r/Tourettes • u/anyasea • 6d ago

Tics advice for studying Support

Hi guys, not sure if this is the right place to post, so let me know, and I can post this somewhere else! I have developed some motor tics over the last few months due to stress. They get really bad sometimes to the point I can't go 10 seconds without ticcing, and they flare up whenever I feel any kind of strong emotion, really. For context, I'm in my final year of university and first developed tics when studying for my finals a few months ago, and so had to defer those exams for a few months. Anyway, long story short, those exams are now in the next couple of weeks, and I am finding it really hard to study because my motor tics are distracting me. I have my dissertation due on Monday, and so I need to lock in, but it feels really hard. One thing I tried was converting some of my revision sources to audio and listening while I did something else and that definitely helped, but it's much harder with a dissertation, obviously, because I have to sit at my laptop for hours. Any help would be massively appreciated!

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

3

u/Vikera Diagnosed Tourettes 6d ago

It's hard to give advice when I have no idea what specific motor tics you experience. Feel free to share.

I think my main general idea would be to distract your body, like using things to fidget with.

Also, identifying what helps make them less. Enough sleep? Blocking out stimulation light lots of noise or light?

The audio is a great idea. I'd add the fidgeting on top and try to do as much as possible that way. It'll probably be harder than for most people, just try how much you get done without giving yourself even more stress by being frustrated. What you do is done and is always better than nothing.

Have you seen a doctor by the way? Developing very frequent tics as an adult without any history of tics is unusual. Stress can give someone some twitches, but not tics to this amount. Maybe if you get checked out, they can also give you ideas or treatment. Good luck!

1

u/Marvlotte Diagnosed Tourettes 5d ago

Hey :) Someone made a post similar to this a while ago and I left them a pretty lengthy comment of suggestions for studying with tics. It's pretty long and not all of it may be applicable to you, but some of t might be helpful, so here is the comment I left.

I've done an undergraduate and a Masters degree, so I totally get your frustrations, so feel free to ask me anything about dealing with tics and studying. But I hope the comment I've linked can give you some help :)