I just did it again. I have become a mini expert on TS and have been peppering my son's psych with questions
LAF, I know exactly what you're saying. I've been researching like a crazy woman for months trying to figure out my kids' needs and how to support them. Even DH thinks I'm obsessed and spending way too much time on it (but he's not the research-y type. He decides, and moves on. I need to find out everything possible so I have all the evidence I can to make a decision). (This is why I am not a CEO
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This is how I approach everything in life though - and actually, turning into an instant expert on topic X and trying to pull all the pieces together in some larger, more meaningful context is kinda how I make my living. So yes, it's a bit exhausting to those around us at times. But we are who we are, and I see enormous strength in it, too. So hugs, and don't get down on yourself. I have yet to meet a person whose greatest weakness is not also among their greatest strengths.
And thank goodness for this board so we have somewhere supportive to go with all those questions!
P.S. And coincidentally, TS is high up my current research list (but haven't quite formulated my questions for the board yet
. DS10 has been tic-ing like crazy since school started up, kinda freaking me out, though I know it's not uncommon. Were there critical issues that took you to seeing the need for TS assessment?
MichelleC - amen to all of the above, even the way our DHs handle it!
Regarding your question about critical issues, originally I was trying to figure out why he had separation anxiety. There was a time last year where he would not go into any room in our house alone, so that meant I had to go with him to his room, to the bathroom, sit with him at night etc. He didn't want to go to Minecraft summer day camp with his best friend. I had him tested by an educational consultant who said his IQ was really really high but so was his anxiety and that brought his working memory and processing speed down (basically suggesting a 2e profile). So I started hanging out on this board trying to figure out if he had an undiagnosed learning disorder, ADHD (he wasn't disorganized, though he was often spacey which I attributed to anxiety) anxiety, etc. It was a which came first, anxiety or something else that caused the anxiety...
In addition, my brother suffered from terrible anxiety in elementary school and none of us could tell, so I knew I had to figure this out as I didn't want my son to be suffering like my brother did.
I finally took him to a psychiatrist on the recommendation of my pediatrician. At the time the tics were never so bad that they seemed like they were the problem. He chewed through his shirts (which I thought was just general anxiety like nail biting for instance) he loved jumping on the couch (normal right?) he paced while daydreaming (okay, maybe he just needs to move, lots of kids have trouble sitting at school for long periods of time, he's a creative daydreamer), he had an intermittent cough, sneeze combo that he did once he got home from school, and it'd taken him to the doctor for it previously so I knew it was a tic and he would grow out of it (the advice was, just leave it alone, as long as it doesn't bother him.)
But he still hated school for the most part, he still stood out as different from the other kids, he still wouldn't go into any room by himself and he still wanted to leave school immediately to go home once his best friend left the school. I realized later his best friend was his security at school.
Psychiatrist took my 20 pages of notes, WISC IV results, family history and said: he has a combination of tics, anxiety and inattention. When you google that it brings up tourette syndrome, but apparently there's a wide range where a child can be on that spectrum.
The problem is often not the tics themselves, but the co-morbid conditions as they can be more debilitating than the tics. Other things that can also be present with this syndrome are: surprise! Separation Anxiety.
So now we are trying to help him with all of it. It's a bit scary, as we are trying medication for anxiety (exposure therapy and cognitive behavior therapy didn't even touch the anxiety). We are now considering medication for his tics because they are crazy right now.
