A young girl of 11 years describes her life and how it is living with a serious neurological disorder that disrupts normal life for her.
My name is Vicktoria Alexis Haerle (Her-lee is how you say my last name), and I am 11 years old. I have long brown hair that I wear in pigtails, and I have blue-green eyes; and I have freckles on my nose and cheeks.
I also have Tourette's.
Tourette's, or Tourette Syndrome (TS for short) is a puzzling disorder. It may sneak up on a person unexpectedly, or it can come on gradually, as mine did. (I first started having symptoms when I was 5.) It is a physical brain disorder which causes involuntary movements (motor tics) and involuntary vocalizations (vocal tics). Motor tics can involve things like facial grimacing, eye blinking, shoulder shrugging, head jerking, and hand movements. Common vocal tics that people with TS experience may be throat clearing, sniffing, making loud noises, grunting, or saying words. Both motor and vocal tics may happen many times a day, or only a few times; it depends how badly a person has TS. They may be mild, or they may be severe, so much that people may get uneasy when they are around a person who has TS.
I have both vocal and motor tics with my TS, and I can't help myself at times. I just do things involuntarily, and I often wish I could control my tics, but the fact of the matter is, I CAN'T.
With my TS, I tend to jerk my head, blink my eyes hard, make facial grimaces, and make noises at inappropriate times. I have it pretty bad. At times I get embarrassed about my tics because I am always getting stared at, and kids tend to tease me. At school I don't have many in the way of friends, and I get sad because nobody is willing to make friends with me. This is when I most often wish I didn't have Tourette's.
In addition to my tics, I also have certain things that I do, or else I get upset (this is called "obsessive-compulsive disorder"), and I also have ADHD. I am in a class for special-needs children at school, and for the most part, I do well, but as I said, I get teased; and this is one reason why I don't like going to school all that much.
I take medication to help lessen some of my tics or my ADHD problems; but other than that, I am a normal pre-teen girl who just happens to have a problem that is beyond her control. But people usually don't see it that way. Instead of seeing me as a normal kid, they see me as "That Tic Girl" or "That Tourette's Kid"; and then I get all sad because it's like all they see about me is my tics and not ME as a PERSON.
Well, I may have Tourette's, but I am a NORMAL kid. I love *NSYNC and Britney Spears (what kid DOESN'T??), and I love the colors pink, purple, and blue. I also love going roller skating in the park near my home, and I love to go skiing in the winter. I also love to ice skate and take modern dance lessons twice a week at the local YWCA.
I just wish people could see me for WHO I am, NOT for WHAT I am or what I HAVE! All I want is to have a friend; it's NOT fun being by yourself all the time!---
i love the opening...describing herself, and then saying, "i also have Tourettes." very well researched, well written story. great job, karen! ((((HUGS)))) and love, karla. :)
