13year old with ASD and tics

fleurmc

Hi,

my son is 13 years old, is absolutely kind and lovely, helps around the house etc. He has ASD diagnosis and is very intelligent. He has high level of interest in technology, which has now taken him down the route of making and mixing music, which is so fantastic. I am so pleased that he doesn’t do gaming. 

My son is concerned about himself as he has verbal tics (repeats words and mimics sounds), clears his throat, cracks knuckles, hits chest repeatedly, shrugs shoulders, blinks, licks lips, sniffs etc. He says he keeps feeling like he is going to swear (which he’s mortified by as he hates doing anything wrong). He gets very anxious and gongs it hard to breathe easily. 

Lately there have been four incidents where he has had a very large involuntary action. One, he head butted his laptop and broke it, he picked up an egg and threw it on the floor and he had a whole body muscle spasm and fell on the floor with a glass of water. He wants help so we have booked a doctor appointment. I don’t know how they can help him though. Does anyone know anything about what he is experiencing? 

Thank you

OverlyAnxious

Hi, have the Doctors not suggested this might be Tourettes Syndrome as well as the ASD?

There's no cure for TS (so far) but it can be managed with therapy and anxiety medication.

fleurmc

My son believes it TS but I also read that if it goes away sometimes, it’s not TS. For example, if he’s watching YouTube, it goes away. 

ncmitch

fleurmc said:

Hi,

my son is 13 years old, is absolutely kind and lovely, helps around the house etc. He has ASD diagnosis and is very intelligent. He has high level of interest in technology, which has now taken him down the route of making and mixing music, which is so fantastic. I am so pleased that he doesn’t do gaming. 

My son is concerned about himself as he has verbal tics (repeats words and mimics sounds), clears his throat, cracks knuckles, hits chest repeatedly, shrugs shoulders, blinks, licks lips, sniffs etc. He says he keeps feeling like he is going to swear (which he’s mortified by as he hates doing anything wrong). He gets very anxious and gongs it hard to breathe easily. 

Lately there have been four incidents where he has had a very large involuntary action. One, he head butted his laptop and broke it, he picked up an egg and threw it on the floor and he had a whole body muscle spasm and fell on the floor with a glass of water. He wants help so we have booked a doctor appointment. I don’t know how they can help him though. Does anyone know anything about what he is experiencing? 

Thank you

Hello,

First of all your son sounds absolutely lovely

Your story sounds all too familiar for me. I started having motor tics when I was 13. By the time I was 15, they had progressed to severe vocal (yes, including swear words) and motor tics. I also have Autism, though this was not diagnosed until I was 17. (I’m a 19 year old female). The incident with the glass of water - something very similar happened to me, when I was 15.

May I ask how old your son was when his tics started? If they started when he was 13, it would be unlikely to be Tourette’s, or any other tic disorder.
When I was 14/15, I was referred to CAMHS. The psychiatrist told me I had Tourette’s, but she was just matching the symptoms to a diagnosis, and ignored the history of the symptoms. She referred me to the Tourrette’s clinic at GOSH, where I found out that I actually had a Functional Neurological Disorder. FND can often be mistaken for other conditions.

The first point of call would be your GP. Knowing what I know now, if I were you, I would push for either a CAMHS referral or a Neurology referral, or both! I can give you the names of teams / individuals who specialise in these types of (neurological) conditions, or websites that might be of interest, if that would help.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help. I hope you and your son are well and doing ok during lockdown x