Hope was 8 years old when her mother first noticed her “rolling her eyes back in her head multiple times a day.” Her teacher noted on her report card that Hope was disrespectful at times and often rolled her eyes when she spoke to her. Concerned Hope was becoming increasingly defiant, Mom scheduled an appointment with me. Upon meeting with Hope, I first noticed that she repeatedly brought her hands to her nose and sniffed. Mom reported this behavior had started a few weeks prior for no apparent reason. When I asked Hope if she could stop the behavior, she looked defeated and said “sometimes. If I try really hard I can stop it for a while, but it always comes back and I don’t know I’m doing it.”

Hope had developed something called Tic disorder. Later we would change her diagnosis to Tourette’s syndrome as she developed a vocal tic of clearing her throat numerous times an hour. Tourette’s Syndrome is diagnosed when a person has both motor and vocal tics and often times tic disorder will develop into Tourette’s syndrome, although not always.

Hope was started on medication to help her control the vocal and motor tics. She also started therapy to learn some behavioral modification techniques to help her control her tics. Hope slowly improved and now her tics are much less dramatic and happen much less frequently. She told me the last time we met that she feels “much better about myself and my friends don’t make fun of me any more.” She’s also become an awesome advocate for Tic and Tourette’s syndrome awareness and at the age of 9 has actually spoken to groups of kids and adults about her experiences! “I hope to help other people see that tics are just something that happen to some people and that they don’t make you bad or weird,” she told me.