Tourette's Syndrome

[pinback]

I saw my very first IRL TS-afflicted person yesterday. I was waiting for my bag at the claim belt. This biker-bar-hot blonde with shorty-short shorts was there greeting her family. She was so happy! She hugged her parents and was gushing about how happy she was to see them! I was just occasionally sneaking peeks at her ass, and waiting.

Then I hear, "Fuck!"

Now, kids these days, that's every other word, but she was so happy the moment before.

"Fuckin' shit-ass BITCH! Shit!"

Wow, this sure escalated quickly.

Then I see some movement out of the corner of my eye, and she's just spastically jerking her head and pointing, over and over and over.

Then it stopped and she was back to smiling and hugging her parents.

This has to be the most fascinating disease of all time. My question has always been "why is it just bad words?" So seeing it in real life reminded me of that, I did some digging (also called "youtubing") last night.

Apparently the cursing thing is called "coprolalia" and is only present in 10% of TS patients. There's also "copropraxia" which is doing vulgar hand gestures. And "copropographia", which is WRITING bad words. All relatively rare, but still the question remains, why is it always vulgar gestures and words?

As far as I could tell, the latest studies are that TS affects the part of the brain that regulates anger, so when one of your tics hits that spot, you just have to fucking flip everyone off.

That link sends you to a video from a pretty young British girl who has TS and has recently been releasing increasingly revealing (not in that way, you silly geese!) videos about how the disease affects her. And it affects her even while she's doing the videos. It is just amazing to watch.

[Flack]

There a guy in my building with TS. He randomly yells "WHOOP!" about once a minute. I first experienced it during a tornado drill. With hundreds of people downstairs in the tunnels, this guy kept going "WHOOP! WHOOP!" and finally I was like "Shut the fuck up!" and someone told me he has TS. So, my bad.

A few years ago I was eating at Jack in the Box and all of a sudden I hear this guy go "WHOOP!" and I was like, ah, Brad's here! And he was.

I watched a special on TS many years ago and this lady kept yelling the N word over and over. She would go to the mall and there would be black people and she would just walk around yelling the N word at them. Awkward. Through therapy she was able to change what she yelled to "Nickel" and eventually, "Nickel Dime Quarter". So now she walks up to black people and yells "NnnnnnnnnnICKEL DIME QUARTER." It was so funny and awkward that Susan and I used to call each other Nickel Dime Quarters for a while.

[Flack]

I remember it being a lady but a quick internet search says it was a guy on a 20/20 special.

Regardless, sometimes at work I call people stupid nickel dime quarters.

[CO]

I saw my very first IRL TS-afflicted person yesterday.

Didn't you meet Blue years ago when the JC crew used to get together? She has Touretts. Mostly uncontrollable twitching in that case.

[pinback]

I saw my very first IRL TS-afflicted person yesterday.

Didn't you meet Blue years ago when the JC crew used to get together? She has Touretts. Mostly uncontrollable twitching in that case.

I did not. Only time I saw her without a dick in her mouth was on a TV news broadcast.

(That sounds like a joke but it's true!)

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I was going through the grocery store by myself one night, several months ago. There was a guy there who barked as his tic. You could hear him throughout the entire store.

I felt bad for the guy the first time, but when someone just starts doing something weird like that my instinct was to think that there was another annoying person out in public. I felt bad thinking that.

That's why if you're a piece of garbage, just STAY HOME. If the normal people stay home then we can all have the proper sympathy for people with a disease.

[Flack]

I did not. Only time I saw her without a dick in her mouth was on a TV news broadcast.

Well, that's one way to get Tourette's people to stop yelling things.