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LAF, I wouldn't worry about your psych's comments. We all have different personalities, and I like to think that there's a larger reason than we realize that we have the personalities we have. I like to research too, get all the details I can when there is something I need to know. The thing I do that has always seemed extreme compared to others I know is that I dig my heels in and fight (I don't mean hitting lol, but stand my ground and don't give in - I'm stubborn!). Yet that trait that was daunting or annoying or whatever up until a certain point in my life turned out to be *exactly* what I needed to support my very-2e oldest child in dealing with school etc.

My advice is don't be sad, embrace who you are with pride! You are most likely the one person in your child's life who will dig the deepest and really try to understand how all the pieces fit together and you're the person who is going to be his backbone as you discover what the bumps and smooth places will be in his journey. That's important! Don't ever not be who you were meant to be just because one psych told you you exhausted him. Yes, you may have exhausted that one person, but as HK says, find a TS message board or local group or go dig in the library or online or something - don't stop digging and don't ever stop just *being* *you*. That's who your ds needs

Sending you a hug!

polarbear

What a perfect occupation for the gifted adult with the novelty-craving mind! Will you tell us what it is exactly that you do?

How old is your kid again, LAF? DS8 cycles through tics and it always ramps up in fall and gets better in spring. We have found that vitamin d, zinc and magnesium citrate supplements seem to help, or maybe it's just coincidental with the cycles, no idea, but can't hurt either. I also feel that it's been getting better this year, around five and six was worst, which I read is prime benign ticking age. I found very little on the correlation between gifted OEs or HSs and benign ticking though, all on message boards basically, by btdt parents...

I think your sons psych sounds a bit unprofessional, though. I get it when friends or my husband tell me to back off (sometimes not so nicely) but this is part of his job, right?

Hi all - sorry I took a step back from the computer and didn't realize there were more answers from this board.. thank you so much for your support!!!

Regarding the psych- he is a really nice, calm man who is very positive. He actually was recovering from an illness when I was talking with him, so I think that was part of it. My DS likes him and he is apparently really really good at what he does. He also believes that most things are developmental, so treat the issues in front of you as necessary and don't worry about all the other stuff as it often changes. The trick is to get them through the tough parts until their brain chemistry catches up (asynchrony again).

My son is 10 and has had tics probably since 1st grade, although we were told they were normal and he would grow out of them. The psych says he does not believe that DS has actual tourettes because the tics don't change often enough but he is still on the spectrum of chronic tics and recently they have been really really bad- bad enough that they have been affecting his self esteem. I took him on a field trip with a gifted homeschooler group and he ticced (coughed) the entire time. Thank goodness they were who they were, they didn't bat an eyelash and the other kids on the trip were fantastic. I am so grateful to those people.

But I can't imagine what it must be like to have to tic for hours at a time, in front of others who don't, and who don't understand it...

My understanding is that tic disorders don't really correlate to giftedness either, however they can turn a gifted kid into a 2E kid...also the comorbid conditions of OCD and ADHD can be related to OEs...

Despite all this, he is happy, likes his teacher (even if he is still complaining about school being boring) has a best friend, and so if I can help him through this I feel like he will be in a good place.

I may try the supplements, I think Irena on this board mentioned epsom salt baths.. the only problem is my son won't take them. Also one of his tics is picking at his skin so he has several sores on his arms and legs which I don't know if ES would hurt -so supplements may be a good way of getting those minerals into him.

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.

As many has pave said on the other thread a bout ASD/ADHD and gifted: if it's impairing his functioning, treat it, rather than worry about the correct diagnosis.
I would say that with a HG kid,anxiety is pretty useless as a defining symptom! Have you looked into sensory processing disorder - t shirt chewing, jumping pacing nail biting, skin picking...a sensory diet might help alleviate all this. Um, sensory issues are correlated with anxiety.... You may want to check out sensational kids and the out of synch kid, see whether it rings a bell.

LAF, would you elaborate on tics and their connection to 2E? My ds13 has had tics since kindergarten. They used to come and go, but I've haven't seen them go in a long while.

LAF-- my DS8 has tics-- at this stage, we're still considering them to be transient, but he was also just diagnosed 2e (expressive/receptive language), I think (although I'm not getting a formal diagnosis until I need to) that he has mild ADHD (primarily inattentive with some impulsivity).
The coughing tic was the worst-- it began right as school started. 2nd graders are more judgmental than first graders, and it was immediately isolating. Between the tic and the social issues, he still has not made friends. The good news is that the coughing tic subsided, replaced by some short term eye-blinking.
He tried to develop a weird slurping tic over the past week-- so I bought him some stress balls at Target. Once he focused on squeezing the stress balls he stopped making noises. The eye blinks have stopped, so we are once again "tic free."

LAF - thanks so much for sharing so much detail. There's a million oddities to my lovely DS: he's never fit any mold. Trying to figure out what's just the quirks that make him unique as opposed to possible warning signs we ought to be paying attention to, is proving far more challenging than I might ever have imagined. Learning from your experience is very helpful.

cammon, I hadn't heard that providing an alternative stress outlet can help redirect the ticcing urge - it certainly sounds worth a try! Has anyone else managed to do this? We too went through coughing to eye blinking this fall, and then moved on rather quickly to neck stretching and then mouth stretching - a poster child from the Tourette's site typical tic progression, it would seem. So far I have been turning a blind eye; from what I have found so far, a 10-year old seems to be borderline as to whether calling their attention to when they tic is helpful or harmful.

P.S. Tigerle, I sort of ducked your question as I don't really know quite what I do.... it changes all the time. I'm a self-employed consultant, and work with all sort of different groups of research funders and health organizations. So some days I'm learning everything I can about what matters in fixing palliative care, others it's brain research or kidney disease. A constant vertical learning curve! I think a lot of what I do is help people with great focus and depth try to see the bigger picture, and where they can make connections to better make change "out there". Hmmm - could I sound more nebulous? Now you know why I ducked.

Very nebulous but very interesting, thanks!