Does a New Environment Mean New Tics?

I started in a new role at work a few weeks ago and it's been going well TS-wise. I was worried that the stimuli involved in learning a new job might set me up for a rough time with my tics, but I was only sort of right. I work for an industrial supply company, and for the last five years I've been working alongside some great people in our freight department. If our whole building sends out 14k orders a day, our department of 17-ish people only handles around 400-450 of those. Our orders were typically for the biggest stuff we sell, and each order required a fair bit of critical thinking to process. I could explain that even further, but if you haven't already bailed on this entry, you surely would have by the time I was done. The pace took wild swings, from casually working to frantically running around like lunatics literally trying to fit 10,000 pounds into a 5,000 pound box. Those lengthy periods of casual work were bad for my tics, which seem to become worse the more free time my brain has. The department I'm in now has around 26 employees active at any given time, and that number of us processes around 10k orders a freaking day. Each order is significantly smaller than any I would have handled in my old position, but the sheer number of them is daunting, to say the least. 

My concerns going into the transition were three-fold (can something be threefold?). First, and maybe most embarrassing, was that I was worried that the social strain of meeting and interacting with so many new people would cause an uptick in my tics, which would of course increase the social strain of meeting and interacting with so many new people. Second, I was worried that I'd be ass-bad at the new work, which would cause me anxiety which would, you guessed it, cause an increase in my tics. Thirdly, and most Tourettesy, was my concern (which other TS patients will inherently understand but others may not) that the context-sensitive nature of (at least my particular case of) Tourettes would give me some new tics as a result of a new environment and new repetitive movements I need to perform for my job.

As for the first thing, the social aspects of the new job have been good so far. A year and a half of having a diagnosis and interacting with other TS patients and writing this blog helped me have the stones to almost immediately tell my new trainer, to whom I am all but physically attached to until early April, that I have Tourette's. It's only as I sit here typing this that I realize what a big step that was for me. He was totally cool and it hasn't come up since. There have been a few occasions where I can tell he's noticed my tics, but we just keep on rolling through. As for the rest of my co-workers, the TS thing hasn't come up. They're kind one and all. I resolved as I started this new position that I'd try to be more outgoing, friendly, and positive than I've been in the past and would you look at that! People actually respond well to that.

For the second thing, I'm not ass-bad at it yet. Still a ways to go before I consider myself to be good at it, but that's just fine with me.

The most interesting part of all this is sort of related to my third concern about acquiring new tics. My job requires a TON TON TON of repetitive motion which seems like a good way to find myself neck (tic) deep in all sorts of new problems. It's actually been quite the opposite, but with a caveat. The work, and the crazy accuracy standards I'm required to meet while doing it, actually require so my of my active brain power that I think it's knocking the TS way into the back of my mind. When I get really into assembling customer orders, my brain goes mad blank. I feel clear and calm and in control in a way that I'm just not used to. I'm aware of every breath and every motion and every movement of my face and I'd swear I'm actually in charge of all of them. For all I know I'm ticcing like a mad man, but if I am then I sure don't realize it. It's a pretty great feeling, even if the only way I can arrive at it is by working. The caveat I mentioned is that I think my tics are a little worse lately outside of work. I'm making a lot of grunting and moaning noises in the car during both my commutes, and my mouth sound tics have been pretty bad at home. I don't think I've developed any new motor tics since starting my new job, but hey: it's only been two and a half weeks. Who KNOWS what my TS can come up with?