Son's Tics

[natanddan1]

Hi

 

Just found this forum and am very grateful to find others going through the same issues as my son.

 

Dan is 12 and has suffered from both vocal and muscular tics for some time now. He has recently got worse however, they diminish and return over a period of 1 month at a time. We have just been refered to CAMHS (Children and Adolescent mental health services) and had our first meeting today. WHAT A NIGHTMARE!!!!! I was not able to attend due to work committments, this was critisized despite the fact that my wife expalined that we took the first appointment avaialble to get advice and help underway as soon as possible. The wife came away feeling that the !!!!!'specialist'!!!! was putting all the blame on her and myself and told us that is just the way Dan is and we should learn to live with it!!. I feel this is just a total cop out on their behalf. What we wanted was for some advice on how Dan can recognise when he is getting worse and what factors / stresses make things worse. I Did not expect a 'blame the parents culture'! I feel like it was a complete waste of time and wish i had been there to tell them that.

 

Dan is a very bright lad who is doing very well at school, i do feel that he needs to put the effort in trying to control and recognise the triggers and feel he is capable of this. He has a bit of a chipm on his shoulder as most teenagers do, however he is bright enough to make the effort (or am i going about this the wrong way?)

 

At the moment his tics are vocal noises and mild twitches. We were advised by a specialist some years ago that this is normal for children and that they will eventually grow out of it. That specialist recommended Dan leaves the room and reads out loud to himself to try and control the noises.

 

Any advice / recommendations would be really appreciated.

[Chemar]

Hi and welcome

 

most of us here have pretty much "given up" on conventional doctors and chosen to pursue alternative health plans, many with great success

 

I did tho just want to mention that if your son has Tourette Syndrome, then expecting him to be able to "control" the tics is unrealistic. The more that people with TS try to suppress their tics, the more they need to tic. It is like shaking a soda with the top still on...when you eventually open it....whooooosh!!

 

I would suggest you spend some time reading here as there are many other causes of tics apart from Tourettes. Often conventional docs are not clued up on all this. Most of us see physicians who are, or who at least check into what we bring them and help us implement these strategies

 

if you take a look at the link in my signature here you will see the treatments that helped my son go from severe and disabling TS to now having very mild tics

 

I knowour other members will also respond with the things they have learned to help their kids

 

all the best

[Jodi]

I agree that as parent the first step we need to make is to realize that our children can't control their tics. It is a hard realization, but a necessary step in creating a healthy and supportive home for everyone involved. I know it is hard because I am still trying to remember that my son can't help his tics - and he has had them for years! I try so hard to be supportive and to never really mention the tics, but I find it is helpful for both of us if we talk about the tics every now and then.

 

All that being said, aren't there some relaxation techniques or replacement tic techniques that can be helpful? Has anyone had success with this? My son has a horrible sniffling tic at the moment and I am just wondering if he slowed down and took long deep breaths the sensation to sniffle might decrease? Or if he sniffed more gently, he could get the same phsysical sensation. I don't know.

 

I wish there was a magic bullet, but I know there isn't. I just hope and pray that some of the alt treatments will be helpful eventually.

[natanddan1]

Thanks for your responses. We have not been told that Dan have TS although there does appear to be links to his tics. His noises are not words or anything that sound like words! but maybe this does not matter! (not sure really as specialist today was hopeless!.) Dan has stated that if he concentrates on breathing, he can control to some degree his noises, Also, when he has taken time out to just read and get his mind / brain active he has improved. This is why i mentioned that if he finds this helps, he needs to recognize that this will help him and put into action. When we explained this today, it was rubbished. Apparently we just found out that Dan and mum were being watched in the waiting room and were filmed before the consultant!

 

I will keep looking at this forum for some good advice on things we can put in place to help him, its so difficult for the other siblings at the moment as they find it quite disturbing. Hopefully he will 'grow' out of it sometime.