Hello I’m new here and I need advice!
Having Tourette’s is not new to me, but I suppressed and lived in denial for a long time. I know most of us probably try to hide it and save ourselves from embarrassment, I’m guilty of it. But now I can’t suppress tics like I used to be able to, I feel like I probably suppressed too much for too long and that’s why. I’d currently rank myself middle of the road as far as severity, I have about two dozen different physical tics patterns that I cycle through and are ever changing while my vocal tics are much milder they range from a randomly placed speech impediment to repeating words I’m using in a sentence in duplicate and triplicate. If I’m focused on something I love or enjoy doing my tics pretty much disappear, but the more I do that the worse they get in my free time especially if I’m doing a task I don’t enjoy. I’m mostly wondering if anyone else has had this issue and had any luck getting their tics to calm down and improve so you could regain functioning? I’m worried my tics will get worse if I don’t figure out something, I’m honestly scared of losing functionality any more than I already have. My tics hate the vacuum cleaner and scrubbing the shower, I think it’s the repetitive movements of the tasks that trigger them. My Tourette’s was very mild up until I reached my thirties and it’s gotten progressively worse over the past 3-4 years. I’ve had to step back from a lot of stress in my life already and it’s been hard asking for more help from others because I enjoy being independent as much as possible and I genuinely hate asking for help. I’m already maxed out on my Botox doses, I go to massage therapy, and my meds are as balanced as they’re going to get. I do lots to proactively manage as much I can afford to, but it kinda feels hopeless sometimes, so any advice on anything that really helped lessen your tics is very appreciated. But I’m also worried that maybe I’m just stuck like this and going to have to face facts that there will be things I struggle with from here on out no matter what I do?