I’ve been keeping myself quite busy of the last few days doing my “Mandatory Work Related Activity” also I’ve just take delivery of 40 Ladybird books from the 60’s and 70’s to sell from my new on-line bookshop. Yippee!!! Hopefully the end of this unemployment is nigh! I’m still in pain and I’ve also acquired a stinking cold from my little trip down to London yesterday.
I’ve a new challenge ahead of me with regards to my Habit Reversal Training, as well as trying to banish the tricotillomania I’m going to have a go at my most annoying and invasive tic; *Mr Susan. I can’t remember how long Mr Susan has been with me but at the moment it’s at it’s worse (due to stress and the fact that the Risperidone isn’t working) and is causing me pain across my shoulders, the back of my neck and the occasional headache. Mr Susan is also affecting my ability to read, both books and from a computer, the constant jerking from side to side is quite disorientating and on the train home from Birmingham after my HRT session and aromatherapy session I felt quite sick. The aromatherapy session was bliss and my cop was laid to rest until I got on the train home. Going back to my HRT I’m now going to attempt to eradicate Mr Susan from my life, this head jerking tic has a very quick urge, in fact it’s almost instantaneous, it’s quite tricky but I’m now going to try and replace the side-to-side head jerk with a more gentle nod that will do less damage to my neck and shoulders. The hair-pulling seems to be very up and down, there seems to be a pattern forming, it has been worse due to the stress and particularly worse when upset but the knitting seems to be working well.
I think a great deal of this tress has been caused by public transport, I the last week I’ve taken numerous buses and trains to get around and people, particularly strangers on the move seem to trigger my vocal tics, and vocal tics don’t exactly help if you just want to blend in and get from A to B. Part and parcel of being a ticker is sadly being stared at, usually by teens, two boys on the bus home one day were met by “F*%% OFF, IT’S RUDE TO STARE” as they got off the bus, also being a ticcer it’s always polite if someone comes and sits next to you to warn them “I have Tourette’s syndrome, I might shout, please just ignore me”, this lead to a conversation with one man who seemed sympathetic enough but then said “I wouldn’t like to take you for a drink” I answered “I like a drink or few just like anyone else, I’m not staying in due to my Tourette’s.” Anyway, if he had asked me for a drink I would have turned him down, I do have a boyfriend, although he’d probably find that fact hard to believe.
* Mr Susan is a character featured in one episode of “The Mighty Boosh” youtube.com/watch?v=H7iMiT3... who has a very similar head tic to me.
