"Stop scrunching your nose!"

     When I was 8 years old I began scrunching my nose constantly. Everyone was telling me I could stop it so I tried and tried and of course, it never stopped. People told me it was a faze and I would grow out of it. When I became self conscious about it I would try to hold back and attempted to not scrunch. Whenever I did this my face felt like it would explode As the years went on I continued to do corky things with my face. Not only was I scrunching my nose but I was blinking my eyes, stretching my neck, and moving my jaw painful ways. Finally I told my doctor about it and she told me it was just a motor tic and would disappear with age. However, it never did and eventually I was sent to a Neurologist. After countless appointments and being told it was a motor tic, I eventually developed a mall vocal tic. On September 9, 2012 I was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome.
      After I received the diagnosis, I felt a whirlwind of emotions; relief being the most prominent. All the times I was treated differently came rushing back. I remembered the time I was in my senior English class discussing the meaning of a poem. At the time I was in the beginning of an eye rolling tic. As I was enjoying the poem my teacher stopped reading and told me to stop being disrespectful and if I was going to continue to do so I should leave the classroom. I had never been more humiliated. I knew why he thought I was being disrespectful but I was not comfortable explaining that I could not control it. Once the diagnoses of Tourette's came in, I finally had something to place on all those embarrassing times.
       Having TS has had is ups and downs. I have been able to spread awareness and meet amazing people. Although with all the positive, there will always be negative aspects. Whenever people find out I have Tourette's people never believe me. TS has been very negatively portrayed in the media. People think of Tourette's and they think of screaming obscenities. So many do not realize that Coprolalia is only a rare side effect of Tourette's Syndrome and only 10% of people are effected.
        My goal is to spread awareness and lower the negative stigma towards TS and educate people. Please enjoy my blog


-Allie