It's getting harder and harder.
Does anyone out there suffer from Tourette's Syndrome and it's accompanying conditions- OCD and ADD? I am female, 37 and feel very, very alone in this manner. Apparently, Tourette's is extremely rare in females- so it isn't all in my head. It's real, and it's lonely, and I have to live with it every day. It has all affected my life intensely. The only thing worse than being misunderstood is being alone as well. When I started drinking, I found I could focus more on certain things. It eased up the obsessive tendencies as well. As a child I was poked, prodded, humiliated and put on (then) experimental drugs by my parents who made a point of it to let me know I was an embarrassment to them and that they wanted to be rid of me but could not do so legally. Anyway- if anyone at all has had a similar experience, I would like to hear from you. This SUCKS because my condition is not romanticized- it's made fun of. And I have been humiliated most of my life by everyone around me. It's not a "A Beautiful Mind" or "Benny and Joon" cutesy pie Hollywood BS condition made glamorous by sleek actors. It's made fun of, acceptably- by TV, movies and other media. Tourette's is a joke for the whole world to be in on and it makes me want to die for the shame of it, and also the extreme difficulty that this neurological disorder implies on my life. I don't bark or swear compulsively, dumb f***s- nor does 90 percent of the TS population. However, I DO hurt deeply, profoundly- inside- every day.