What is Tourette’s?
In: Biology
Some posters already have given some great info on the condition, but I wanted to add my two cents on what it’s like to live with the condition (albeit a relatively mild case).
You hear talk about the tics being “involuntary,” but in my experience, it’s a bit more accurate to say “compelled” than “involuntary.” Closest analogue I can give is to imagine how you feel when you have an itch. Is scratching an itch involuntary? Not really; you tell yourself to do it, and you can, at least for a time, tell yourself not to. But you’re uncomfortable, and you know you’re going to continue to be uncomfortable (and increasingly so), unless and until you scratch that itch, so you go ahead and do it. Having a tic, at least for me, is a lot like that.
To be clear, I’m not saying you literally feel itchy all the time, but there’s a similar sort of tension that comes, and generally won’t go away, unless you “scratch that itch.”
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