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Taking a Closer Look at Tourette's Syndrome Essay

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Tourette Syndrome (TS) is an inherited tic disorder that usually appears in early childhood and is classified by multiple motor tics and verbal tics. (Mayo 2012) Tics are sudden and repetitive movements, with motor tics being physical muscle movements, and verbal tics being sudden vocalization. Common tics range anywhere from constant eye blinking to throat clearing and grunting. Although the word “involuntary” is usually used to describe tics, this is not completely true, a better word would be “compelling.” It wouldn’t be true to say that people with Tourette’s can’t control their tics, some people can hold the tics back for hours at a time, but this only leads to a bigger outburst when they are finally let go. Tics are comparable to …show more content…

From the second grade to the fifth grade, my tics were present, but not very active and noticeable. Although they were not extremely noticeable, people still would wonder why I was constantly making weird noises or twitching my arms and legs. It was when I entered the sixth grade that my tics started to really show. All day, every day, I was constantly teased, made fun of, and in some cases physically bullied. People made fun of me because I was different. It was by far the worst feeling someone can have, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. There was one incident in middle school that I will never forget. After gym class one day in 7th grade, two kids came up to me and started calling me weird and annoying because of something I couldn’t control. I told them to go away, and this just made them insult me more, added fire to the flame. They kept going and going. When I finally got the courage to stand up to them and tell them that they’re not as cool as they think they are, one of them grabbed my arm as the other one punched me. I pushed them away from me as hard as I could, and tried to get away, but one of them came back, grabbed me, punched me square in the chest and knocked the wind out of me. I doubled over in pain as two gym teachers walked past. After a minute or two of them just standing there staring at me, I told them what happened, and they said “get up, boys will be boys.” I tried telling them that they were bullying me

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