Coprolalia

Hello again! Time for a new vocabulary word, haha. There are two classifications of tics: vocal and physical. It's interesting to observe that people with Tourette's may have one but not the other, or may have more tics of one type but not the other (I have more physical tics that I have vocal tics, but they happen every once in a while). Coprolalia is a particular kind of vocal tic, which is the subject of this post.

Coprolalia is the involuntary saying (or shouting) of socially inappropriate words or phrases. This is the side of Tourette's that is primarily shown in the media, although in reality it's pretty rare amoung us Touretters. It's estimated that only about 15-20% of people with Tourette Syndrome experience coprolalia. This can be as simple as blurting isolated curse words, but can be phrases or even complete sentences. According to Dictionary.com, the prefix copro- comes from greek origin and means "dung." Basically, 'copro' means shit. -lalia is a prefix that is also from greek, and it means 'talking.' In English, it is used to denote impediments or other disorders related to speech. So, coprolalia literally means "shit talking."

A couple days ago at work I experienced coprolalia. It didn't last long, only about as long as my shift. I was lucky because my task did not involve interacting with people! The worst time I experienced Coprolalia was the first time it ever happened. I was sitting in my AP statistics class (senior year of high school) when out of nowhere I started yelling "SHIT!!" at the top of my lungs. I had no reason to be yelling it, I wasn't mad at the teacher or anything like that. In fact, it was a pretty normal day for me other than the coprolalia. What was so bad about it this incident is the frequency with which the tics would come. I was saying it about three or four times per minute! This went on for the rest of the school day which presented many awkward situations, but life goes on. The worst part about coprolalia is that I feel so awkward filling a stereotype - I'm sure everybody has felt similarly at one point or another. As for right now, the stressful part of work is done with and I can relax and enjoy the calmness!