Is this Really Tourettes?

[TEBryant]

Hi Everyone,

In the past couple of years, I have been Diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome.  I have had Facial Tics most of my Life, or at least as far back as I can remember.  I have noticed a couple of things that make me wonder if these Tics are Truly Tourettes Syndrome, or something more/less.

1.) I have been Advised that while I sleep, I do not have any Tics, or Twitches, in any way shape or form.

2.) In the past 2 Years, I have had "outbreaks" of worse Tics.  What I mean by this is that, I ALWAYS Twitch ( Except when Sleeping ), but Every couple of months, I have an... episode, where my Tics will become MUCH Worse.  For Example: 3 Episodes ago, my Tics moved from my Face and Legs Only, to begin affecting my Throat, and speech.  During that episode, I began to have breathing problems, and speech problems, such as not being able to speak until my twitching was completed, having to clear my throat multiple times, having to swallow many times, et c.  2 Episodes ago, my Tics jumped again, and began affecting my hands, and I have found that now if I am not typing, or doing something with my hands, I have these ... compulsions to move my hands, it caused me to have to drop out of my Sign Language Course as I couldn't quit moving my hands, and couldn't move them correctly.

3.) The Tics seem to have a correlation to Stress, and Social Anxiety, when the levels of Stress increase, so do my Tics.

4.) I have also noticed a higher correlation of Headaches and Tics.  As a Side note, the Headaches that I have notated follow a very specific path.  They always Begin in my Left Temple, and progress through the back of my head and finally to my right temple.  The headaches are sensitive to Motion ( VERY Sensitive, I am unable to move without excruciating pain ), Sensitive to Heat, and will completely incapacitate me.  When I get these headaches, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, et c. has No Effect, and half of the time Migraine Medication has no effect.  Many times I am forced to go into the hospital to seek further treatment for these headaches.  I have had multiple MRI's for diagnosis, however with and without contrast, there is no sign of them.

5.) Memory.  I also noticed that my memory has decreased since the first "Episode" about 12 months ago.  I pride myself in that I am excellent with numbers, dates, sequences, et c.  However since this episode, I have noticed that some important numbers, have ... escaped my memory.  For Example, my Children's Birthdays, my Age, my Wife's Age, The Current date.

Please, if you have any insight on what may be going on, or things that may have helped for you, please post back and let me know.  Thank you.

Tommy

[ADHDSupportUK]

I was shocked to see so little respons to this message when I just found it via Google.  Of course I'm concerned that anyone else reading it may also find it of relevance.
I can confirm that the symptoms described are consistant with Tourette's Syndrome.  I would however say that as with any condition everything else should be equally ruled out.  Regular headaches should always have an MRi scan.  Given some of the descriptions no end of neurological conditions can have similar symptoms including Arnold Chiari Malformation Type I, and not just the suggested Huntingdon's Disease.  I'm always causious of people listing the worst condition they've heard of that has the same symptoms.  I certainly would not be surprised if after further investigation that Tourette's is deemed the true cause.
Additionally those who have TS are highly likely (significantly high probability) to also have ADHD and this could also explain a number of the symptoms too.

[Djmorello]

Has your doctor explored the possibility of Huntington's Disease?  The breathing difficuly, speech problems and memory loss has me thinking it may not be Tourette Syndrome, however there are a lot of secondary conditions that can go along with Tourette's so, I'd check with a Neurologist.