If you have TS, you can resist OCD (and you should in order to combat it), but you cannot resist the tics. CBIT actually teaches them to do an opposite action to the tic to sort of cancel it out, but the tic *must* come out somehow. I'm not sure if there's a link between tics and giftedness but a lot of kids with Tourettes supposedly have a normal or above average IQ.
From what I've read, they don't recommend CBT before the age of ten, but I would ask her doctor. My DS also does the skin picking thing, to the point where I finally went to medication because both his legs were covered in sores that never healed and I was worried they would get infected. I've read differing accounts with regard to magnesium, some say it works, some say it doesn't. No one knows exactly what causes Tourette's, but they know it has to do with brain chemistry in the area of the basal ganglia part of the brain, and that it has a genetic component. It seems to be that you have a genetic predisposition, and then something in the environment triggers it. Also, they used to think it was rare, but now they think it is fairly common but just not recognized as TS. I used to think maybe it had something to do with overexcitabilities, but now I think that overexcitabilites are not tourettes. Most kids have tics of some kind, but they go away. If your child has TS they will probably grow out of them, so the trick is to figure out a way to manage it til they do. There is a website called Latitudes I think where there is info on natural remedies for TS, but in general it appears to be a chemistry problem where the brain can not shut down certain impulses: OCD is a kind of mental tic where the brain gets stuck in a loop for instance. Go to your Ped Neuro to see what you can do to get her some relief. It's so hard as a parent to watch them go through it - hugs
