Greetings
If you’re finding this site for the first time today, a very warm welcome. Let me tell you a bit about it and about me. I’m Touretteshero, the world’s first fully-fledged Tourettes superhero. Welcome to my website and my world.
This blog’s a celebration of creativity and humour. Having Tourettes means I make movements and noises I can’t control. It also means I have some weird and wonderful experiences, and I share these, along with the tough bits about living with Tourettes, here.
If reading this captures your imagination, keep an eye out for my book, Welcome to Biscuit Land, which is published in the UK on Monday. It’ll be available in the US as an eBook later in the month and the printed version will follow in the spring.
The site’s inspired by my strange and surreal vocal tics. You can look through over 4000 of them here. If you find yourself laughing, please don’t feel bad – they’re there to be enjoyed. There’s a big difference between laughing at someone because they are different, and laughing with someone who’s sharing parts of their life because it’s funny. While some aspects of Tourettes can be tricky, others parts are awesome. Here are a few of my favourite tics:
“Dude Where’s My Pixie?”
“Starry, starry horse, paint your biscuit blue and grey.”
“Mature, sensitive sheep seeks bear.”
“Badass biscuits or bins? Choose.”
“Tell the clouds to put some knickers on.”
Lots of people think Tourettes Syndrome is just about swearing involuntarily. This is a myth. 90% of people with Tourettes don’t have coprolalia – the technical name for swearing tics – but I’m one of the 10% who do. I decided to share all my tics, even if they’re rude, because I didn’t want to edit out any part of my disability. But if you’re easily offended, or want a child enjoy the site, turn on the SafeMode. This removes all the explicit content at the touch of a button.
Touretteshero’s about responding creatively to tics and I invite you to let your creativity loose on the strange combinations of words and ideas they produce. If you see a tic that captures your imagination, get drawing and add your tic-inspired image to our gallery. If you want to get involved in other ways, why not comment on blog posts, vote on your favourite tics or tell your friends about them, using Twitter and Facebook.
If you’re curious about Tourettes, check out our FAQ page – it’s got most things covered but if your question’s missing, get in touch.
One of the key aims of Touretteshero is to put on innovative events for children and young people with the condition. If you want to help us do this please think about making a donation or buying something from our shop.
Over the next few days I hope to welcome a lot more visitors to the site, and I hope everyone who comes will find something interesting, and leave, after laughing a lot along the way, understanding a little bit more about Tourettes.
I’m going to give the last word to my tics:
“Welcome to Biscuit Land.”
Mark D says:
I am so incredibly happy I found this site.
Our eight-year-old son has Tourette’s, and … well, I’ll be honest.
It breaks my heart.
Not the attention we get from strangers—I could care less about that. (Honestly. Screw ’em.) It’s the … well, he gets sssoooooooo tired some days when the tics are bad, and has a hard time writing or riding a bike. Hell, even eating can be a challenge, and don’t even get me started with haircuts! As every parent knows, it’s so damn hard when you can’t help or "fix" something ailing your kid(s). That feeling of helplessness is one of the hardest things any of us will ever go through as parents.
So it’s really nice to read someone with Tourette’s and their mindset. Sure, it won’t be the same as The Boy (who is also autistic, has ADHD, and an IQ around 150ish) but as least it’s something to make me less … worried, for lack of a better term.
And for that, all I can type is: "THANK. YOU."
ciara says:
I have read the article in yahoo, you said there that it is hard for the public to understand your situation,one because lack of information..just an idea i’m not sure if you have it already, why not where something like a symbol that u have tourettes ( like breast cancer they have pink ribbon) so people will know and you don’t need to explain all the time..those who don’t understand sorry for them. Thank you! Just an idea!
deviansfight says:
I heard about this site on yahoo. This is awesome! I’m so glad you are willing to share everything here. In fact, after looking at your site I have developed a theory. When God was making people Creativity kept getting into all kinds of trouble. He wasn’t sure what to do. So he came to our spirits and said "What do you think I should do with all this creativity? It’s more then I can use but it’s getting into so much trouble!" Some of his spirit children started to stand up and say "I’ll take some extra, give it to me." God replied "You know, it’s pretty unpredictable, especially when there’s a lot. I’m not sure how you can contain it safely" "but we want to help, surely there must be a way" his spirit children cried. God thought about it and said "I know what to do. If you are willing. I will give you the extra creativity to hold but I will also make a release valve. As the creative pressure builds it will open up and you can let out whatever it has created. In this way you will be kept safe and the creativity can be released into the world and shared with everyone." The spirit children who had volunteered thought this was a great idea. and so when they came to earth and the release valve opened we called it Tourettes.
Thank-you so much for sharing! Your tics have given me some great ideas. I am working to become a reading teacher and am always looking for ideas to engage the kids. My favorites so far are "Capital Letters talk to themselves at night" and "Hands up, Action Man." I want to turn that last one into some kind of hero for learning.