Public Knowledge
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 already basically knew: I've had Tourette Syndrome most of my life. I spent six months on medicine trying to control the visible and invisible symptoms to no avail. I realized that if I was going to accept this as a part of my life, I had to learn about and understand it. I started a blog to help. I'm sharing it here this one time because Tourette's is ultra-stigmatized and misunderstood, and a lot of people have it a whole lot worse than me. I want to present the reality of Tourette's so people understand how inaccurate the pop culture portrayals of it are.If you ever want to know anything about TS, feel free to ask! Also I'm sorry this looks like a LiveJournal. I'm better at writing than I am at making websites look nice. I should also mention that a lot of this is pretty personal, so if you don't want to learn a lot of (occasionally upsetting?) stuff about me, this is your warning not to click.
I should mention now that one of my biggest flaws as a person is that I underestimate people's kindness all the freaking time. Predictably (to everyone other than me, at least), my family and friends were nothing less than staggeringly supportive of me and of this blog. It's hard to explain what a big weight is off of me without getting all sappy, so I'll just say that I wish I could have felt this way for a lot longer. I've so far been content with not being diagnosed until my late thirties, but honestly if I'd known I'd get this kind of unconditional love and understanding from so many people as I try to figure all this out, I probably would have been cool being diagnosed a little earlier. Major props to my wife's family, who've taken this in major stride. Honestly, nothing about me could be worse to them than the fact that I'm a Giants fan anyway. My own family has also been awesome since I told them back in December of last year.
Let me tell you though, it feels good. I think a lot of writing my blog since August or so has been leading up to this. I needed to get all this down somewhere I could see it and review it and understand it so that I can help others to understand it, too. I'm not sure where I'm taking it from here, but I hope you'll stick with me a little while longer.
-a quick addendum to this post about how NOT to talk to a person with Tourette's. Any version of "Yeah, I mean, I have weird habits too," is not cool, bro. My bad habits are that maybe I have a third beer some nights and I tailgate slow drivers in the fast lane and I don't always remember to pack a second set of spare clothes in my son's daycare bag. Tics are not habits. They are vile, awful enemies we do BATTLE WITH every day.
In December of last year, a neurologist confirmed for me something I already basically knew: I've had Tourette Syndrome most of my life. I spent six months on medicine trying to control the visible and invisible symptoms to no avail. I realized that if I was going to accept this as a part of my life, I had to learn about and understand it. I started a blog to help. I'm sharing it here this one time because Tourette's is ultra-stigmatized and misunderstood, and a lot of people have it a whole lot worse than me. I want to present the reality of Tourette's so people understand how inaccurate the pop culture portrayals of it are.If you ever want to know anything about TS, feel free to ask! Also I'm sorry this looks like a LiveJournal. I'm better at writing than I am at making websites look nice. I should also mention that a lot of this is pretty personal, so if you don't want to learn a lot of (occasionally upsetting?) stuff about me, this is your warning not to click.
I should mention now that one of my biggest flaws as a person is that I underestimate people's kindness all the freaking time. Predictably (to everyone other than me, at least), my family and friends were nothing less than staggeringly supportive of me and of this blog. It's hard to explain what a big weight is off of me without getting all sappy, so I'll just say that I wish I could have felt this way for a lot longer. I've so far been content with not being diagnosed until my late thirties, but honestly if I'd known I'd get this kind of unconditional love and understanding from so many people as I try to figure all this out, I probably would have been cool being diagnosed a little earlier. Major props to my wife's family, who've taken this in major stride. Honestly, nothing about me could be worse to them than the fact that I'm a Giants fan anyway. My own family has also been awesome since I told them back in December of last year.
Let me tell you though, it feels good. I think a lot of writing my blog since August or so has been leading up to this. I needed to get all this down somewhere I could see it and review it and understand it so that I can help others to understand it, too. I'm not sure where I'm taking it from here, but I hope you'll stick with me a little while longer.
-a quick addendum to this post about how NOT to talk to a person with Tourette's. Any version of "Yeah, I mean, I have weird habits too," is not cool, bro. My bad habits are that maybe I have a third beer some nights and I tailgate slow drivers in the fast lane and I don't always remember to pack a second set of spare clothes in my son's daycare bag. Tics are not habits. They are vile, awful enemies we do BATTLE WITH every day.
Comments
Post a Comment