I got the call today. The one I've been waiting for for quite some time. The Anxiety Research Clinic is taking Liam as a patient. They will work with him on CBT and Habit Reversal Training. While I'm a little hesitant to pull him away from his therapist that we've been seeing, I want him to give this a try. They will be working with him to realize the feeling of a tic coming on and develop a competing response to try to lessen the tics.
There are a few schools of thought on this within the TS community. Some feel that it is an awful lot of work for little return. Some feel that it's not good for people with TS to suppress their tics. I feel that Liam does this anyway on his own, and if he can get some help with better ways to do this, it will be easier for him. I explained to him that it may help him with turning his loud squealing tic into something that's less noticeable and easier for him to deal with in public. I asked him how he felt about that. He said he wasn't sure.
He told me that he was taking his break today at school. He takes two timed walks and has permission to take walks whenever he needs a break. He usually is able to suppress his tics in the classroom and lets out his loud squeals on his walks. He told me that today while he was taking his walk an adult told him that "that is enough of that" when he was walking near her and he ticced. I asked him who it was. He said "I don't know, some parent." He told me that he tried to explain but he ticced again and she told him to stop it.
So while I feel that the world should conform to Liam and be more supportive and less judgemental, if we can help him to lessen the tics and make it easier for him not to have such severe tics, we'll give it a shot.
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