Camp Twin Lakes XIV

Hi again! I'm doing my best to write about Camp Twitch and Shout as much as I can, but I want to spend as much time with them as much as possible! Being around these kids have made my own tics a lot worse, but I don't care a single bit because it's such an amazing place to be. My vocal tics usually consist of "HUWOP!" "DIP," or "TIP," but there have definitely been plenty of random ones as well as some coprolalia.

I've gotten pretty close to one camper in particular, John, who has very strong tics. An example of his physical tics, he hits himself (very hard) and gives people very violent hugs, and coprolalia. He and I set each other's tics off; when I hear him tic, it makes me tic, and vice versa just like a yawn. At one point, we were walking somewhere together and it sounded like this:

"FUCK!"

"HUWOP!"

"FUCK!"

"HUWOP!"

"FUCK FUCK!"

"HUWOP HUWOP!"

We both were very aware of the situation and how strange it was, but we couldn't stop! I led a drum session with John's cabin and it wen really well. All the campers were pretty chill, and were able to continue a beat without needing to do games and to keep them going. At one point, John started having a very strong bout of physical tics and went off to the side so that he could work them out. In my own experience, going off to the side just made it worse because it only gives more attention to focus on the tics. The group was self-sustaining for the moment, so I grabbed a drum, took it to him and said "alright John, I'm going to try something."

I got up close to him, almost in his face, and said "John, play this drum. Play this drum John. Play it. Now." He reached out and tapped it when he could; when his arm ticced away from the drum I kept it going "John, just play the drum play this rhythm." I was a little nervous that I might piss him off by being insensitive, but I checked in with him later and he was appreciative. I was trying to make him concentrate on using his body for a purpose, hoping to eliminate the idle body that is like a canvas for tics. I recognized some of my own tics in him, and I think that what made me do that was that I wanted to experiment and maybe learn more about myself. It didn't work as tearjerkingly perfect as I had hoped, but it was still a pretty powerful moment for me and I hope for him too.

That's it for now - I gotta go help at paddle boats!

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!