I went to the Tate Modern this morning for a meeting about some work I’m doing there. Because it’s a massive building and I needed to do a fair bit of moving about I used one of their complimentary wheelchairs.

When we went to get a lift to the upper floors I noticed a large sign next to it that said:

“Celebrate your ability to use your legs and please give priority to those who need to use the lifts.”…

The other day I wrote about the strange breathing I’ve been doing recently. I’ve been feeling short of breath, and having to breathe much more deeply than usual. To start with I tried to dismiss it as just another tic but this didn’t ring true.…

I wrote a couple of Sundays ago about increasing my efforts to prevent myself and my tics overreacting. So far this is going well, and although it’s not easy I’m doing much better at staying in control when I’m upset.

But there’s a dilemma about what my friends call ‘good overreacting’.…

I had a letter this morning telling me off for not having a TV licence. The thing is, I do have one so I called the number on the letter to let them know. This led to a very frustrating experience.…

I’ve touched on the subject of spitting tics before, usually to say they’re happening but that I don’t really want to write about them. My instinct with tics that I find distressing is to ignore them, but this time I’m going to fight that instinct and write about spitting.…

It’s half term, and the children’s projects I help run are buzzing. Most of the children are familiar with my tics and aren’t at all fazed by them. I’m very used to answering questions about Tourettes and have a set of responses which are almost automatic.…

Yesterday I had one of my regular hospital appointments with my consultant neurologist. This time it was dominated by a discussion of something that I haven’t yet written about yet – it’s what I call ‘locking up’.

Since I started taking a new muscle relaxant drug – baclofen – my ticcing fits have generally been a bit less frequent and much less intense.…

Four Sundays ago I wrote about being in floods of tears because of the problems I was having with organising the rota of my carers. And every Sunday since seemed to have been jinxed by sadness. But today’s been different – it’s been lovely and I feel very relaxed as a result.…

Touretteshero is all about sharing the humour and creativity of Tourettes. There’s a lot to share – the thousands of surreal things I’ve said as tics, and the funny, sad, strange and thoughtful conversations I’ve had with friends and strangers arising from them.…

Accessible toilets always stink of shit.

I’ll let that settle for a moment.

In the mean time, you might have noticed that I’m referring to accessible toilets rather than disabled toilets. This isn’t just me being super PC, it’s a question of accuracy – a toilet can only be disabled if the flush is missing or something.…