Tics and Tourette Syndrome (TS)
Do You Have Tics or Tourette Syndrome (TS)?
Are uncontrollable body movements or vocalizations causing you or a loved one distress?
Do you find yourself feeling embarrassed, self-conscious, or anxious about tics happening at the wrong time? Or perhaps the tics are causing actual physical pain and discomfort?
Have you have tried to suppress your tics, only to become exhausted and see the tics to eventually re-occur?
Do you wish you could talk more openly about what it’s like to have tics or Tourette Syndrome without fear of judgment?
You can think about a tic as a compulsive, repetitive motion or behavior (usually a vocal or motor movement) that is very difficult to control. While the term “Tourette Syndrome” (or “TS” for short) can sound scarier than a “tic disorder”, all TS means in the presence of at least two motor tics and one vocal tic. It does not reflect the severity of the disorder or the outcome of treatment. To meet criteria for a tic disorder or TS, one must experience tics for at least one year.
Tics can occur with almost any part of the human body, although common tics include neck jerking, coughing, eye blinking, or hand, arm, and finger motions. The severity of tics can vary greatly from person to person. Some individuals experience quite severe tics that can make it difficult to function in everyday life, and others experience mild tics that are hardly noticeable at all. If you are seeking treatment for your tics or TS, it’s likely that tics are interfering with your life in some way. The good news is that behavior therapy for tics can provide you with concrete tools to feel much more in control of your tics.
Tics and Tourette Syndrome Can Affect Your Mind and Body
For some people, tics or Tourette Syndrome may have very few negative outcomes in their life. However, if you're like others, it can have a great impact on how you feel about yourself and how you relate to the world around you. Some tics can be so intense and aggressive that it causes the sufferer immense physical pain (especially if the tic movement occurs near the neck or upper back). Tics can also elicit unwanted attention from others. If you’re like most people with tics or TS, the pressure to “not tic” is often the very cause of more prolonged and severe ticking episodes. You may have experienced incredibly painful feelings such as embarrassment, guilt, shame, or fear about being judged after ticking.
Unfortunately, most people without tics or TS are very uneducated about this diagnosis. Not only can it be hard to have constant tics, but it can be confusing and overwhelming trying to educate people in your life about tics or assert your needs in different contexts.
If you’ve had a difficult experience with your tics or TS, it’s likely that you are interested in finding a way to take away the power your tics have over you. Fortunately, the specialized and targeted behavioral therapy we provide at Beachfront Anxiety Specialists can give you the tools and direction you need to feel empowered to finally get your tics under control.
Tics Are a Neurological Misfiring
While its common to feel isolated when you have tics or Tourette Syndrome, you are absolutely not alone in your experience. It is estimated that about 1% of children in the US are diagnosed with tics or Tourette Syndrome, which is over 500 million children. Two-thirds of these children will outgrow or mostly outgrow their tics by adulthood, and for one third of these children will carry their tics with them into adulthood. While tics occur independently of the external environment, most people can identify specific triggers (internal or external) that make them more likely to tic. These may include high stress, anxiety, excitement, boredom, arguing with partners or friends, focusing intently on something, not having anything to focus on, and lifestyle factors (e.g. sleep, diet, substance use, etc).
When you have a tic, your brain is having trouble filtering out extraneous motor movement that brain’s without tics are able to stop. You may have noticed that there is likely a strong physical urge that comes right before tics happen. When the tic occurs, that urge is released, leading to a feeling of relief and ease. Over time, it becomes easier and easier for your brain to send out these “tic urges”, as it craves the feeling of release after the tic happens. This can lead to vicious cycles that can be hard to break. It’s quite common for people with tics to try to “suppress” or use will power against their tics. While this might help temporarily, a rule of thumb is that the harder you try not to tic, the more likely it is to happen! It’s sort of like holding a basketball under water. Eventually the pressure will build up and that ball will come right back up to the surface.
The good news is that by working with a true tic specialist, you and your therapist will walk through a science-backed protocol called Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) that has been shown to provide long term relief of tics to people of all ages. You will learn how features of your tics such as strong physical urges, distorted thinking patterns, awareness, and emotion regulation lead to the maintenance of intense tic responses. Once you know how your tics work, you will learn and practice tools to depower your tics. Many of our clients with tics or Tourette Syndrome reach remission or experience drastic reduction in the severity and frequency of tics.
Specialized Tic Therapy Will Give You Actionable Skills
You no longer have to try to manage your tics alone. At Beachfront Anxiety Specialists, we have devoted our professional careers to helping our clients overcome OCD and OCD-related concerns such as tics and Tourette Syndrome. We are true specialists who use cutting-edge and psychologically validated interventions to help our clients attain the long-lasting relief they are seeking.
