Tourette Syndrome & Tic Disorders Support Group

This community is dedicated to those afflicted with a tic disorder. A tic disorder is one in which uncontrollable muscle spasms that can range from small annoyances to major disruptive occurrences. .

304 Members
840 Posts
0 Online
Children's Mental Health
/ Tourette Syndrome & Tic Disorders Support Group

breathing and grunting tic?

jojo27
jojo27

Hi, My son who is 15 now has had a breathing tic since he was around 5 or 6. started of breathing deeply. Over the years started getting deeper and he started couphin a lot. In middle school years he started to make grunting sounds (loudly). He also told me that he shakes in his arms and legs. I took him to a neurologist and he explained to me that he would eventually grow out of it. I know to some it might seem like its a small tic and it is. However when its your son or a loved one, it hurts because I dont know how to help him. I decided to leave it alone and not stress him out. Now Im looking into it again in hopes that someone out there has a similar situation and can offer some advice. Thanks


LPC
LPC
Hi, my son is 10 years old and just started having tics. I have no good advise because I'm just learning myself. It's so very hard to not be able to help my son with this or give him the "right" answer. I've been told it will get worse with puberty. Have you noticed that to be true?
hannah_rita93
hannah_rita93
My brother and I both have TS and his first tic was a deep breathing tic that was originally misdiagnosed as asthma. When he finally got the correct diagnosis there was no problem getting medication but we also went to a Tourettes specialist.
chronic99
chronic99
I'm having things that sound a bit like that. (I don't have a proper diagnosis of Tourette's but it seems easy enough to spot, especially since when things get really bad I get bouts of the classic obscenity tics). Still trying to work out what triggers this, seems to have a lot to do with diet but I've already tried eliminating a lot of things, and still can't figure out what's left in foods that might be setting it off.

I do have a diagnosis of COPD/Asthma, but I haven't been able to get inhalers to help, and I'm very suspicious I've got one or more upper respiratory infections that aren't being diagnosed or dealt with that are helping to trigger tics. I've got a LOT of a semi-involuntary grunting tic, I feel like I'm basically doing it to "scratch" the inside of my throat or my sinuses where I can't figure out how to do it any other way. There's an awful lot of grunting and a lot of repeated nonsense syllables, and the more I feel burning in my throat and sinuses, the worse they are.

If I focus very hard, I can often change the sort of tic I'm having, but I can't seem to do much about having some kind of tic. I've got the same thing with my breathing, my chest goes out when I breathe out and in when I breathe in, and I have to focus very hard to change that - but the minute I'm not focused on it my breathing goes right back to being the opposite of normal.

So far I haven't gotten anything done about this, the doctors I've seen are either a little bit willing to listen that I might have an infection but don't have the lab services to investigate, or have the lab services but refuse to use them to even check for anything, because they're so skeptical that there's anything to look for.