Tourette’s is…

If you think Tourette’s is solely about swearing or is funny then read the below. Everything within this kind of poem thing is things I do and/or have experienced as part of my Tourette’s.

Tourette’s is…
Tourette’s is
bruises, cuts, scrapes.
Concussion,
Broken bones
Blood running over my skin
Tourette’s is
Twisted ankles, pulled muscles
Trapped nerves, and a sore throat
It’s the joints out of place
Acute, chronic and sensory pain
Exhaustion and fatigue
Tourette’s is
A fear of leaving my front door
Abuse from the public:
Stares, threats, words,
And physical too.
Tourette’s is
Racist, nazi and islamophobic tics
The anti LGBTQ+ ones too
The ableist tics
And the ones about sex with animals.
Tourette’s is
Tics I laugh at as they’re so random,
Tics that make me smile
As they’re historically accurate
Tourette’s is
Use of mobility aids,
Communication aids,
Wearing padded clothing.
It’s sunglasses and headphones to cope with the sensory pain
Tourette’s is
Self injury tics,
punching my chest, head and stomach and can’t stop
tics where I punch a wall or
Kick a lamppost
Tourette’s is
Tics that mean I can’t swallow, choking and coughing
tics that mean food ends up on the floor
And plates and cutlery get thrown across a room
Tourette’s is
Sleepless nights where my out of control body cannot snooze without strong medication
The obsessive compulsive behaviours
The tics that put me in danger
Running out into the road
Stabbing at myself with a knife
Touching the hot hob
Tourette’s is
Being dragged along by my partner and a friend
With legs so out of control I couldn’t safely walk.
It’s the tics that make me fall every few seconds
The tics that make me look like one of john Cleese’s silly walks-or all of them at once
Being stuck in my therapists office for four hours as my leg tics would not stop to be able to stand
Tics that mean I cannot stand at all for weeks and months
Tourette’s is
Tic storms at any moment in time
Never knowing how bad it will be,
Or how injured I will be afterwards.

Every single thing I’ve written above is completely true to me, for my Tourette’s. Not everyone has such severe tics.

However for me, this is all true.
So think, think really hard before you laugh at me and take the piss, before you say “I wish I had Tourette’s to get away with swearing”

Think before you say that Tourette’s is only swearing and is funny.
You’ll notice there is a part where I laugh at some of my own tics, and I do. Some of the stuff that comes out is so random and bizarre that it can’t not be laughed at by myself, by my partner, by my friends. I know that these people are purely laughing at the tic and not at me.

It’s a very different laugh to people on public transport laughing over and over at me ticcing the word chicken or biscuit.
I have a close friend who has Tourette’s and we’ve ended up having tic conversations (as in our tics just end up making these bizarre and random conversations) and we’ve laughed a lot of those tics.

However, please remember that is solely people I know laughing at a funny tic and at the tic and not me.
If you said to me “press this button and your Tourette’s disappears” I would never press it. However, saying you wish you had Tourette’s to get away with swearing or because it would be funny is very different, very different indeed.