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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 3 of 3. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by jms600 on August 11, 2009, at 16:48:37
Hi
Can anyone tell me if I am suffering from Tourette's syndrome? I am 29 years old and over the past 18 months or so I've been experiencing this compulsion to shout out swear words and obscenities when people are around me - usually either at work in the office or at home with my family. When I'm alone I don't feel any compulsion to do it.
I have read that sufferers feel a sense of relief after they swear loudly but I really don't think I would get any relief. I would feel extremely upset, embarrassed and ashamed if I did do it.
I also have other compulsions - such as wanting to push my girlfriend into the road when she is walking along side me or stabbing my brother with a knife when we are sitting down at the dining table eating together. These 'feelings' really upset me.
I've told my psychiatrist but he seemed to dismiss my concerns and put them all down to OCD, which I have suffered from as a child. I have not had any diagnosis of Tourette's in the past.
I am currently taking 225mg Effexor, 40mg buspirone, 600mg lithium and 10mg Zyprexa. I thought the Zyprexa would help if it is Tourettes but it hasn't done a thing.
Can anyone please help?
Thanks
Posted by Sigismund on August 11, 2009, at 17:18:33
In reply to Have I really got Tourette's - please help..., posted by jms600 on August 11, 2009, at 16:48:37
Have you ever held a baby standing close to an edge?
It is perhaps natural to wonder about throwing it over.
To some extent everyone feels this around, for example, heights. Otherwise it would be no trouble to stand on the edge of a very high cliff.
I'm always saying things that are mildly inappropriate, which I put down to a mixture of boredom and aggression.
>I also have other compulsions - such as wanting to push my girlfriend into the road when she is walking along side me or stabbing my brother with a knife when we are sitting down at the dining table eating together. These 'feelings' really upset me.
I think I understand what you are talking about. It is a worry that if the feeling was stronger, you might actually do it, or maybe there are people who would.
I recall in Oliver Sacks's "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" that someone with Tourettes found some relief in APs.
Posted by yxibow on August 11, 2009, at 23:30:51
In reply to Have I really got Tourette's - please help..., posted by jms600 on August 11, 2009, at 16:48:37
> Hi
>
> Can anyone tell me if I am suffering from Tourette's syndrome? I am 29 years old and over the past 18 months or so I've been experiencing this compulsion to shout out swear words and obscenities when people are around me - usually either at work in the office or at home with my family. When I'm alone I don't feel any compulsion to do it.
>
> I have read that sufferers feel a sense of relief after they swear loudly but I really don't think I would get any relief. I would feel extremely upset, embarrassed and ashamed if I did do it.Tourette's does fall into the OC Spectrum disorder conditions but it has some distinctions. What you mentioned -- I do believe like some tics, there is some "relief" gained from it. Some people have even taught themselves tricks to divert this into some other tic, I believe.
What you have described here sounds more like a "ph-antasy", a dark disturbing obsession. I can't say for sure, but knowing my OCD personally for years it sounds more like that.
> I also have other compulsions - such as wanting to push my girlfriend into the road when she is walking along side me or stabbing my brother with a knife when we are sitting down at the dining table eating together. These 'feelings' really upset me.
This sounds like "Pure O" -- an obsession that again is dark or disturbing, a "ph-antasy".. usually a single track that runs over in the head.
They're not compulsions, unless you've really committed a crime.... (not that I'm suggesting that you have.. that falls into a different Axis of disorders).
There really isn't a compulsion going on here -- its unwanted thoughts. They are, as I know, among the hardest to gain relief if they're very strong.
> I've told my psychiatrist but he seemed to dismiss my concerns and put them all down to OCD, which I have suffered from as a child. I have not had any diagnosis of Tourette's in the past.
>
> I am currently taking 225mg Effexor, 40mg buspirone, 600mg lithium and 10mg Zyprexa. I thought the Zyprexa would help if it is Tourettes but it hasn't done a thing.I'm curious about the whole medicine combination here... I mean, I'm sure your biochemical imbalance is different than mine, but it sounds like a combination more suited to some form of depressive/bipolar disorder.
I know that if I tried Effexor now there's a good chance I would get anxious, my OCD would rev up, and other really not good things would happen.
If you respond to BuSpar... well, that's good... a majority of people don't. (for anxiety)
The Lithium I'm not sure either -- is there suicidality or some other thing going on ?
Adding an small amount of an AP to an SSRI (and Effexor is an SNRI, so it may or may not hold water here), has been a fairly established way of trying to improve the chances of the SRI/SSRI in use of being helpful to those who have strong OCD and don't otherwise respond.
Have you ever tried Anafranil ? It isn't the most clean agent but it can be even stronger than say, Luvox for some people who haven't responded otherwise for OCD.
I would also agree with the other poster that random violent thoughts pass through everyone's mind at some point, its just a question of how upsetting and how persistent they are to someone. Not going to go into it, but I had such a thought about a pet today.. and if I look back at it, it was a bit revolting.
Point being, not everything is a pathology or attributed to what one is diagnosed.. there doesn't have to be multiple self-examinations or other diagnoses lumped together just because something fairly isolated happens.I can sympathize with "pure O", although mine is not technically so because it isn't one, or a select group of thoughts, but rather lots of things come into my head every minute... I have a lot of fears when I'm in certain situations and I catch myself "creating scenarios", what would I say/do... and trying to stop these thoughts.
Also random words just push through my mind, I mean totally random ones... its hard to say where they come from, just sort of like a jumbled encyclopedia shaking loose things. Makes me feel a bit strange.
-- tidings
-- Jay
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