an episode like this,
the remorse that he feels is huge.
It envelops him again 'cause- - It becomes obsessional.
- Yeah, it's- - How he reacted and behaved.
It's an obsession of saying sorry over and over and over.
(Cameron crying)
- I didn't mean, I didn't, I didn't mean it.
- I feel like other people too much.
I always feel a bit depressed, a bit down.
Don't really wanna go to school the next day.
- [Alex Voiceover] And Cameron's not alone.
- Are you fucking filming again?
- I just don't understand- - Stop it!
So it's up here.
- [Alex Voiceover] At her family home on the Gold Coast.
- This is my room.
- [Alex Voiceover] I am meeting 12-year-old Maddy Rayward.
- Oh yes, okay, there's one, two, three holes right there.
- [Alex Voiceover] Where her bedroom
resembles a battleground.
Oh my God, okay, Maddy,
(Alex knocking)
that's quite a hard wall.
- Yes.
- Yeah, yeah.
I can't imagine you putting these
holes in these walls, Maddy.
Look at that smile!
- I told you, her sticks are strong.
- Yeah, yeah!
- What does our doctor call it?
The Angry Beast.
- Yeah. - The Angry Beast comes out.
- The Angry Beast comes out.
- Stop!
Stop it!
- It's like an angry beast which
basically controls over me.
- Maddy says and does things that I know that
I just have to look and say,
that's not Maddy saying that.
We've had police help, we've had ambulance help.
We've had to restrain Maddy.
You're just looking at this child that you've had
and all of a sudden, it's a different child.
So, angry and upset.
- Is it the hardest part of this condition?
- Absolutely, it's just one of the most
socially crippling, you know, disorders.
(Maddy panting and crying) - Fuck off!
It just overtakes me and it makes me feel
a bit sad sometimes.
I feel that my parents get really emotional
and I don't like when that happens, yeah.
(Maddy screaming and crying)
- How tough have these rage attacks been on you two?
Nick?
- I don't know, it's so varied, the emotions
that you feel when you're going through it
because you do feel undertones of anger
because, you know, you're being yelled at.
But it's also sorrow because you're seeing
your child going through this,
knowing that they cannot help it
and cannot stop, and just feeling,
I don't know, how do you describe it?
You can't do anything to help.
- Write your ideas down.
- [Alex Voiceover] Maddy's in year seven,
and it's here at school, in her quiet, focused classroom-
- Ten more seconds.
- That the tension of holding in her tics
and outbursts can reach boiling point.
(build-up music)
- Out of nowhere, a rage strikes
and we find her storming through the school grounds.
- Stop filming me!
Suddenly, Maddy isn't Maddy anymore.
For Maddy's teachers, this disruptive
and distressing behaviour is all too familiar.
- [Alex] And what happens in one of those meltdowns,
Caitlyn?
- She can be slamming the doors or
pulling down the posters or throwing things at the door.
There's a time where I've actually needed
Leva's assistance and she's come down.
She's thrown a phone at Leva, obviously using those
colourful language to get us away
because she doesn't want us to be there.
Even though she's seeking that attention,
it's more that the rage has taken over then.
- [Alex] And it's not so much her that's in control,
it's something else, isn't it?
- [Leva] Yeah. - [Caitlyn] That's right.
- [Alex Voiceover] So difficult that Caitlyn Cleary
and Leva Rimbult will often walk Maddy
from one class to another, a therapy dog,
Solo, helps calm Maddy too.
- The high school that Maddy's at have been
above and beyond, they are amazing.
Without those ladies, I don't know how we'd do it.
- No.
- Yeah, she's a very lucky girl-
- [Nick] Very lucky girl, yeah.
(suspenseful music)
- [Alex Voiceover] When it all becomes too much,
kids like Maddy and Cameron come here
to the Kooky Clinic, run by Gold Coast psychiatrist,
Dr. Shannon Morton.
- Rage symptoms can happen in up to 70%
of kids with Tourette's Syndrome.
- What are some of the worst cases
you've seen with these rages?
