ajs259

My tics ran the gamut from repeatedly stretching my mouth (so often that I eventually developed TMJ), vocal clearing, squeezing and releasing various muscles repeatedly, twitching, eye blinking/rolling, etc. The tics would change every few months. They were quite obvious to everyone around although did not cause social problems that I can remember other than some kids asking why I was doing that. ("Can't help it, have to do it.") Never had issues in school academically. Things began to improve in high school and eventually by adulthood (I'm 36 now) they are relatively subtle and can be masked to most people. I believe my tics were year-round, so did not flare up during allergy seasons, unlike what I observed in my son this year. I don't remember the worst age as once they started it was fairly non-stop until high school. That said, if I had to guess perhaps 8-11 were the worst years but it is just a guess. Never took any medicine. Thanks for the comments, Chemar.

Hi, My son (6) developed really bad tics (eye rolling, throat clearing, facial tics, unable to start/finish sentences, unable to read, etc.) this past March. They lasted about 2-3 months then pretty much went away. They then came back again at the end of August and more or less disappeared again the end of October. Which leads me to believe that they are related to seasonal allergies. I had very bad, constant tics/tourette's myself as a child (it runs in my family) and I still have bad seasonal allergies as an adult. (Tics are about 90% reduced.) Any advice on how to treat this seasonal activity? Have been scouring the site but it all seems like trial and error, with some people decrying allergy medicine and others experimenting with large quantities of supplements. Btw, he doesn't appear to have any food allergies. I'm thinking of finding an environmental physician but we'll see. Any advice you can give would be very much appreciated. Thanks. Best, Adam

My 6 yr old has pretty bad tics. Tourettes/tics runs in the family. Can anyone recommend an environmental physician in the Westchester area? Thanks.