Tourette's Syndrome

Page 22.
     By any standard my childhood was unusual, and not in a good way. I realize that people have been tossing around the term "dysfunctional" since the early '80's or so and it's gotten to the point that the phrase doesn't mean anything anymore. For the sake of this blog though, let' say that all families are dysfunctional, but they just exist on a continuum. Leave It To Beaver's family would be a 10. Meaning: they occasionally have real problems and some of them never get fixed in a healthy way but most do. And even for the ones that don't get fixed, the family still navigates through without life-threatening psychological or physical trauma or residue. The Manson Family would be a 1. Meaning: drugs/alcohol; manipulation/control/authoritarianism; physical/sexual/emotional abuse; serious long-term physical and or mental health issues; religious extremism; violence. Mine probably came in at about a  2.5. That's pretty severe.
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     I believe that the moment any child is born, they arrive at a table which is already set for dinner. And, as previously mentioned, my family's dinner table was a 2.5/10. That was no Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City. But then, additionally, because life is a pot-luck, each child brings with them certain dishes, in addition to the dishes which are awaiting them. And I truly believe that every child is absolutely born with a distinctive personality (and quirks).
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      One of the casseroles which I arrived with is Tourette's Syndrome. I'm basically a text book case of TS. It was and is awful. I got strep throat in the 5th grade and haven't been the same since and that was the school year 1972-73. Thankfully, I never had the worst of the vocalizations. I had and have moderate forms of that. With me it was primarily the ticks. The entire upper 25% of my body was in perpetual motion when I was a kid. My head ticks, facial movements and shoulder shrugs were very severe. I describe it this way to friends: If you'd stood behind me on the escalator in Macy's, going from the first floor to the second, by the time you got off, you'd have whispered to your companion, "what was wrong with that kid?" I was truly a "Phil Donahue Kid". Do you remember when Tourette's began coming out of the closet in the mid '80's and they were featuring those kids on Phil Donahue? I was definitely one of them, again, with my ticks, not vocalizations.
     It was just awful. I had so many fears for so many reasons, and then to have TS on top of that... What was God thinking? It was horrific.
     To be continued...