To worry about som's nervous tic

[polkadotpj]

My son has variously had eye twitching, cough and now is sniffing and blowing air out of his nose as a nervous thing. It's definitely this, been to optician and GP and I've no idea how to start with correcting it. Ignore it? (Hard as it's so irritating but then crushing as his face falls if we mention it) , doctor, psychology support? It's driving me mad and worrying me in equal measure. His brother is driven crazy by it and I fear his classmates too as he's mentioned not being as friendly with his formerly great pals. Help! Anyone had the same?

What I meant by me ignoring it is I don’t comment on it or draw attention to it or tell him off for it or ask him to stop it, sorry that wasn’t clear.

OP please do ask about the school nurse before you see the GP. They really don't have as much experience in this sort of thing (again this is true of my area but could be different in yours). Definitely worth checking though even if they can't help they will be able to recommend the best course of action.

"Ignore" = don't point it out or tell them to stop it, not don't get medical support

My son had a lot of tics at this age, and the doctor offered to diagnose Tourettes and I refused. DS was very anxious as a boy. At age 8 the tics were big, and by the time he started year 7 he had it down to an eye roll only. We warned his teachers because he was afraid they would think he was doing it on purpose.

We found that it was best way to handle it was to ignore them, and tell him not to try and stop them. The more he tried to stop them the worse they were. He was able to make them small, as I mentioned. I did buy a book on CBT and tourettes and I very casually recommended strategies. He did not want any therapy, once he met a kid at a club who was in group therapy and my DS was adamant he did not want to join.

He is 14 and they are totally gone. They were mostly gone by age 12. He is not anxious at all. It is remarkable. He is so laid back and a happy boy. It passed, phew.

Good luck and at least pretend to be calm about them.

My DS has had eye blinking since primary school but not really noticeable unless he was tired. He's in Year 8 now and the facial tics have got much worse. I wouldn't say he's particularly an anxious child but I took him to the doctors recently and he has been referred to a neurologist. I took a couple of videos of him when his tics were bad but he wasn't looking so that the doctor could see what I meant. She was pleased I had done that as it will be helpful for the neurologist