{"id":1499,"date":"2012-11-05T11:01:41","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T16:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/njcts.org\/tsparents\/?p=1499"},"modified":"2012-11-05T11:01:41","modified_gmt":"2012-11-05T16:01:41","slug":"is-tourette-syndrome-cursed-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/njcts.org\/tsparents\/is-tourette-syndrome-cursed-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Tourette Syndrome cursed? Part 1: Facebook groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s a few days after Halloween, so I\u2019m probably a few days off from when I should be discussing witches, but I have to pose this question: At some point in history did some ancient Touretter upset a local witch so badly that she put a curse on all who have this particular syndrome?<\/p>\n

Some days, it sure feels like it. It seems that it\u2019s not enough that we have to live every day with a condition that is embarrassing and often painful, on top of everything our condition throws at us we have to deal with society\u2019s ignorance and use of Tourette as a punchline.<\/p>\n

I belong to a few support groups on Facebook. They are closed groups because some of the topics we talk about are embarrassing and people are more willing to talk openly if they know what they say isn\u2019t going to be posted to their friends newsfeeds (of course, yesterday Facebook had a glitch which did that even on closed groups — thanks a lot Facebook.) We talk about everything in those groups, both the good and the bad. Often, it seems that there is a lot more bad than good.<\/p>\n

Without being too specific, because privacy is an issue, here are some of the topics that have come up in the last week:<\/p>\n