- I've seen kids who have demolished their houses,
where their houses look like war zones.
- So, serious damage these kids can do.
- I've had kids where they've, you know,
unfortunately broken bones, or physically
really hurt themselves. - [Alex] Or other people?
- Or other people.
(sad music)
- The Schubert's and the Rayward's are two families
dealing with a condition that has
drastically altered their lives,
for which there is no cure.
Cameron and Maddy have Tourette's Syndrome,
and the shocking rage attacks that come with it.
How difficult is it for you, Bruce,
seeing this, seeing your boy go through this?
- You've got to detach yourself a little bit, sometimes.
- How do you do that?
- You keep focusing on a bigger picture
and putting yourself way down the list.
- And sometimes you can't. - No you can't.
- Sometimes you get to a point where you can't.
And that's when you kinda say to the other one,
you have to deal with this tonight.
(hopeful music)
- [Alex Voiceover] But there is something
that seems to quell the awkward
and often embarrassing symptoms of the disorder.
It isn't rocket science either, it's as simple
as playing high energy sports,
or anything that requires intense concentration.
- [Alex] Plus he's going pretty well out there.
- [Bruce] He loves it, absolutely loves it.
Yeah, he's the smallest kid on the sign
but he just loves basketball so,
that's fine, we'll let him play as much as he likes.
- [Alex] Smallest kid, biggest heart.
- [Bruce] Maybe, yeah.
(children cheering)
- Diane, I'm noticing there aren't as many tics.
- That's right.
- That's because he's concentrating, right?
- Yeah, yeah, he's hyper-focused.
He's trying to do his very best, relax and enjoying it.
You know, if he were sitting in a class
concentrating, it wouldn't be the same.
I can still see some tics, I've seen him
chewing on his shirt a little bit
and making a few funny faces but essentially, yeah,
all but gone.
- He's having a ball out there, isn't he?
- He does, he loves it, and he's got good mates out there.
(children cheering) (hopeful music)
(upbeat music)
- [Alex Voiceover] And for Maddy, it's gymnastics
where her mind is occupied and at peace.
- [Instructor] Push up, much better.
- I know you do gymnastics.
- Yep.
- Does that help?
- Yes, it does, it really does.
(upbeat music)
It just helps to get my mind off my Tourette's
and rages and tics.
- Physical activity and acceptance, yep.
For Maddy just to be in an environment
where she can just be herself and
she's got a very outgoing, beautiful personality.
So when she can be herself, she feels just like herself.
- And what do you think the best medication is?
- I guess it's just treating a lot,
don't treat anybody else.
- Yeah.
(slow piano music)
- [Alex Voiceover] It sounds like good old common sense,
and even doctors agree.
- There are a lot of kids where if they just have
understanding and support of those around them,
won't need to be on medication.
And so, you know, we save them having side effects
by educating everyone around them.
- Acceptance is the best medicine.
- Absolutely, hands down, yeah.
(hopeful music)
- [Alex Voiceover] And that's exactly what
Cameron and his mom, Diane, are out to do.
Today, they're visiting a Brisbane school
to explain what Tourette's is all about,
not to judge, and especially, not to bully.
- We're just here to talk to you a bit about
Tourette's and what to do and what not to do
like, not be mean and stuff.
- [Alex Voiceover] This speech is particularly important
because there's a student at this school who,
like Cameron, has Tourette's.
His name is Matthew and he's eleven.
- I'd like to thank everyone for supporting me
and
that's about it, I think.
(audience applauding)
- [Alex] We're lucky to have them.
- Yeah, we're so lucky.
They're natural performers, naturally creative,
natural comedians, big-hearted, kind,
you'll never find kinder kids.
So we've got a lot we can learn from them.
- It's okay if you laugh with him, but don't laugh at him
and it's not good to bully.
I just think you shouldn't bully
because it makes it a lot worse.
Anything you want to say, man?
- Just don't bully, please.
Don't really bully anyone, actually
but it makes our Tourette's a lot worse.
(audience applauding)
- Thank you for listening.
- Thanks man, thanks for coming.