The origin of Tourette Syndrome goes back over a hundred years, when Georges Gilles de la Tourette (a famous French neurologist) studied various Tic disorders across a series of patients. Although Tourette Syndrome today is known as a neurological disorder, at the time it was being researched as the result from a recent Encephalitis epidemic that had effected many throughout Europe.
Because the Encephalitis had been proven to form many Tic disorders in patients, much science precluded that the disorder was caused by the epidemic even though that is not the consensus today.
At the time, this syndrome was not referred to as Tourette’s, like it is today. It was originally named “maladie des tics”, which is French for “Illness of the Tics”. To honor Tourette’s achievement in discovering and studying this disorder, his mentor Jean-Martin Charcot coined the name “Gilles de la Tourette’s illness”. Psychiatrist’s today refer to this disorder as Tourette Syndrome.
Into the late nineteenth century, as Charcot and Tourette’s were able to study this disorder further, they were able to conclude that these Tics are uncontrollable and were not treatable. As he studied the nine people in his focus group, he noticed patients who experienced involuntary vocal and motor tics. Some patient’s experienced uncontrollable swearing and some uncontrollable movements. By the end of the century, Tourette’s became known as an progressive and hereditary condition.
There was one trait, however, that was always apparent when studying this disorder. This trait baffled many who researched it and was one of the key reasons many scientists mistakenly classified Tourette’s as a psychological disorder rather than neurological one. The reasoning behind it is simple, the scientists of the late nineteenth century noticed that the patients emotions effected the intensity of the disorder. In other words if the patient was under heavy amounts of stress, their Tics were much worse. On the other hand, if they were at peace, happy, and calm, their Tics would get better. Although it’s been proven that the disorder is not psychological, it is perfectly clear that your psychological well-being has a huge effect on the intensity of it.
Although living in a calm lifestyle does not cure Tourette’s, it can alleviate the symptoms. I personally have used a combination of two methods of quieting the mind and relaxing that have completely removed Tics from my life. In fact, I’ve come to have an appreciate my Tics because they’re a great mechanism to notify me when something is emotionally wrong in my life. There is a solution to remove Tics for your life.
