Tics vs. Compulsions

[Laurie in Az]

My DS has Tourettes and OCD(mild, I think). I've recently been feeling confused as to what is a tic and what is a compulsion. He has consistently had a kissing tic for the past 2-3 yrs. It is 90+% with family members and he has to land the kiss on us. He states that kissing himself is not satisfying. It is driving me nuts! His younger sister has smacked him on several occasions! He reaches up to my chest and it feels very intrusive to me to be kissed on the chest repeatedly in public. If it were a tic, would it be limited to family members and would he have to actually connect? If it is a compulsion, can I try to get him to refrain? Is almost 11 too young to learn tic substitutions? He also mentioned today that being close to a wall intensifies his turning tic-something about then having to spin the other way. Tic? Compulsion? Both?I recently increased his inositol which has noticeably decreased his high anxiety episodes- no change in kissing and turning. I feel like an awful mom, this kissing tic is making my skin crawl!!!!

 

Laurie

[CarolynN]

Laurie,

 

I don't know the answer to your question but I did notice you live in Arizona where I live. I was wondering if you found a doctor you like, for the Tourettes, because I have found a great one. Obviously I don't know what part of Arizona you are in but this doctor is in the North West valley of the Phoenix area . His name is Dr. Profrock (I think I spelled it correctly) and he is at "Total Wellness" 9887 W. Bell Rd. Phone number is 623-977-0077 . He is a terrific doctor and has knows A LOT about Tourettes. He is VERY VERY knowledgeable. I have to just let you know that one thing about him is he really focuses in on your needs but I do have to tell you he looks a little differant. He has a very long beard and a braid in his hair. My friend warned me before I went to expect this but I am telling you he is the nicest man and he is probably the best doctor I have ever been to in my life. But with that said he is $250 for the first visit and $200 an hour for follow up visits (ouch!!!!). I just thought this might help you. As a side note, just in case someone in Arizona is reading this and needs a doctor for Autism he works a lot with Autism too.

 

Also if you are dealing with allergies, which I am sure you are to a point, there is a terrific doctor who does something similar to NAET but slightly differant and her name is Dr. Orona at Naturopathic Family Care on 32nd St and Thunderbird. She is amazing and has helped sooooo many people get their allergies under control. Her number is 602-493-2273. She runs around $100 a visit and for the allergy treatment it is a series of four visits. WELL worth the money for allergies!!!

 

Hope this helps some.

 

Carolyn

[airbucket]

My DS has Tourettes and OCD(mild, I think). I've recently been feeling confused as to what is a tic and what is a compulsion. He has consistently had a kissing tic for the past 2-3 yrs. It is 90+% with family members and he has to land the kiss on us. He states that kissing himself is not satisfying. It is driving me nuts! His younger sister has smacked him on several occasions! He reaches up to my chest and it feels very intrusive to me to be kissed on the chest repeatedly in public. If it were a tic, would it be limited to family members and would he have to actually connect? If it is a compulsion, can I try to get him to refrain? Is almost 11 too young to learn tic substitutions? He also mentioned today that being close to a wall intensifies his turning tic-something about then having to spin the other way. Tic? Compulsion? Both?I recently increased his inositol which has noticeably decreased his high anxiety episodes- no change in kissing and turning. I feel like an awful mom, this kissing tic is making my skin crawl!!!!

 

Laurie

 

Good point! I myself often wonder in my osn what is a tic and what is a compulsion. Although my son is not officially diagnosed with OCD he has it in every sense of the word. His tics actually first manifested as a compusion, the need to touch certain things a certain way, had to be done. I still dont know if its a tic or not. His other tics are more conventional. I replied tho because my son also has the kissing thing!! It drives me nuts! One thing ive done that im not sure is good is that ive talked to him about asking me before he kisses. I though this sounds counter intuitive as tics are something that largely cant be controlled (?), but is has worked a little. He agreed kind of in a we made a contract-way, to ask first, and most of the time he remembers to do so. This has helped because i feel less controlled by him and it also gives him a second to become aware of this need and the feeling, so sometimes it decreases the amount of times he kisses. Ive also introduced the idea of sometimes blowing a kiss instead of a touch kiss just because it does get so aggravating when you are part of a tic! this has worked a little. and my son is only 8 so you might have better luck getting an 11 year old to change it up a little bit. for my son i do not if this kissing is a tic or an OCD thing, but it is limited really just to me. I wonder how much it even matters, other than for purposes of choosing appropriate supps, if it is a tic or a compulsion. Maybe how easy it is to manipulate will reveal the answer? dont feel awful! It is perfectly reasonable to be irritated by this behavior! Maybe you will come up with something that could lessen it or change it a little!

[Chemar]

Hi

 

sorry I am dealing with a high workload preparing my online stores for the holidays and so am posting real quickly

 

if you do some searches under my user name you will find quite a few posts on this

 

it was actually an associate of Dr Murphy at Shands Clinic who educated me on this. He was my son's doctor for a while when we were transitioning from meds to the natural way of treating his then severe TS and OCD. He is now in New Zealand I believe, but he gave me some excellent info, research papers etc on the very definite overlap of tics and OCD behaviour in Tourette Syndrome. My son would often have tics become OCD stuff and OCD stuff become tics, and even now with both his TS and OCD really mild for some years now, yet waxing of one seems to come with waxing of the other and they still blend into each other.

 

The supplements that we have used for OCD really stopped this from being a very troublesome issue for my son.