Stratcat

Thanks for the information. I will try taking the B complex and avoid MSG. We'll see how that goes!

I'm in Minneapolis, but I don't think a doctor would take me seriously since my tics aren't really visible. The muscles I flex are small so you would have to look carefully.... I can't stand when a doctor looks at me like, "That's it?" when it's something that is really bothering me. I've been drinking ginseng tea daily because I read that might help. I can't tell if it does or not. Ideally I would reduce my stress level but it's just going to get worse when I have to get a job at the end of this semester.

Thanks for your reply, Sheila. I would be interested in some non-drug treatments. I've had bad experiences with SSRIs and doctors in the past so I'd rather not go down that road again.

I'm trying to figure out if I have Tourette's, OCD, anxiety, or something else. I was diagnosed years ago with social anxiety disorder though that seems to have cleared up, this seems to be unrelated. I never told a doctor about this issue because it is embarrassing and difficult to communicate. My symptoms are not easily visible, mainly I feel the need to flex certain muscles, usually in my neck, abdomen, and ears (or back of the throat? I don't know where the muscle is but I flex it and I can hear a pounding in my ears when I do it.) I also have a serious issue with tapping if my fingers come into contact with something like a keyboard or mouse. Always in some weird pattern. It's like I need to feel pressure on my fingertips for some reason. And most recently I have started needing to push down and move pens/pencils in certain patterns when I try to write. I'm taking a calculus course right now and my notes are full of these weird scribbles. I'm 29 but I can remember having issues as far back as first grade when my teacher told me to stop making "noises". I've figured out how to make feelings of pressure (idk how to describe it) in my throat so there is no sound but back then I made a hmm sound. I feel like I can mostly control myself or find subtle ways of doing these things so I can hide them from people but the urge to do them is really uncomfortable. I've found that if I'm trying to do something that requires effort like calculus they flare up and it's worst when I am under stress. Does this sound like Tourette's? OCD?