Last week at work I had a ‘ticcing fit’. It started suddenly in the middle of a big group activity with loads of children around. My support worker Hannah and my colleagues were quick to respond. Fran, who’s previously provided me with a lot of support, was working that day and she came to help manage the fit.…

I’ve just woken up, and sitting at the end of my bed is a large gold pig – the much anticipated ‘Mystery Piggy’. I can hear Ruth pottering about in the living room, her familiar tics ringing through the castle.

Outside my bedroom window the usual view of the garden and lamp-post is brightened by coloured bunting fluttering lazily in the breeze.…

It’s Surrender Your Say day today, which means that if you don’t have Tourettes but you do have Twitter, it’s your chance to experience one aspect of the most frequently misunderstood syndrome on the planet. When you sign and surrender here, a neat little app sends real tics at random times throughout the day from your account.…

There are an estimated 6.5 million unpaid carers in the UK. They’re people who support a family member, a friend or partner who’s ill, frail or disabled.

Today’s the start of Carers’ Week, an annual week of campaigning which aims to:

• Draw attention to the role of carers and celebrate the contribution they make
• Help people recognise that they are carers and help them access support
• Highlight the need for sustainable funding for services, both for carers and the people they care for

This year’s campaign focuses on the fact that every day 6,000 people take on new caring responsibilities.…

I’ve just re-visited a post I wrote last September, shortly after receiving the first copies of my book – Welcome to Biscuit Land. Leftwing Idiot had suggested I should write a message to myself in the front of my own copy and that it should be something I could go back to ‘on days when things feel tough.’…

I’ve written loads of posts about how I overreact when I feel any heightened emotion, whether it’s happiness, sadness, frustration or excitement. A while ago I developed an ‘overreacting plan’ to help guide me and my support workers through these difficult moments.…

Last night Leftwing Idiot and I headed into town for a night of comedy at the Bloomsbury Theatre. Mixing Tourettes Syndrome and live performance can have unexpected and volatile results so I’m extremely careful in choosing what to go and see and where to go and see it.…

This morning I woke up late but cheerful. I don’t usually work on Saturdays but today I did because I was covering for a colleague. For no clear reason my tics decided it would be a good morning for a Tourettes re-working of a traditional Scottish song, The Bonnie Bonnie Banks O’ Loch Lomond, so as I rushed about getting ready, Zoë, my support worker, frantically scribbled down my new lyrics.…

For a few moments earlier this evening I felt desperately alone and extremely vulnerable. It’s unusual for me to ever be on my own because I almost always have someone with me, but a mix-up this evening led to a gap in my care.…

The other day I was pottering around the castle sorting out a few things, Leftwing Idiot was working on his computer and Fran was making us some food when, out of nowhere, a new series of sung tics rolled out to a whimsical unidentified tune.…