Tics

[AshleyWal]

9 year old with motor tics for almost a year. Lots of them. Simple tics. Please tell me what the professionals have and she will grow out of it!!

9 year old with motor tics for almost a year. Lots of them. Simple tics. Please tell me what the professionals have and she will grow out of it!! Eye rolling, lip movements, the works

Hi. She needs to see a GP to check it's not anything sinister (very, very unlikely.) They may be happening in response to stress (functional tics) or neurological. I believe after a year or two Tourette's can be diagnosed.

There are loads of things you can do to help with tics. Look at triggers, accepting them (as she won't be able to stop them), looking at ways to relax, get better sleep and to help her to explain to others what's happening. 7-10 is the common age for tics to appear and they can get worse in teenage years. Some do grow out of them and for lots of people they reduce in adulthood. However, many people live with them including David Beckham, Dan Ackroyd and Billie Eilish.

Hey, thanks for your reply. I have seen a paedi and gp and she’s also seeing a child psychologist who specialises in tic disorders in jan. Bit of background info, I’m 32 I had a stroke from the vaccine I’m Dec last year. The few months after we’re horrendous. For all of us. Her tics started in Feb. no sign of tics prior. Everything I’m reading says tics can’t be bought on by anxiety so I’m assuming she just has a tic disorder.

There was a massive increase in the incidence of tics during the pandemic and lockdowns. The theory is that it's a way of managing the extreme stress. The urge to tic is like wanting to blink. If she can't stop them from happening, or if she does suppress them for a while then she has loads at once, it's likely to be neurological rather than functional.

DSs did. We saw a speech therapist. She told us that they would almost certainly clear on their own, that we should focus on relaxation comfort and distraction.

What we were not to do was fuss about them, draw his attention to them, tell him to stop etc.

His were throat clearing/coughing, shrugging the back of his neck as if the clothes label was itchy.
(I went through cutting labels out before realising it wasn't the labels!!)
He also walked in circles to help him speak. Something about processing.

He went on to have some physio/occ health input for benign essential tremor, and has dyspraxia, dyslexia type conditions.

He seems to use his whole body to process what other people do inside their head- completely benign, but it occasionally looked like OCD or other similar conditions.

I'm sorry you've had a tough time. Try and focus on being kind to yourselves after a traumatic year, rather than on fretting about it all. Easier said than done.

DS developed a tic 18mo ago. It was very upsetting. We hated it, he hated it. After a few months it stopped entirely, then a few months later it came back, and was much less bothered by it. It is very clearly linked to stress and anxiety for him, as both timescales coincided with traumatic family incidents.

He had some emotional support through school, not for the tic but the grief he was suffering. They advised us to ignore the tic entirely and that he'd likely grow out of - but that if in a year it was still happening AND causing him distress or stopping him from doing things, then to seek help through the GP.
He has now outgrown it, a few months ago. But we recognise it may well reappear with future stresses. The most helpful thing we realised is that we found it more upsetting than DS did - the counsellor at school did an exercise with him about it, and he described on a chart how much people in his family worried about his tic. DH and I were ranked much higher than him, and this was revelatory for us in our approach.

I'm sorry you're experiencing the same, it is horrible to witness. Hope our experience is somewhat reassuring.

@picklemewalnuts your description "He seems to use his whole body to process what other people do inside their head- completely benign, but it occasionally looked like OCD or other similar conditions" really resonates with our experience. That's exactly how it was for DS - and the OCD similarities were very scary for us.

Once we received the advise to ignore and support it was like a release valve was opened for all of us. Life became so much easier.

Interesting you say that, she can suppress them. She had a neck snapping tic for a while back and it looked painful, I asked if she needed anything. She said “I’ll stop” and stopped. I haven’t seen it since and it’s been weeks. Other ones like squinting she cannot. She can suppress them for a while, such as social settings, but it comes back. Not stronger or anything. Thanks for taking the time to reply by the way

DS developed a tic at 7 years old when he changed school. GP attributed it to stress and said the worst thing we could do was keep mentioning it. We just ignored and it disappeared.

It returned when he was doing his GCSEs.

He's currently final year a levels and I've noticed it returning when we talk about next summer's exams.

Don't make a big deal of it but do try to reduce stress levels.

