We’re a year into a global pandemic and it’s disrupted most people’s lives significantly. It’s been a period of sustained uncertainty, with the way our society works repeatedly and abruptly changing.

While this will have been tricky for most people there are some specific new challenges for people with tics, as guest blogger Serena touched on at the end of last year.…

Monday was my eighth fitiversary, eight years since the day when the seizure-like episodes of intense tics that I call ‘ticcing fits’ became a regular part of my life. They’d been happening on and off for months, even years, but I woke up one morning in October 2011 having one, and from then on, they started happening very regularly.…

The country’s in the middle of a big chill, thanks to the Beast From The East. This means icy pavements and roads. But these aren’t the only slippy surfaces I’m dealing with at the moment.

My Occupational Therapist’s given me some satin sheets.…

Several times a day my tics intensify and I completely lose control of my body and speech. I call these episodes ‘ticcing fits’ because they look seizure-like and need similar management.

Whenever they happen my support worker makes a note of the start and end time on a sheet so we have a record of when each one occurred.…

This afternoon I had a ‘ticcing fit’ in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean. Leftwing Idiot and Innes helped me out of the sea and onto the beach. I could feel the warmth of the sand through the towel cushioning my body, and see swathes of blue sky above.…

I’ve had ‘ticcing fits’ in many unusual places: a fire station, a tube station, on top of some hay bales.

Often, just before my tics intensify, I behave erratically – hitting something nearby or trying to stand up.

This afternoon I had a fit in the green room shortly before our show.…

Will and I have spent yesterday afternoon at a fascinating event organised by Devoted and Disgruntled and put on by East London theatre group Access All Areas and performer Cian Binchy. The central question was:

‘How can we better support artists with learning disabilities or autism in making their own work?’…

A couple of days ago I wrote about Leftwing Idiot’s blossoming friendship with Siri, his new phone’s voice-activation system. He persuaded me to set Siri up on my phone too, but her responses to my tics were inconsistent and I doubt it’s something I’ll make much use of.…

Today began way earlier than I would’ve liked. I was out of bed and climbing into a cab by 4:30am! On the plus side, I’m now in Belfast where we’ve just finished our first performance of Backstage in Biscuit Land since Edinburgh.…

Summer holidays are our busiest time at work. The three play projects I help run are open all day every weekday during our five-week playscheme. Today was the start of our second week and all the sites were full of children enjoying the sun and their freedom from school.…