Unlock Your Inner Tourette's

Jeffery Koterba has Tourette's and has written about his experience. The article in The Daily Beast has allowed me an interesting little journey this morning into the world of Tourette's. The article is almost a defense of Tourette's, an appreciation, of sorts. Koterba explains why he appreciates the fact that he has this rare syndrome and a little about how his mind works.

Koterba is a political cartoonist with the Omaha Herald. His work is engaging, satirical and shows a perspective which will either make you nod your head, or shake it. http://www.cagle.com/politicalcartoons/pccartoons/archives/koterba.asp?Action=GetImage

Some of it is fairly innocuous and can leave you looking for the next one for an entire part of the morning.

His point with writing about his experience with Tourette's seems to be to explain his creative process. He speaks volumes about his "muse" and the constant struggle he maintains within his own mind. He laments that he will never know, but he doesn't think his life would be as creative if he didn't live with the conversations he has to have with himself because of his Tourette's.

I read the article and found myself imitating the descriptions of the symptoms of his syndrome. The strain he must feel to be so conflicted as he attempts to NOT do what his brain is telling him to do became acutely apparent as I read the article. I now wonder if all of us have a little Tourette's in us as we partake in self talk while reliving a conversation we had over a strenuous family Thanksgiving dinner or mouth the words spoken in anger several hours earlier.

How interesting it must be to understand that there is always the possibility of making a spectacle of yourself or at the very least, making someone notice one of your idiosyncrasies. However, how INTERESTING it actually WOULD be to occasionally give in to the idiosyncrasies which reach out from within and actually want to manifest. There would be a lot of satisfaction in being able to twitch when something strikes you as stressful or to understand that one your feelings toward a movement or a word spoken might cause someone around you to pause and take notice, or perhaps to think you are ... odd.

The article is excellent. It made me go beyond empathizing and took me to actually relating. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-22/in-praise-of-tourettes/?cid=topic:featured3 The true personality of the author may not have been revealed and his entire plight is not recognized nor examined in the article. It is a fleeting glimpse into his mind and for just a moment I understood a defense of Tourette's.

As I sat here on the bed discussing the article with my teenage children and husband as we attempt to come out of our Thanksgiving weekend laziness, we all decided that Koterba has a gift. His perception of his syndrome as a way to see the world through a different perspective than most of the people around him is enlightening for the rest of us as maybe we may actually be able to see through the world similarly. Maybe we all need to unlock our inner Tourette's, give it a hug, and share it with others.