Any experience of anxiety issues and tics?

[BrazenFox]

My eldest dd has had tics since she was about 3 years old along with fairly severe anxiety issues and many phobias, none of which have resolved with age. The tics range from constant grunting, throat clearing, to eye rolling and nose twitching, and loud sniffing. She is now 10 and she has had several visits to her GP who suggested the cause was physical (reflux or post nasal drip). We tried medication for these but they made no difference, so he concluded that she has tics. I'm wondering if anyone has experience of this in conjunction with anxiety and phobias...whether it points to a syndrome (such as tourettes) and if so, who we can approach for help?

DS had a lot of tics at Primary school, not helped by his teacher telling him off for making 'silly noises'. He was also very anxious.
He was eventually referred to the Educational Psychologist and Community Paediatrician and diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome when he was 12.
However the Community Paediatrician said tics come and go and some children just grow out of them.
Have you tried the School Nurse (if they still exist). They can arrange referrals to specialists.
GPs are not always experienced in these conditions. When DS was diagnosed our GP said he had one other in the Practice and admitted his lack of knowledge. This was ten years ago, and you would hope things have moved on, but not necessarily.

Oh gosh, did your son have other aspergers symptoms? My dd has some behaviour that I suspect is not entirely neurotypical, but her dad thinks it is all perfectly normal. One example is inability to interpret social cues. She also finds it very hard to connect pieces of information...so for example if I mention that I'm going out and a while later she hears me talking about going to the post office, when I actually go to leave she asks where I'm going....seemingly oblivious to the reference to post office. When i repeat where I'm going, she'll then say "Oh, is that why you were talking about the post office?"....whereas my younger dd who is 4 makes these connections and understands where I'm going without needing it repeated. Older dd can't seem to unpick wordy maths problems either especially when there is more than one step to carry out. She can't connect the steps at all. It's a bit of a concern heading into year 5 and starting preparation for SATS in which there are lots of these types of questions.

There isn't a school nurse in the actual school but there is a district school nurse I suppose i could contact.

Yes, the School Nurse for the area is the one I meant.
Would it help to ask for this thread to be moved to the Special Needs board? My son is in his twenties now, and there are plenty of people with more up to date information on those boards.
Yes he did have other traits but it took a while to join the dots.
He has learnt a lot over the years, but he had a lot of help at Secondary School, and had a Statement of Educational Needs.

Thanks MargaretDribble...I hadn't even thought of it being a case of special needs as such. She's very bright, reading 3 years ahead of her age, thought struggles with maths concepts and some social interaction.