tic whys

When I was in college, I began to get horrible stabbing pains in my abdomen and was diagnosed (after some very unpleasant testing) with ulcerative colitis. All through college and when Brian was in law school I would go through horrible bouts where I wouldn't be able to eat for weeks on end due to the pain. I'm assuming that the reason that this generally doesn't bother me anymore is that I'm far more careful to get lots of sleep, excercise regularly, and eat a healthy diet than I was in college and when I was working waitressing the breakfast shift and staying out late at night  for drinks with coworkers after my job doing telephone fundraising while Brian was in law school.
I remember during that time having lots of bouts of colitis. When this would happen, Brian would cross examine me and ask if I'd been getting enough sleep, if I'd been eating anything unusual, a whole list of other factors and  mutter about the change in weather (as drastic temperature shifts seemed to bring on symptoms). It would, quite frankly, annoy the hell out of me. Whatever brought it on, it was happening to me at that point in time and I just needed to rest, not eat much, and drink lots of fluids until I felt better.
Thinking back to that, I woulder why I tend to do the same thing mentally with Liam's tics. He's been relatively tic free for the past week or so, he always has them, but they've been pretty minimal. Tonight I was walking through the grocery store with him watching him have tons of motor tics and going through a mental checklist of reasons for tics to get more severe. Not enough sleep? Change in schedule? Too much stimulation? Trying to hold the tics in in front of others for too long? It makes me wonder why I'm doing this to myself. I know life doesn't always go as planned, and as much as I would love to put Liam in a bubble to make sure that his tics are minimal, I can't. I wonder if the mental checklist will always be there or if I'll ever accept that there are some things we just can't control.