What Is Tourette’s Syndrome?

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What Is Tourette’s Syndrome? *

Tourette’s Syndrome (TS) is a neurological condition that causes a person to make involuntary sounds and movements, known as tics. These tics can be:

● Motor tics – like blinking, facial twitches, or jerking movements.

● Vocal tics – like coughing, throat clearing, words, or other noises

Tics come and go over time and can change in type, frequency, or intensity.

Just like autism and ADHD, Tourette’s is a spectrum condition. This means it can look very different from person to person. Some people have mild tics that don’t affect daily life much. Others may have more noticeable or disruptive tics, which can be painful, exhausting, or socially challenging. This spectrum can change over a lifetime, or even day to day depending on a number of factors.

Tics often begin in childhood (between ages 5–10) and may peak during adolescence. For some, they reduce in adulthood; for others, they persist lifelong. They are very influenced by certain triggers which will often be different for everyone such as anxiety, sensory sensitivities, strong emotions, illness, lack of sleep, high stress.

For a diagnosis of Tourettes, it requires both motor and vocal tics lasting at least one year in length.

A Venn diagram comparing ADHD and Tourette syndrome. The left circle lists ADHD symptoms such as hyperactivity, distractibility, executive challenges, daydreaming, and boredom. The right circle lists Tourette symptoms including motor and vocal tics, mental and bodily tics, pain, disinhibition, and childhood onset. The overlapping section highlights shared aspects like burnout, anxiety, obsessive thoughts, overwhelm, OCD, sensory challenges, fatigue, emotional dysregulation, anger, stress, and stigma.

How Tourette’s May Present in Children and Adults In Children and Adults

An iceberg infographic illustrating the hidden symptoms of Tourette Syndrome. The above-water part shows visible tics like motor tics and vocal tics. The submerged part lists hidden struggles such as OCD, high anxiety, sleep difficulties, anger, autism, chronic fatigue, pain, and other emotional and mental health challenges. The title reads 'Tourette Syndrome: What it looks like' and the bottom asks 'What is hidden' with the Instagram handle @flourishwithneurodiversity.

● Sudden repetitive movements (blinking, head jerks, shoulder shrugs)

● Repeating words or sounds

● Uncontrollable urges to move or make noises

● Tics often worsen with stress or excitement

● Tics often have a premonitory urge - a sensation or build up of tension that preces the need to tic. This tic can be suppressed for a short time, but often comes out more severely later due to the exhaustion of suppression.

● Pain and chronic fatigue

● Co-occuring neurodivergence and mental health conditions - ADHD and Autism, anxiety, depression

Different font - fact. Did you know swearing only occurs in 10% of cases and its name is coprolia. Many people with Tourettes do not have this particular symptom.

Tourettes can be hidden and cause chronic pain due to years of tics, especially for those with severe tics, repetitive tics and late diagnosed adults who havent had suppport all their lives with their condition.