Tourette Syndrome Interview Paper

I have interviewed an exceptional individual diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. He is a family friend named Chris, who is now a freshman in college at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder of involuntary movements. The movements are called tics, where parts of the body like the face, arms, or limbs move rapidly. There are two kinds of tics associated with Tourette syndrome. Tics that involved movement are called motor tics, whereas tics that involve sound are called vocal or tics. Symptoms of Tourette syndrome are eye blinking, nose twitching, grimacing, high pitch sounds, jerking movements, coughing, sneezing. Chris has both motor and vocal tics, but his motor tics are greater than his vocal tics. His common tics are eye blinking, head bobbing, sniffling, and nose twitching. Even though he has lots of motor tics there are days where they occur at a very minimum. Chris has tried to suppress his tics, but they do not hold for long. He wishes he could hold at least a quarter of them so that he does not have so many releases during the day. Tics can be suppressed for a period of time at the cost of increasing discomfort (Stern, Blair, and Peterson, 2008). Before an individual performs a tic they have a strong urge and a growing tension in their muscles as the tic makes the individual have uncontrollable movements. …show more content…
He talked to his manager about how he was uncomfortable being on the register, but was still told to work the register. Before work, Chris would do medication to help calm his nerves. He felt like taking deep breaths and clearing his head before going to work could help. After a while it starting working, and he started to get comfortable. He no longer felt like people were judging him. Yes, there were people who gave him looks, but he understood why. It is not everyday that you see a cashier who starts making weird