Hello, my name is Helen, and I am married and have four sons. Our first son was diagnosed with TS at the age of 9. No one in our family has TS that we know of. We were lucky enough to only have one son with TS. We were told 50/50 one of our other sons would have it.
Anyway, my son Billy is now 29 years old. From nine years old till about 16, Billy was on meds. He decided in high school he didn’t want to take meds cause they made him tired. Billy, at the same time, started experiencing with marijuana and alcohol. Billy graduated from HS and got into the school of engineering at Rutgers University after making quite a number of outstanding schools.
Freshman year went fine. Sophmore year Billy decided to join the engineering fraternity. His graes declined and he was put on academic probation. At that time he started dating a girl named Kat. She was a grade ahead of him and studying psychology. Their relationship ended after three years because of Billy’s temper and drinking.
Billy then graduated and moved into the city for five years. He had another girlfriend Tara that last almost three years with lots of fighting and drinking. Billy has anger issues. That relationship ended. Billy decided he wanted out of the city and to buy a house. He moved into a houser closer to me and my husband.
Billy had some problems with the house but also started dating a new girl named Gabby. That lasted a few months when she broke it off because of Billy’s anger issues. Billy came over for dinner Wednesday night and admitted he was depressed and ruined three relationships because of his anger issues. He realizes he needs to see a TS doctor. He is in the process of finding one.
My heart goes out to Billy. I fear of suicide since he has used the term numerous times through the years. He’s also hating his job at this time. The word hate is used constantly in his language. His brothers are afraid of him when he gets angry. I believe his drinking is out of control and a way of medicating himself. I have alcoholism in my family and I am very afraid that Billy is succumbing to alcohol.
It breaks my heart to see my son like this and feel like there is nothing I can do but be supportive of him. Let him know we love him and will be there for him no matter what. To come to us no matter what he feels. I hope he finally takes advantage of the TSA and joins blogs and talk to other people about his issues. I wish he could only see how bad TS is for others. His is mild compared to some adults and children.
I just read about “rage” on Facebook and that totally describes what Billy is going through. It is good to know that he can control it, if he puts his mind to it. Then again, I wish he would stop drinking until he can control his rage. I look forward to participating in this blog about TS. I should’ve done it years ago instead of sweeping the problem under the rug.
