Hi! My name is Megan and I’m 23-year-old student with Tourette’s Syndrome. Tourettes is a neurological condition where one has vocal outbursts and/or physical spasms. I firmly believe that eating healthy and exercising helps reduce Tourettes. If exercise can help with Tourette’s it can help with ANYTHiNG. Exercise is your best medicine. Visit my Facebook page!
Tourette’s is a battle I deal with every day. I bite my lip and tongue until it chaps and bleeds, I wear a mouthguard to protect it but have tics where I spit out the mouthguard and it falls to the ground. Embarrassed and disgusted, I put it back in my mouth. Desperate time comes for desperate measures, so without a sink nearby I have to put it back in my mouth or wait.
I jerk my neck back repeatedly until I feel a certain pain. Not until I feel the pain I will never be satisfied. Once satisfied, the tic happens again — an ongoing cycle. I can’t write. Although I have beautiful hand writing, the beauty is useless because I either cramp my hands or throw my pencil at someone’s face.
There are so many more tics I experience that makes everyday a battle. But I am thankful. Thankful for the people who do love and understand me. Thankful for my family, friends, fiance, acquaintances, and kind strangers who give me a smile. I continue to strive in school. I continue to exercise and practice to be a personal trainer.
I still have the ability to save up money to attend the University of Washington to major in International Studies because I want to help the world. I am thankful. And all I ever want is to pay it forward.