I guess my worry more comes from the time frame, which I know shouldn’t matter. We are approaching the one year mark and although she has no vocal, they are showing no signs of slowing down 😩

DD16 developed tics after the first lockdown. She also has ASD, ADHD, depression and anxiety so we are already under CAMHS. We were fortunate that her psychiatrist specialised in tics and Tourette's and has even co-written a book about it. He said he'd seen an absolute spike in children who had developed tics during or after lockdown and described it as almost epidemic proportions. Almost all cases he'd seen were tics brought on by anxiety and many (although not all) cases were teen girls.

He explained the difference between tics and Tourette's, and apparently with Tourette's you continue to tic even in your sleep. So we have left the tics untreated and largely ignore them.

They continue to come and go with little rhyme or reason, they can happen when she is completely relaxed or when she is anxious (we've seen an increase this week during mock exams.)

Luckily she doesn't get embarrassed by them and we do have a giggle about some of the funnier verbal tics. I have no idea if the tics will be around forever but she has seemed to embrace them as another part of who she is, which has surprised us all as she loathes feeling different from her peers on a daily basis.

So no advice or crystal balling unfortunately, just sharing our experience so you know you're not alone.

Hi op, my son started with tics during lockdown, he has ASD and learning difficulties and anxiety, they came out of nowhere and lasted 6 months. They came back a few times but very briefly. Hopefully they’re just anxiety related and will soon ease. But I think it’s definitely worth videoing and keeping a log of them.

Just to add my son was 6 or 7 at the time when they started.

Thanks for all your responses. It’s nice to know I’m not alone. The unknown terrifies me. I’ll be sure not to mention it (as hard as it it) and see how we go

There was a fascinating programme about this on Radio 4 called All in the Mind. Experts talking about tics and why they think children and teenagers are developing them. It was first on on Tuesday 13th so check it out on BBC Sounds.

Ooh thanks @Joshanddonna I'll definitely check that out

I just watched that program thanks for that. She doesn’t seem like an anxious child. Unless I’m missing something or she’s great at hiding it.

Sounds interesting. I’ll have a listen too. How are the tics now?

My DS had them on and off for a few years, it started when he got bullied in year 2.

He's now 12 and hasn't had one for about 12 months.

Ignoring seemed to best thing to do, which isn't always easy to do, he also had some counselling at school which seemed to help.

My son had them for a few years around that time, one would go and another would start. He was generally a shy child and a bit worried about doing the right thing etc. Worse if tired or having a growth spurt. It can be hard to love with and not to catastrophise.

I don't believe tics aren't related to anxiety - my personal experience is that they are.

I never noticed DDs tics until lockdown, when they exploded (DD had noticed and tried to tell me, but I didn't understand) She now has a diagnosis or Tourette's, although you wouldn't know if you met her today. She can suppress her tics, but they will come out when she gets home, or she's around me. Initially I thought I was making her tics worse, but apparently it's because I'm her safe person, and she can just let it all out with me.

I wouldn't have thought DD was a nervous child, but I now realise that anxiety and tiredness are the two things that will trigger her tics. I also try to make sure she isn't deficient in magnesium - easier said than done with a teen who thinks they know best.

It could be that your DC grows out of the tics, or that they get worse during puberty and then calm down ,which is what seemed to happen with my DD. There is very little help for parents of children with tics - DD received a diagnosis of Tourette's and was discharged on the same day. The Tourettes Action website is amazing though, and have lots of fact sheets you can print off and pass on to school.

Ignore the tics as much as you can - I know that's really, really hard!

sorry I don’t know how to reply directly. Doingmybest, how is your son now? My daughter hasn’t had a single day without a tic in 10 months now.

lynette, how old was your daughter when she started? Did she have vocal tics too? Xx

ignoring them seems soooo hard. I’m honestly doing my best. Magnesium liquid and a multivitamin too

There’s a fascinating video clip with trauma doctor Peter Levine where he talks through an example of a soldier who came home from war and developed PTSD and had involuntary movements. He’d been prescribed medication for Tourette’s too. It’s just a really fascinating clip because it helps understand how movements in the body can come from traumatic experiences where the body has got stuck in trying to process something.

I’m not saying your DD has gone through such extreme trauma without you knowing, but it might help with some understanding of how the body can get stuck and heal.

My dd also developed tics in lockdown. It was hugely distressing. She was 13 when they started. We talked about/went through together GOSH report and decided that she shouldn't use TikTok at all and within months she had stopped.