Will Power, Stress, and Tics

By

Hossca Harrison

2019

 

I received a question about TS (Tourette’s syndrome), which often co-exists with OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). I wrote about this some years ago and thought I would write about it again, from what the Chinese Master and Jonah have taught me. The associated issues are worthy of writing about, but I will only focus on Tourette’s syndrome in this article. 

Tourette syndrome is a complex brain disorder characterized by repetitive, sudden, and involuntary movements or noises called tics.

Some estimate that 300 million people worldwide have Tourette’s syndrome, but I feel many more have never been diagnosed. Although Gilles de la Tourette labeled Tourette’s syndrome in 1885, another French doctor Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, reported his first case of this syndrome in 1825. However, this syndrome dates back many centuries before 1825. These doctors moved it from a Christian superstition of devil possession to a neurological disorder with onset beginning in childhood and often into adulthood. 

A person can have Tourette’s syndrome and not other disorders or have all of the above conditions. There have been many misconceptions about TS. TS is not a mental illness; it is a neurodevelopmental syndrome. Due to many people being educated by Hollywood, TS’s misconception is uncontrollable swearing, which is not a common symptom as often-portrayed in movies. The condition of uncontrollable swearing is called Coprolalia. A person can experience Coprolalia and not have TS. TS does not affect one’s intelligence. Many people diagnosed with TS are of higher intelligence, but because of social judgment, especially in school, a child with TS has difficulty expressing their intelligence. It is often believed that TS only affects one with lower intelligence because the child does not fit into the group consciousness.

Some medical professionals want to use drugs to control TS, such as Haloperidol, Pimozide, and Aripiprazole, approved by the FDA. Some even use Botox injections in the face to calm the tics.

Scientists using brain-imaging techniques believe the brain’s basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex are affected, causing TS. 

The above is a summary of TS. The AMA believes TS is incurable and is inherited from the parents. 

I believe many children and adults who have TS did inherit this condition from their parents, but not always. So what is TS? The Chinese Master taught me TS is an automatic reflex to stress involving stress genes. A child can inherit from their parents’ excess stress genes. Perhaps the parents did not have TS but could pass their stress genes on to their children. One can look at the possibility TS was not passed from the parents but was developed due to high levels of stress in the family unit. I also believe that OCD is often a learned trait from living in a stressful environment or even absorbing the mother’s stress trait while in the womb. Many children can carry this stress gene and never show TS symptoms, but when put into a very stressful environment, TS becomes expressed.

The Chinese Master and Jonah have both taught about the stress gene, and I wrote a small article about it regarding TS back in the mid-’90s. Researchers at Duke Medical Center reported on December 18, 2013, they had found a gene for stress and have linked it to increased risk for heart attacks. They also report that people who have this stress gene have a 38% increase in heart attacks. They believe the gene called 5HTR2C is involved in high levels of stress, which doubles the stress hormone cortisol level. Duke Medical Center has reported one gene, but there are multiple stress genes, each causing stress in different areas of our life.

Some of the treatments being used to treat TS are using will power to control the tics. Again, in my opinion, this does not work. TS’s underlying issue is stress; using will power to control the tics often causes more stress. TS is the body’s way of releasing stress. As I said earlier, a child with excess stress genes will often use different expressions to release the stress. TS is one of these expressions. 

Not everyone experiences stress in the same way, which has to do with the number of stress genes. Many have ongoing issues with their lives, including relationships, addictions, depression, anxiety, and some very dark expressions such as rape and murder.

So what is one to do with the different expressions of stress, which often includes TS? Undoubtedly the best results can be obtained when one is worked with as a child. Even though an adult can learn to express their stress genes in a very positive way, it is merely easier when beginning stress relief training as a child.

The expression of stress genes comes and goes like waves; they never truly go away; they move as waves from shallow levels of stress to extremely high-stress levels. The following six steps will assist in calming excess stress genes.

