{"id":3918,"date":"2014-09-30T07:30:19","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T11:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/njcts.org\/tsparents\/?p=3918"},"modified":"2014-09-30T07:30:19","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T11:30:19","slug":"52-weeks-of-ts-week-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/njcts.org\/tsparents\/52-weeks-of-ts-week-21\/","title":{"rendered":"52 Weeks of TS: Week 21"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Every Tuesday, noted Tourette Syndrome advocate Troye Evers shares his \u201c52 Weeks of TS\u201d blog journal with the TSParentsOnline community. In cased you missed any of the first 20 weeks, you can\u00a0read them here<\/strong><\/a>. For more information about Troye, please click on his name or visit his\u00a0website<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Have you ever tried to do something that you know is just stupid? We all have done something in our lifetime that we ask ourselves, \u201cWhy did I just do that\u201d? Well I did that this week.<\/p>\n

I have spoken to many other people with TS and what has helped them in the past. Now I\u2019m not suggesting that anyone attempts to self-medicate or try any path that is not suggested by their doctor, but I have talked to a few people that have said that marijuana has helped them.<\/p>\n

I smoked marijuana when I was younger — much younger — and remember it did not work well with me. Having anxiety disorder, smoking just made me crazy, but I thought maybe that I would give it a try again. Our bodies change over the years, and I thought there\u2019d be no harm in trying. Wrong thought!!<\/p>\n

Not that it harmed me, but I took the smallest hit a person could take, not even holding it in. I took a hit as if I was smoking a cigarette, in and out. Then next five hours were a roller-coaster of fear, anxiety, paranoia, and major ticcing, or major suppression of those tics.<\/p>\n

As I said, I never suggest that anyone tries something that is not suggested by their doctor, especially something as trying, or purchasing illegal drugs. This might help some people and maybe one day the government will legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, and that\u2019s the only time anyone should attempt to use this for their TS — under a doctor’s supervision. Some things work for some people, but this was not one for me.<\/p>\n

Speaking of attempts to find something to help our TS, I spoke last week about a study that there is an enzyme in yogurt that is rumored to help calm down our tics. I did another self-study this week and had a yogurt every morning to see if I noticed any difference. I eat yogurt all the time, but I have eaten it in a while and when I did, I never really paid attention to my tics or lack of tics.<\/p>\n

This week I did, I ate a yogurt every morning and honestly didn\u2019t really see a difference. Maybe this is one of those things that it takes time, but once again, I have found another thing that did not work.<\/p>\n

This week has been a little hard for me.<\/p>\n

I think with a mixture of my anxiety disorder and my tics I often develop huge muscle knots behind my right shoulder blade. They are usually quite painful and cause me not to be able to turn my head. This is somewhat hard seeing one of my tics is head shaking and turning which then causes more pain. This week I have a new pain on the top of my shoulder. It is different from my normal pain, but at least I can turn my head. It just hurts to lift my arm, which makes it hard to do my throwing of my arm out tic. It\u2019s just an endless cycle, there\u2019s always something wrong.<\/p>\n

One of my best friends keeps telling me to go get acupuncture, or a massage. Eeewww. No, that\u2019s not going to work. Getting a massage means there is someone touching me with his or her hands that\u2019s been touching how many other people. Yeah, I know, I\u2019m sure they wash their hands but it\u2019s still gross to me.<\/p>\n

As for acupuncture, I\u2019m not sure about someone sticking needles in my body. Once again, I\u2019m sure they\u2019re sanitized, but I don\u2019t know who they were in before. I have had an interest in acupuncture because I have heard is supposed to help with tics, but I think it is one of those, \u201cover time things\u201d. At some point this year, I will gather the strength to actually try acupuncture, but not today.<\/p>\n

I went to a BBQ this weekend. I had my issues as usual with going, but I went. It was in a friend’s NYC back yard, so not a huge space. I was worried about the amount of people that were going to be there, and how long I would be able to suppress my tics.<\/p>\n

My husband was away for the weekend so I figure, why not get out of the house on this holiday weekend and get some free food. Once I got there, it wasn\u2019t that bad, but as the crowd grew, so did the anxiety. Along with my many issues I\u2019ve discussed over the week, I also have an issue sharing food. Needless to say, I didn\u2019t eat anything. I watched everyone dig their grimy hands in bowls full of chips, and double dipping sauces. Excuse me; I don\u2019t want to eat your germs. I hate double dippers.<\/p>\n

My husband hates the non-sharing food phobia. If we go out to eat with friends or family, everyone wants to do family style eating, I just can\u2019t do it. I have to have my own food, and no one is allowed to share it. I don\u2019t want your fork touching my food. This issue came up a few times this week.<\/p>\n

I was out with a friend who ordered a bowl of Mac and cheese and insisted I share it with him, because he could not eat the whole thing. I did have a few bites, but it was from the opposite side from where he was eating. I also went with a friend to a farmers market where they have the best pickles in the world. They should be world famous. They had samples of the pickles and tooth picks to take the samples. I told my friend, she had to try them.<\/p>\n

As I was about to try myself I watched the people in front of me take the same toothpick and continually dip. That changed my mind in taking a sample. Why can\u2019t you grab a new toothpick to take a new sample?<\/p>\n

Despite everything that I have talked about today and in the past, I am very comfortable with my TS, and myself, who I am. It does seem like I am constantly trying something new to miraculously void me of my tics and TS. I think we all do in some way. We hear, or read about something that might help us a little bit. We search for that one thing that might make us feel one-step closer to normal, but really, were not that different. We\u2019ll all have arms and leg, ours just move on their own sometimes. :)<\/p>\n

Until next week, \u201cI\u2019ll tic to you later.\u201d<\/p>\n

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