Last June I went to see my GP to ask if she could help me get access to Habit Reversal Therapy (HRT). This is an intervention for Tourettes that aims to help you change damaging tics into ones that have less impact.…

Yesterday I described a big change that’s coming up in my working life. Today I realised there have also been some big changes elsewhere that I hadn’t noticed, in my attitude to my tics and their impact on me.

I’ve been at a packed bar this evening for a friend’s birthday.…

I’ve finally handed in my notice. To do this I had to travel all the way across the borough and hand it in to three different people in different buildings.

I’ve been worrying a lot about whether or not I’ve made the right decision but now it’s finally done and there’s no going back, I’m looking forward to the challenges of a new job.…

I’ve just got back from a massive work away-day. My team is one of about eight local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service teams (CAMHS) in the borough. We all work in different buildings so I haven’t really met anyone outside my own team before.…

I have a massive change in my life coming up: I’m starting my new job in about a month. My boss-to-be knows I have Tourettes as it was on my application form and I’d met her at my interview.

This evening, when I went to drop in some documents to her, I asked her if she was ready for Tourettes.…

The Tourettes crazy language machine swung into a frenzy this evening to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it.” All these tics occurred in the first half hour and then I repeated them full blast for several hours:

“Norma Major’s in your mouth, take a bite.”…

When my chest-banging tic first started a while ago my chest bruised really badly and it was incredibly painful after the first few weeks. But then the bruising faded even though the tic hadn’t changed. It was as if my body just couldn’t be bothered to maintain the bruise anymore.…

I‘ve had a lovely lazy Sunday evening. King Russell made a curry from scratch and Leftwing Idiot, Harry and Ollie joined us to eat it. I sat and entered some of my tics into the database, absorbing the chatter around me at the same time.…

Years ago I bought a small wooden meerkat. I got it because I thought having something specific to fiddle with might help me manage my tics. It didn’t help much but I became quite fond of it. I liked to keep it in my pocket, despite the fact that I started to use it as a weapon and poked myself with it when I ticced.…

“Dot, dot, dot, dash, dash, dash, dot, dot, dot.”

Not an actual SOS, this. It’s just that I’ve spent too much time with King Russell who would speak entirely in binary code if he had the chance.