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Does anyone still remember the series “Ally McBeal”? And one of John Cage’s girlfriends, played by Anne Heche, who every now and then delightfully shouted the common name of the male sex organ? We adored her, remember!
And has anyone ever, on a hot summer day, sat in the garden of a restaurant on a busy promenade of a big city, lazily stirred a black straw in a tall glass with icy water, and then suddenly saw hairy, powerful male arms flying in front of his eyes and heard the vulgar name of the same authority?
If “yes” at least once (except for the first question), it is worth knowing that the “yes” is coprolalia and is one of the rarer, but due to its specific spectacularity, symptom of a disease called Tourette’s Syndrome after the name of the researcher who described it .
This congenital neurological disorder consists of numerous and constantly changing tics.
– The disease may begin with a single motor tic, but by definition the tics in Tourette Syndrome are variable, they have different forms and severities over time – says Justyna Młodzikowska-Albrecht, MD, a neurologist cooperating with the Certus clinic in Poznań.
The first symptoms usually appear in seven-year-old children, more than three times more often in boys than in girls. The age of 2-15 years is considered to be the time of disease manifestation, and its flowering time is during puberty. In the Polish Association of Tourette Syndrome there are several people whose disease appeared suddenly when they were adults, but as Dr. Justyna Młodzikowska-Albrecht says, these are rare cases. He adds that if symptoms develop in a person over the age of 21, diagnostics to exclude other neurological diseases are always necessary.
The syndrome is genetic, it is estimated that the affected parent will pass on a predisposition to the disease to the child with a XNUMX% probability, but even a child with the gene may never develop the disease.
Tick Tock
Everyone knows at least a few people who sniff, blink their eyes uncontrollably, or wave their legs across their legs. It is also known that these reflexes are called tics. However, not everyone is aware of the intensity and amount of tics caused by Tourette’s syndrome. They are divided into motor, i.e. motor, and vocal, i.e. voice. In addition to the above-mentioned, motor tics include, for example, shrugging, jumping, licking, touching other people without restraint or repeating their gestures. Vocal tics are all kinds of grunts and coughs, clicks, and animal-like sounds.
Rare, but socially unacceptable, increasing the patient’s sense of alienation and sometimes even causing conflicts with the law are tics consisting in making obscene gestures, touching one’s or someone else’s genitals, and uttering profanity. It sometimes happens that the latter appear in series and seem to be targeted at someone specific.
The combinations and severity of tics are unique to each Turkish. Tics are also not fixed for life, they are constantly changing and depend, among others, on on the mental condition and the level of stress. There are periods of remission. Many cases of ST are mild and do not significantly affect the patient’s quality of life. Unfortunately, there are also patients who are prevented by Tourette from leading a normal existence: vocal tics make it difficult for them to eat, swallow food, and motor tics turn falling asleep into a nightmare. Obsessive thoughts force them to constantly check that the door is closed, the gas in the stove is turned off, and the tiles in the bathroom are still twenty-five in a row, exactly the same as a million times before. Extremely exhausting and unimaginable for a healthy person is the necessity to live with the constant compulsion to do something that one does not want to do. Another important issue is the social perception of the ticking person. The collision with the inevitable glances of people on the streets, in banks, in cinemas, in pubs, confrontation with reluctance, fear and irritation, mentally exhausts Turkish people. It’s easiest to isolate yourself, but it’s easy to imagine where this leads the healthy and intelligent people they are. Because ST is a neurological disorder, not a mental one, there is nothing that affects people except tics! They can create happy families, raise children, ticking can be like the ticking of a clock: after a while, they are not paid attention to.
Tick no
Tics cannot be eliminated once and for all. It is true that Dr. Justyna Młodzikowska-Albrecht admits that in a few percent of people diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome, tics may disappear spontaneously, but more realistic statistics show that in 1/3 of patients the symptoms intensify in adulthood, in 1/3 the intensity of tics it does not change, and in 1/3 they significantly decrease, but they do not disappear completely.
In cases of very severe undesirable behaviors that interfere with normal functioning or lead to self-injury, pharmacological agents are used, most often neuroleptics and antidepressants. However, it may take time to properly compose the treatment, and you have to take into account the side effects of the medications you are taking.
Another way to deal with ST is behavioral therapy. Patients learn to replace socially bothersome tics with other behaviors, such as using less vulgar words or touching neutral rather than sexually marked places on the body. They also work on stopping tics for a while, and each success is positively reinforced, which, according to the idea of behaviorism, is to increase the chance of repeating the behavior. It is true that Turkish people agree that nothing is lost in the “turk” and that a tic that is successfully stopped for a quarter of an hour will have to go crazy, but the invaluable psychological comfort makes you aware that you can control the compulsion even for a moment.
In recent years, several neurological surgeries have been carried out, involving the implantation of a Turkic in the brain powered by a battery of pacemakers, which “switch off” overactive parts of the brain. The operations have brought the expected results, which gives hope for effective treatment of extreme cases of the disorder. For now, as an experimental technique, it is a very expensive method.
When we realize what the Tourette Syndrome is associated with, John Cage’s girlfriend no longer causes such indiscriminate amusement. The man at the cafe table is not irritating, and he makes our black drink pipe tremble with his swinging hands and shouting. It was certainly not easy for him to go out between people. The more so because he is still locked inside his tireless coercion.
Text: Julia Wolin
Read more about Tourette Syndrome
See Everyday life of a person suffering from Tourette’s syndrome!