About six months ago I wrote about the return of a biting tic that I’ve had on and off since I was a kid. It didn’t stay for long last time, but it’s re-emerged in the last week or two and I’m biting my hand and arm frequently.…

By my desk at work there’s a safe. I don’t have to use it very often, but I check that it’s locked many times a day. I do this out of habit. I’ve always been slightly obsessive about checking things, but it’s not as bad now as when I was younger.…

At the start of the year I went to see my dentist to have my teeth cleaned and scaled. He decided to refer me to the local dental hospital because my tics were making it pretty tricky for him to do very much.…

I’ve had a pretty full-on day. A summary of it would look a bit like this:

Travelling, laughing, banging, confronting, sobbing, regrouping, eating, reflecting, relaxing.

But I suppose as a blogger I should put in a bit more detail, so here goes.…

I’m having a difficult evening tic-wise. I’m saying ‘fuck’ over and over again in the same monotonous voice, and it’s been driving me mad. Leftwing Idiot and Poppy were here, and I’d desperately wanted to enjoy a relaxing evening hanging out with them.…

I explained a couple of days ago that I’d been thinking a lot about psychological factors that influence Tourettes. Thinking about my own mental wellbeing has meant that some of my archaic attitudes have been exposed. For example I find it hard to shake off the idea that there’s some sort of shame in having a mental health ‘problem’.…

This afternoon I had another session of Habit Reversal Therapy (HRT). I’ve found the last couple of weeks of this difficult, not because of anything I’m being asked to do physically, but because of how it challenges the way I think about my tics.…

Earlier I watched Save the Green Planet with Leftwing Idiot and his mate Nez who’s staying for a few days. I was having a real battle with concentrating because I felt uncomfortable and couldn’t keep still. Many of my tics are accompanied by a strong internal sensation and tonight this was so overwhelming.…

I often find going to public events like talks or training sessions stressful but it was different at a seminar I attended this afternoon at Hempsons and I felt completely relaxed. This was because I knew what to expect and was not worrying about how my tics would be accommodated.…

Happy Valentine’s Day, or as I declared earlier, “Happy Complicated Love Lives Day”

I’m ticcing a lot about love at the moment:

“I love you.”
“I love sheepdogs.”
“I love you shaded donkey.”

Sadly love isn’t really the thing on my mind today.…