What are the signs and symptoms of Tourette’s?
The main symptoms of Tourette’s are tics. These are certain quick and sudden actions that cannot be controlled by the person. Tics are completely involuntary – you cannot stop yourself from doing a tic without feeling an increasing urge to do it again. A person may be able to suppress a tic for a short time but most find it hard to suppress them for more than an hour. There are two types of tics; motor tics and vocal tics: • Motor tics are sudden, sharp and twitch-like body movements like shrugging shoulders, head movements, blinking or leg movements. • Vocal tics are tics that involve the voice such as grunting, coughing, stuttering, barking, saying obscene words for no reason and repeating what people have said. Tics can be described as simple or complex. Simple tics involve one muscle group such as twitches or blinking. Complex tics involve more than one muscle group so include things like repeating what someone has said or twirling around. Tics can change over time. You might have
