Tics on TV

Although the Tenex has done a great job of calming Max’s tics, save for the occasional head shaking, I still thought it was important to have him watch an HBO special than ran some months ago called I Have Tourette’s But Tourette’s Doesn’t Have Me.

Dave was concerned about making Max aware of yet another label; I thought it was more important for him to see that there are other kids just like him.

So we sat down to watch it. I explained that the movements his body makes sometimes are called tics and that the kids in this show had tics, too. He watched, intently, and when he saw a kid make a movement with his arms he said, “Hey, he does what I do!” There was such excitement in his voice, such a positive feeling of identifying with another kid, that you would have thought his excitement was over finding a fellow Star Wars fan.

He wasn’t able to sit through the whole thing, but that’s OK. So many times he’s expressed that he’s the “worst first grader” in the whole school or “whoever made me this way is dumb.” He’s more and more aware of his differences and challenges and it upsets him. But in those few minutes of watching this show, he found camaraderie with the children on the TV screen. And, hopefully, a bit of self-acceptance.