Why Do You Have a Motor Tic or Tourette's?

Key Takeaways:

• Reframing Tics as Inner Cries for Attention
• A Balancing Act of Empathy and Boundaries
• Tics as a Gateway to Self-Discovery

As someone who lived with chronic motor tics down my right arm for over 20 years, I'm often asked - why did you develop Tourette's? In the beginning, I felt confused and victimized by my condition. I'd lash out thinking, why me? Why do I have to endure this body hijacking my will?

Over time, I've made peace by reframing my Tourette's as a call from my unconscious self for attention and care. Like a crying baby flailing its arms uncontrollably, my tics signified inner parts desperately seeking nurture and acknowledgement.

I now see this sensitivity as a gift, though it took work to embrace it. I had to stop exerting rigid control while also refusing victim status. Meeting my tics with empathy while establishing healthy boundaries around them shifted everything.

I discovered each tic eruption contains a valuable message. By meeting them with loving awareness instead of rejection, their intensity dissipates. It's about courageously exploring which vulnerable emotions or denied experiences hide in those impulses so they no longer need to twist my body to speak.

Unmet needs manifest physically if left bottled up by fear long enough. Trapped energies inevitably leak out sideways in alarming ways. My tics forced me to address core issues I'd failed to nurture for far too long. In that sense, I'm grateful - they connected me to rich dimensions of myself I may never have discovered otherwise.

By patiently befriending all aspects of myself with care and attention instead of embarrassment, I cultivated the inner spaciousness for my ticks to steadily release their grip. I continue learning to lovingly hold this sensitive system so that which felt exiled can finally rest at home in my open heart.