I’m asking because this streamer has tics and a video is going around of her saying all of these bad words when she tics and people in the comments were sympathizing and some even were talking about how they can relate, so my question is why do people with tics say bad words when they tic and why does it seem common?
In: Biology
Tourette’s is a neurological condition which features involuntary, repetitive “tics”, which can vary from case to case.
Many people have physical tics, including arm or leg movements, or repeated gestures. Others have verbal tics including swearing, screaming, or repeated phrases.
The reason these tics happen is due to extra and unwanted connections in the brain. You perform an action by a cascading flow of activity in the brain along very specific pathways between neurons. As you do an action more, that pathway gets easier to activate, this is how practice and training work on a physical level.
In Tourette’s, certain pathways get activated for no voluntary reason. It is not an overwhelming urge to do the tic, it is your brain forcing your body to do it.
As for why many people swear, I have read that taboo words are stored in a distinct area of the brain from common language, and if that’s the pathway that is activated, that’s what the tic is.
Latest Answers