Okay, so I have a mild case of Tourette's disorder and it's been with me since I don't know when. The worst of it was during my school years... it got a bit better after High School.
My case currently involves mostly just simple motor tics, though an occasional vocal tic. It's worse when I'm stressed, better when I'm relaxed.
Back when it was bad, though, I had additional related symptoms, such as OCD.
I've also always had a case of "ooh, shiny!" -- which is probably ADD.
It's interesting stuff. You can find out more at http://www.tourettes.com/.
What's weird is being inside of it. My study of neurons and neural networks gives me some models to represent it.
A neuron collects stimulous and, once the inputs exceed a threshold level, the neuron fires. The tics feel like there is a background noise that is saturating a neuron... it's slowly charging and and I can feel it getting ready to fire. When it does, I twitch.
If I decide I'm not going to let it go, I can consciously inhibit it... but that's temporary. If I'm relaxed, the background noise goes down. If I'm focused on another task, that also seems to focus the noise into that task and everything calms down.
That's not what is happening, of course -- it's just a model.
I think that my mood swings are related. Emotions, muscles, whatever -- tics. I don't know, though.
They say that Tourette's people are not only jumpy, but have faster reflexes and and mentally pretty sharp. Maybe it's because our nerves are always pre-charged
Like I say, I have a minor case. You wouldn't hardly even notice it. I can't imagine having one of the extreme forms.
Posted by Edwin at August 11, 2004 08:45 AM