Tag: tics

Oh, yeah, the tics discussion again

On By Michel McDonaldIn Health, UncategorizedLeave a comment

In my previous blog post, I talked about my tics. To be frank, I think people thought I was tweaking, like I was on drugs, because if I saw someone walking around constantly moving their head the way I was, I would definitely say that guy is on something. And I did see many people look at me like they might call the security guard until they realize I’m actually somewhat normal, just someone with tics.

In my previous post I said Music calms the tics. I started listening to music and sitting still like I was meditating. I closed my eyes and relaxed and just listened to the music. Well, it did a lot of calming and I did manage to calm that particular troublesome tic by a lot, however, it wasn’t completely gone. When I caught myself, I would straighten my head out and just say stop, sometimes out loud.

Enchanted Cottage here in Bakersfield had a craft faire on March 22nd, and I NEEDED to get rid of that tic because the last thing I needed was to be sitting at my booth looking like an absolute tweaker. So I worked hard on stopping. The day of the craft faire, I believe it slipped out a few times, but I sat at my table, and I was so distracted by all the people who were there either as vendors or customers that I hardly even noticed if I even did it. I mean, I usually always know that I’m doing it when I’m doing it, and I was able to stop myself before it got bad, and I’d make it look like I was cracking my neck or something lol.

So here I am sitting at my booth with all my buttons in bowls and button box sets in the wooden displays and bracelets in the middle. I even had my keychains on the table in the very front on both sides. I also had all my box cards in a box under the table because there wasn’t really any room for them. I did mention them to people. I let them see the pictures in my catalog and I even brought out a couple to show how they look. People really liked my booth and I had a really good time.

Ok so getting back to the tics lol. If you have tics, you know they either evolve, or they change to something else, and if you see sometime else with tics, you’ll probably adopt their tic. Well, they changed to eye blinking, but also the neck thing occasionally. It’s back and forth. I’ve had this issue all my life and I’m about to turn 55 and I just don’t see them going away any time soon, beyond a miracle. I just have to deal with it and people have to deal with the fact that some people have Tourette syndrome in many different forms, and there’s nothing they or anyone else can do to change it.

I’ve been listening to the music I listened to as a teenager. Recently I’ve been listening to the Chicago 17 album on Google music, which I haven’t listened to since the 80’s, and shockingly, I remember all the lyrics, even the ones I thought were something else lol. After that album ends, a playlist will start with all of the hits from the 80’s in the same genre, which is cool because it really brings me back in time. That music seems to calm me down a bit more than anything recent, probably because it’s mostly ballads.

Ok, so I just wanted to give an update on my progress. It isn’t going to go away, like ever, but I’ll always hope it’s something not too noticeable to make me look too strange.

Music calms the tics

On By Michel McDonaldIn MusicLeave a comment

I’ve had tics for as long as I can remember. When I was a child it was hard blinking, and sometimes it would move to other parts of my face, but I pretty much always had them. It was worse in private, but very mild to non-existent in public because I always knew there would be judgement if people saw me. But of course if it happened, it was because I couldn’t help it. It’s not like I can control it, but I guess a part of me could.

I always thought the tics were caused by the stress of the abuse from my step father and my sister, and maybe that is true, but I’m 54 now and I still have this issue and I haven’t really been in their lives for the last 20 years or so.

The last 8 years have been really bad, and I’m guessing the next 4 will be not different. I am not in complete control of when I do it or how bad it can get. During the pandemic I somehow decided it was ok, I didn’t have to worry about it because when I was wearing a face mask, my tics were mouth and nose related and the mask covered it up, although you could still see the movement of my mask when I wasn’t in a conversation with someone which would cause the mask to move based on the movement from my mouth from talking.

I’ve learned over the last 54 years that this is 100% stress related, and boy howdy, I have been super stressed lately. My main tic now is my neck and whole head. I’ll tilt and twist my head to the left side. It causes actual pain. The hard eye blinking as a child was kind of painful for my eyes, but this neck thing has caused more pain. A literal pain in my neck.

Today I discovered while watching some music videos that the entire time I was watching, there was not 1 single tic. I actually have noticed if I’m listening to music I’m not focused on negativity and my tics seemed to have disappeared while listening to the music.

The music I’m listening to is the music i listened to as a teenager in the 80’s. I think the music is soothing to my brain which causes my brain to relax and not think about negativity.

During most of my teenage years I had my walkman with me and my headphones were always on my ears and I was listening to music all the time. I had to shut the world out for my sanity and I think I need to start doing that again now that I know it’s keeping my tics at bay. The only difference is I’m using my phone and I don’t need to constantly change the batteries, I just have to plug my phone in, which is nice considering how expensive batteries are these days.

Do you have this issue and have you tried listening to music as therapy?