We combine our extensive experience treating tics with a warm, compassionate, and collaborative approach. Whether this is the first time you have sought help for tics or you have been to therapy in the past, tic focused treatment can help you get your life back on track by reducing symptoms and empowering you to make the changes you’ve been looking for. Many of our clients have had years of failed talk therapy, which has led them to seek out our expertise in working with tics in a more targeted, strategic and effective way.
What to Expect in Sessions with Us
In our sessions, you and your therapist will work closely together to uncover the various ways your tics have been affecting your life physically, emotionally, and socially. Our therapists are highly skilled at conducting thorough assessments to ensure you are receiving high quality and comprehensive treatment. Over the course of the first several sessions, you and your therapist will be getting to know each other, developing a trusting relationship, assessing your symptoms and background, and learning about the nature of tics or Tourette Syndrome.
Once we have a solid understanding of how your specific tics are presenting and how other neuropsychological conditions might be interacting with your tics in various ways (e.g. OCD, ADHD, other anxiety disorders), we will work closely with you to develop a treatment plan that tailors high quality, science-based interventions to your specific goals, values, and background. When treating tics or Tourette Syndrome, we use the gold standard behavioral based approached called Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics, or CBIT, which has decades of research backing it’s effectiveness for managing tics. In CBIT, your therapist will assist you in developing awareness around the most subtle and nuances facets or your tics. You will learn how to change your relationship with tic urges and sensations and how to manage thoughts that feed into aggressive tic cycles.
Doing CBIT is like developing a workout routine at the gym, although instead of working on cardio or muscle strength, we are strengthening your brain’s neurological connections to help interrupt and redirect bothersome tic signals. However, like a gym routine, it does take work and commitment to see improvement. For your tics to become better managed, it’s important that you are willing to practice tic management skills in between sessions. The goal of CBIT is to help you become your own CBIT therapist! That way, if an annoying tic surfaces later in your life, you’ll already have the tools to quell it.
Customizing Therapy Techniques for Your Need
At Beachfront Anxiety Specialists, we never take a cookie cutter approach to your treatment. We view our roles as active collaborators and coaches as much as we are therapists. Our job is to help you feel empowered to take down your tics by providing tools, insights, and gentle guidance. You are always in the driver’s seat of your treatment, determining where we go and how fast you’d like to get there.
While CBIT is an essential ingredient to live a life that is not constrained by tics, our therapists are also highly trained in several other evidence-based modalities to help you meet your goals. We are able to weave in mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Cognitive Therapy (CBT) which can assist you in managing concerns that are different from, but related to your tics such as anxiety, OCD, or depression. These approaches can be powerful supplements to CBIT by helping you connect with closely held values, changing your relationship with your negative thoughts and painful feelings, and learning how to ground yourself in the present moment when you are spiraling into the past or the future.
You May Still Have Questions about CBIT for Tics or Tourette Syndrome…
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CBIT is an investment in your long-term sense of self and peace of mind. The goal of CBIT is to help you develop mastery over your tics or Tourette Syndrome, empowering you to become your own CBIT therapist. Unlike traditional forms of talk therapy, CBIT is active, collaborative, and goal-driven. Typical courses of treatment usually last between 4 to 10 sessions, although this can vary from client to client (especially if there are other concerns you’d like to work on).
Our fees reflect the depth of our training and clinical expertise and allow our therapists to maintain smaller case loads so we can devote more attention to each of our clients. While we are not in-network with any insurance company, we do offer superbills which you can submit to your insurance company for out-of-network benefits.
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In CBIT, we only work on the tics that you feel are negatively affecting your life. Some people want to apply CBIT to all their tics, others only care to use it to quell one or two specific tics. You get to decide which tics you’d like to focus on in treatment or you can discuss with your therapist what makes the most sense in your specific case.
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CBIT trains you how to deeply recognize and become aware of the various experiences that play into tics, including your thoughts, urges, sensations and movements. Unlike tic suppression which is an active process of fighting or pushing away, CBIT will teach you how to fundamentally change your relationship with your tics. Over time, the brain signal to tic will lessen in intensity and your tics will become much more manageable.
You Can Learn How to Manage Your Tics
If you would like to schedule an appointment or discuss any questions you may have regarding tics or CBIT, contact us below. We try to get back to all voicemails and emails within 24 hours. Before starting therapy, we always offer free 20 minute phone consultations to make sure we’re a good fit to work together.