Living with Tourette’s

I wanted to write this blog to encourage you that you can do anything!  It's been nearly 2 months since I moved down to Exeter to begin my gap year with PAIS England and I’m going to share a bit about how it was moving away from my family who understand and support my Tourette’s, to living with new people who I had never met.  The weeks leading up to moving away from home were not easy. I faced many new challenges and my tics were worse knowing that change was coming. One of the biggest challenges I faced was getting my hair cut (sounds easy, right?) It was not easy for me. How can something so small be so difficult? I was scared of ticking and something going wrong, scared of the scissors and the noise that they make and overall, was nervous to walk into a salon and trust someone who does not know my tics to cut my hair. However, I overcame my fears and let the amazing Millie (from Darpo) do her job! Sometimes it's the little things that we struggle with but when we face our ...

I realise I've been a bit silent on here lately. I'm still trying to get my head around what's going on in the world, but I'm back ready to share a little more about what it's like living with Tourette's. Firstly, if you read my last blog you will have read about my leg tics. My legs were constantly ticking and I was using crutches daily as I could not walk. However, I can now say that in April my legs stopped constantly ticking! I believe in a loving and powerful God who is the reason why I can walk properly again! I still have leg tics (but they are not as frequent and they usually only happen now if I have dairy) and I'm much more independent now when these leg tics do happen. I want you to know today that it's ok to struggle, and to help you to understand that, I'm going to share with you a little bit about how my Tourette's has affected me during this lockdown. So, let's start off by going way back to March when the world changed com...

‘You can’t have Tourette’s because you don’t swear’. This is something that many people have told me lately. Many of these occasions have been in public, on the bus, in college. But the thing is, I do have swearing tics, however, because of the fear of people commenting about my swearing tics, I try really hard to concentrate and suppress my swearing tics when I’m out in public.  However, I also have sudden jerks, painful neck movements, say random phrases, scream, shout, repeat words and noises, and have leg paralysis tics. I forgot to mention, I also make animal sounds (reading story books to young children can be quite funny), all joking aside, my tics can also be inappropriate (which I hate so much, that no matter how much it hurts, I try to hold my tics in). This past month has been one of my hardest months. I decided to go back to a dance class which I used to attend on a regular basis. The first couple of sessions I really enjoyed it and it felt amazing to be back. The ...

Hi guys, it’s Caitlin again. As you are probably aware, I suffer from Tourette’s Syndrome. I doubt it’s a shock for you to hear that getting around my everyday life is a struggle. As a second year A level student, with the stress of my final exams just around the corner, studying is not easy. With the workload, revision and mocks thrown into it, the stress is definitely not minimal, especially with Tourette's added on top of all of this. . At first, going to college was one of my biggest struggles. As I only found out I had Tourette’s in August, going back to college in September felt impossible. However, after going into college the first day back after summer, the staff could not have been more supportive. We had already contacted college to make them aware of the situation, by doing this I was able to begin to get support with my A levels. . Going into lessons was not that easy. Suppressing my tics during lessons was hard as the pain made it hard to concentrate. My classes h...

Tourette's Not a word you hear often, and when you do it’s usually an excuse for excessive swearing, although it’s not all about that. Coprolalia (swearing tics) affects around 1 in 10 people who have Tourette’s, and even though this is something I struggle with, this is not where it all began. • Tourette’s is not my name. I am not the girl that sits on the bus making these noises because I find them ‘funny’. I am Caitlin. I’m 18 years old and I LOVE CHOCOLATE (although being dairy free really doesn’t help with this). I love nature and I find pleasure in the little things in the world. I go to Church every week and I volunteer as much of my time as I can. I’m quite normal really. I’m more than what people judge me as. I’m me. • Life as an 18-year-old girl is tough, regardless of what’s going on inside my brain. I don’t want this to be a blog about how hard life is or to complain about my life, but in order to achieve an understanding you must first know the hardship of ...