Ed's Tourette's

I've said this a few times, but my favorite part of starting this blog has been becoming a member of the vibrant TS community online. Tuesday morning on the way into work, I was holding an extra large coffee in my right hand and I started doing my usual unusual drink-carrying thing with my right hand. If you want to know what it's like, grab an empty non-breakable cup (you're not yet experts, like I am) and hold it in your hand as you normally would. Now, while keeping the rest of the surface of your fingers against the glass, take your fingertips off. Basically this tic (that I've only recently realized is a tic) causes me to almost drop/barely hold onto drinks and other delicate stuff. I thought to myself, "Gosh, this is a weird one." Then I started wondering if it's actually weird or not, so I reached out on  Twitter and got some great responses. Turns out that a couple other people have an identical/similar tic/compulsion. I find that these small conn...

First, let me apologize for last Thursday's non-post. It was Thanksgiving here in the states, and I was lucky enough to spend the last four days with my family and friends, eating good food and sharing lots of love. I also got to spend last Wednesday night in NYC with a friend seeing my favorite  band .It turns out that as a 38 year old husband and father, I am, in fact, wayyyyy too effing old to stay out till 3:30 AM the morning of Thanksgiving and still feel human when I wake up a few hours later. Luckily, my wife's family was kind enough to snap me out of my daze by way of our traditional full contact football game. I am the oldest non-QB playing, and boy oh boy does it show. This was my eighth year playing with them, and it's a blast every year. That game is a good opportunity to take stock of how much a person's life changes year over year. Since my first year playing, the family has had three more weddings, three more grandkids, three new houses, a host of new deg...

After seeing a  Tweet  about  Battlestar Galactica  earlier today, I've been wondering a lot about how people with Tourette's Syndrome experience different forms of entertainment. I know I've read a bunch of tweets/blogs/articles in which Tourette's patients describe having tics that are highly susceptible to suggestion. Bad actors nearby may repeatedly say a bad word, knowing that the person with Tourette's might not be able to control whether or not he repeats it. I know a kid in the fifth grade who recognized my arm-flinging tics would start doing it, understanding that I'd have a hard time controlling myself. I wonder too if that same susceptibility to external stimuli also influences how we react to tv shows, movies, and video games (I'm leaving books off that list because even though we don't control the content , we surely control the pace at which that content enters our brains when we read). My wife and I watched "Ant-Man and the Wasp...

I mentioned two  posts  ago that I decided two weeks ago to publicly own up (?) to my Tourette's for the first time on social media. ...for the first time on social media that isn't my Twitter, the handle of which actually has the word "tourettes" in it. Prior to this, and with the exception of my neurologist, my best guess is that I'd told a total of 19 people about my TS. That's not an insignificant number, but obviously I know more than 19 people. Honestly it was just a few weeks ago now, and I can't even remember exactly what made me decide to do it. I guess it was that I told my mom about this blog that morning and I sort of figured that if the people who matter most know about it, I'd might as well tell everyone else. I sort of haphazardly typed something up on Facebook. Here's the text of it, since I'm apparently too tech un-saavy to frakking upload a screenshot: In December of last year, a neurologist confirmed for me something I alre...

I'm coming up on my one year TS diagnosiversary, and I think the most important thing I've gained during that time is a sense of belonging to a community. I've written here before about how having Tourette's Syndrome can make me feel pretty isolated. While each of us is ultimately locked in our brain, doing battle with our own version of the TS monster, it's helpful to know that there are others fighting the same fight. I'm lucky to be a member of a few awesome online communities where people with TS congregate. It's great to see people talk about struggles I've also dealt with sharing coping strategies. It's been humbling and eye-opening to see disability advocates speak truth to power and force those power-wielders, and me, to come to grips with the big and small consequences of ableism. I've seen brave teenagers and young adults going through all the traumas of becoming the person they want to be while also dealing with Tourette's. I...

This past Friday, I decided to let my friends and family know about this blog and, by extension, about my Tourette's diagnosis. It occurs to me that my first sentence should have listed my unveilings in order of importance (Tourette's, then blog), but I can't delete with this darn typewriter. So yes, I finally knuckled up and got around to doing what I said I'd do in a  blog post  from two months ago. To any of my friends and family who decided to stick with it, Hi! Thanks for all the kindness you've shown me either on Facebook, in person, or over the phone. I wish I'd told you all earlier. To the fifty or so of you who've been reading these posts since the end of August, thanks for helping me get here! Interacting with you on  Twitter  has been exceptionally helpful to me both in writing this blog and in coming to terms with my TS diagnosis. Luckily I'm still pretty messed up in the head, so the posts continue! I figure tonight might be a good time ...

I started trying to write this post on Monday night but I couldn't wrap my head around it. I think it must be tough for actual professional writers to know they have a good idea but be completely unable to make something good out of it. Then again, maybe actual professional writers don't have that problem. I wrote last week that 11 months after being diagnosed, I'm still not sure how to talk to people about my Tourette's. It's awkward, it's hard to randomly bring it up or to shoehorn it into a conversation, and I'm not sure how necessary it really is for other people to know about it. I have, however, had a few thoughts on how NOT to talk to a person with Tourette's about their Tourette's. I've had a few interactions with people over the course of my life with regards to tics in public. Mostly it's been weird looks (did that guy just wink at me? did he just give me the FINGER? i wonder why he's raising his eyebrows at me?) but a few peo...