Tourette Syndrome: Why a Diagnosis Isn’t a Death Sentence
Something came to my mind today. The way people react when they receive a Tourette diagnosis and immediately think it’s a sentence. Lately I see it everywhere: people destroyed, parents desperate, posts saying “my world has collapsed”. And every time I stop for a second. Really? I understand the shock, I understand it’s not something you want to hear, but they didn’t tell you you have three months to live. They told you you have Tourette. That’s different.
The Diagnosis: Why It Feels Like the End
There was a time when nobody knew what it was. It existed only for those who had it. Now Tourette is everywhere, everyone talks about it, and maybe that’s exactly the problem. The moment you hear that word, your mind starts building a story. You don’t even realise it, but you’ve already decided what your life is going to look like from that point on.
Living with It: Tics and Bad Days
I’ve been living with it for years, and no, it’s not all nice. It’s not like I wake up thinking “great, I have tics”. There are days when they’re annoying, days when they’re heavy. I can usually tell straight away what kind of day it’s going to be, just from how I wash my face in the morning. If the compulsions start, I already know it’s going to be a long day. But that’s not what made me feel worse.
What really gets to you is how Tourette is described to you: “you need treatment”, “you have to get better”, “this is not okay”. And inside you’re thinking: I’m already okay like this. I took medication, then I stopped. My choice. At some point I preferred the tics to the side effects. I’m not saying it’s right for everyone, but for me it was. If I had been diagnosed as a child, it would have been different, because then other people decide for you, and maybe they even do the right thing. But it’s a different story.
What Tourette Teaches You
Another thing I always notice is that the people around you are often more desperate than you are. They want to help, they want to protect you, but sometimes they go too far. They treat you like you’re broken, and you’re not. Tourette is not a monster, it’s a part of you, and if you learn to understand it, you also learn to manage it. At some point something changes and you realise it has taught you a lot: to not care too much, to adapt, to stop depending on other people’s judgement. And that is something not everyone learns. Of course there are harder cases, there are comorbidities, there are difficult moments. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m saying it’s not the end of the world.
In the End
We also need to stop raising people who don’t know how to deal with life, always protected, always covered, always justified. Because when they step outside, they fall apart. I grew up a bit differently, and yes, sometimes it was hard, but it taught me how to handle things. In the end, that’s what matters. Not removing everything, but learning how to live with it. Because in the end, the choice is always the same.
Being happy is your choice.
