How can you tell the difference between a tic disorder/Tourette Syndrome and OCD?
It can be difficult to make a distinction between tics and OCD. Common tics include tapping, eye-blinking, throat clearing, spitting, nose-twitching, shoulder shrugging, and licking. These behaviors can also occur in a child with OCD; however, the child with OCD performs these behaviors for a different reason than the child with a tic disorder. If the behavior is caused by OCD, an unpleasant thought will have most likely preceded it (for example, the child may tap his knee four times to decrease the fear of shouting out a swear word – the tapping decreases the anxiety associated with the fear of swearing.) A young child with a tic disorder may not be aware of her movement abnormalities or the child may experience a feeling of increased tension or physical discomfort before the tic. This feeling, often described as an “itch or tickle”, is called a premonitory urge, and it warns the child that she is about to have a tic.