1. Exercise. Never sit for more than half an hour. Get up and move, stretch your body, especially stretching your body with your hands and feet on the ground, laid out like an X. Both arms with your hands stretched as far as you can reach, your legs stretched out and as wide as possible. While in this position, do deep breathing. Hold in your mind the stress that is most affecting you at the time and visualize the stress being expelled as you exhale. Do this for five to ten minutes several times per day. If you are an older adult who may have problems in this position, lay flat on the floor, putting your body in the same X position, and do the same breathing and visualizing. 

2. Use a tree. Find a tree you are attracted to, preferably out in nature, but if that is not possible, look for a park in your city or perhaps your yard. Sit with your spine against the tree with the back of your head touching the tree. Place your right-hand fingers on your left wrist and quiet your mind to allow yourself to feel your pulse. As you begin to feel your pulse, enable your self to feel it stronger and stronger. Visualize your pulse to blend with the pulse of the tree. Yes, trees have a pulse. Continue visualizing until you perceive yourself and the tree becoming as one. 

3. Learn to play. Most children who have TS or excess stress genes are not allowed to play but are given more work at school as a form of punishment. Even adults seek to punish themselves when their excess stress genes are expressed painfully. Learning to play is playing while active. Playing does not include watching TV or going to games. It is about playing, being physically active, but most importantly, allowing yourself to enjoy playing, not just going through the movements, but living the actions. Use play as a reward for being alive.

4. Diet. Most people who have excess stress genes are addicted to sugar and lack magnesium. Stop eating sugar, and parents, stop feeding your children sugar and add magnesium to your diet. Be careful not to take too much as it can cause diarrhea. Simple to say, cut out sugar, but this will require more commitment than the first three activities. It can be done, do your research on ways to break the sugar addiction.

5. Purge physical and non-physical people from your life who are toxic. Especially those who discourage you from learning and seeking healing in your life. There is always an opposite polarity in life. When you attempt to create change, heal, and let go of the old, this opposite polarity will raise its ugly head to convince you to stop your learning and healing. Purge these people from your life. Make your life about you, not toxic “friends.”

6. Tai Yi. Several Tai Yi treatments are available from Joseph Armeanio, my primary student, seek him out. www.taiyipoh@aol.com He is currently teaching the new Basic Tai Yi class.

I have included the following 15 facts about Tourette syndrome, many of which were published by the Iowa Tourette Syndrome Association Group to be shared with the public. The following has been edited due to many spelling errors, but the intent is accurate. 

1. One in 100 children has some form of Tourette syndrome. That is the same amount as children with autism.

2. Less than 10 percent of people with TS swear, which is known as Coprolalia.

3. TS is an inherited neurological disorder named after Gilles De La Tourette.

4. TS causes people to have tics. Tics are sudden twitches, movements, or sounds they repeatedly do. People with TS cannot stop these tics.

5. No two people with TS will have the same tics. Each person with TS is as different as every snowflake.

6. There are two types of tics, motor and vocal. Motor tics are movements of the body, such as blinking, shrugging of shoulders, limb movements, etc. Vocal tics are sounds people make, such as barking, sniffing, throat clearing, random words, etc.

7. Tics can be simple or complex. Simple tics involve just a few body parts, such as eye blinking or sniffing. Complex tics involve several parts of the body and can have a set pattern, such as bobbing head while jerking arms, then finishing with a jump.

8. Tics wax and wane and can increase and decrease and change throughout a person’s lifetime. Tics a young child might have may be a different severity when they are a teenager.

9. Tics usually start around the age of 5 to 10 years old. The first tics are usually motor tics.

10. Tics are usually worse during times of stress or excitement. They tend to improve when a person is calm and focused on an activity.

11. TS affects males 3 to 4 times more than females.

12. There is currently no drug out there explicitly made for TS.

13. A misconception is that people can learn to stop their tics. At times, they can hold them in (suppression), but eventually, have to release them. Holding them in often results in tension and physical exhaustion.

14. Individuals with TS experience a strong urge similar to that of a sneeze or an itch. They describe it as a build-up of tension, pressure, or energy. The actual tic is a means of releasing or relieving this tension.

15. TS does not affect the intelligence of a person. Most children with TS have above average to high intelligence levels.