I Haven't Told This to Many People --- Here's Why I'm Revealing It Now

Despite being just 27 years old, I've experienced many challenges and setbacks in my life. When I was just 7 years old, I was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome. I typically don't make a habit of letting this be known to many people outside of my family and closest friends. But, I recently had a conversation with one of my two roommates that changed how I thought about my disability.

For years, I have viewed the fact that I have a disability that requires me to take medication daily as a liability, not an asset. What I failed to realize until just recently was that I have a story to tell that could potentially inspire others, perhaps even young kids who are suffering from a disability and maybe wondering if their life even matters anymore. It does. And that's why I'm choosing now to reveal these intimately personal details about my past, and how I overcame these obstacles to eventually live a blessed life, doing what I love, in a city that I love, with people I love.

While my disability is not life-altering in the sense that many people typically think of disabilities affecting people's lives, it hasn't always been that way for me. In junior high and high school, my "tics" --- the term doctors use for the involuntary acts that Tourette's patients display --- turned from mostly involuntary physical movements to involuntary verbal cues.

This resulted in constant bullying from my peers, and in some cases, my teachers would even tell me to stop, as if somehow I could control it. My teachers knew I had Tourette Syndrome. They knew what it was, and they knew about its symptoms. Yet, they expected me to simply stop it? Their demands for me to "control myself" translated to more bullying from my peers because, after all, if the teachers thought I could control it, then why would my peers think any differently? They shouldn't --- and they didn't.

In junior high and high school, I also tried my hand at sports. But again, like in the classroom, I found that my disability was a major setback. On the basketball court, for example, the two seconds it took for me to involuntarily twitch my face or shrug my shoulders was simply too long. I discovered that as a result of my "tics," I missed my teammates' passes and coach's cues. I felt I had let my team down.

After several years of psychiatrists and neurologists prescribing nearly every combination of daily medications they could possibly come up with, my doctor finally found the right mix of pharmaceutical capsules and tablets to keep my tics as under control as possible. To this day, I'm taking those very same medications, which makes life relatively easy, compared to how other Tourette's Syndrome patients are forced to live their lives.

On this, I got lucky. But this is merely one of the several challenges I have faced so far in life. It is just one of the storms I have weathered, with the unwavering support of my incredible family and friends, that has molded me into the man I am today.

In my next blog post, I"ll share another life setback, which greatly challenged me in high school -- and still affects me to this day --- and explain how it helped make me into who I am.

Stay tuned.

To learn more about Tourette Syndrome and how to help, or to make a donation to the cause, please visit the Tourette Association of America website at www.tourette.org.

#Life #lifestyle #selfhelp #inspiration #TouretteSyndrome #Tourettes #disability #TouretteAssociationofAmerica