Boring Tourettes

The story about the 12 girls at the same high school in upstate New York with tic and vocal outburst like symptoms has been brought back into the news cycle now with new students displaying symptoms. Don’t worry, Erin Brockovich, the real one, not Julia Roberts, has been called in to see if there is a chemical contamination in the soil or something. Here is the link to the article on TIME Magazine’s website. http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/31/mysterious-twitching-outbreak-in-n-y-teen-girls-what-is-mass-psychogenic-illness/?iid=hl-main-lede

My opinion is not about this situation, though I believe these students are suffering from conversion disorder otherwise known as mass hysteria. What I have an opinion about is the way Tourette’s Syndrome (TS) is portrayed in the media. Right in the lede to the above article Tourette’s is used as the descriptor for what these students are experiencing. The writer isn’t saying that they have TS, but that is where the problem lies is how and when TS is used contextually. Not all people who suffer from TS have tics this severe.

I don’t believe at least in most cases, that the media intends any malice in their mentions of TS, it’s just that most know absolutely nothing about TS and therefore when it is used, within or not within context, the public has very little to base their knowledge from.

To be fair, in the case of these students in New York, their “symptoms” are very similar to those of TS. but with TS symptoms never actually go away; they just lesson in severity over time.
The reason I can speak on this subject, for those who do not know already, is because I have TS. My mom started noticing my symptoms when I was about four years old. I have seen how TS is portrayed in the media but also how little it is discussed. Why it’s not discussed is beyond me, but maybe it’s time for me to change that.

Like the mysterious symptoms of the students, TS is still very much a mystery and there are no cures or even specific treatments and maybe that is why many don’t know what to do with it. The best way to characterize it is being caused by a neuro-chemical imbalance and it is essentially a compulsion disorder like OCD. I’ve heard it explained that there are missing stop signs in my brain.

For many, the South Park episode where Cartman fakes having TS so he can get away with swearing in public comes to mind. Like most South Park episodes, it’s pretty offensive but still well researched and pretty funny. However, what this episode continues to perpetuate is the TS symptom called coprolalia: the tic that leads to shouting obscenities. This is why when I tell people I have TS I have gotten questions like “What do you say?” The thing is that only 10-15% of people with TS have coprolalia, and I’m not one of them. However, this is the part of TS that I feel is the most misunderstood, even my dad wasn’t entirely aware of these facts until I recently explained them to him.

In the case with the students from New York, some of the girls, as seen on an NBC broadcast, talk about not being able to go to school because of their “condition,” and she says so in a way that seems it is to incite pity. Well, I never missed any school because of having TS unless it was to go to a neurologist appointment. With these girls symptoms being likened to TS, it will suggest that tics keep people home bound or something, which is just ridiculous.

To be diagnosed with TS one has to have a verbal tic, but it doesn’t have to be coprolalia. Others include the sensationalized tic of barking like a dog and mild ones that include clearing one’s throat or short humming sounds. The only ones I’ve ever manifested are the last two leading to hearing the comment, you have boring Tourettes. Along with a verbal tic one must have multiple motor tics, which include abdominal contraction, neck rolling, flailing limbs, and the one I’m most commonly known for, exaggerated eye-blinking. Both of these symptoms have to be present for more than a year.

In a couple of movies that I can think of, How To Lose A Guy in Ten Days and My Idiot Brother, I’ve heard Tourettes be used out of context for humor purposes, and it will soon probably enter into our lexicon as the way retard has, which is also widely used out of context. I have nothing against bringing up the humor associated with TS, but I feel if it is going to be used like that more people need to learn about the disorder.

If you have anymore questions just ask. Just don’t ask stupid questions.