Mom Stress Increases Tics...Who Knew!

All is well in the land of The Boy. He's still doing quite fine and his tics are very mild still. Interestingly enough, both my husband and sister noticed lately that even his exaggerated blinking & eye rolling has been less noticable. I hadn't really thought about it. But his sleep has been good and the tics have been...well...not evident. That freaking ROCKS.

About the sleep - one thing I figured is, if it's not related to TS, what could make him have trouble sleeping? Lately, we've been trying to get that kid outside and running like a rabbit on crack as often as we can. That helps. Not that we keep him locked in a closet. But once he's home from school, there is homework, some computer time, playing inside with his brother, reading, dinner, etc. By the time you think, oh yah, let's run him ragged, it's time to get him in bed. So we're trying to make sure he can get outside with the other kids or just in the back yard. It's helping.

Now, having said that the tics have been less noticable, I guess I jinxed myself. Or my PMS jinxed it. Today, I had one of those days where I wanted to put my fist through a wall if you said hi to me at the wrong time. Those are lovely days, aren't they? Yes. Well, my lucky children get to deal with the banshee-from-hell if hubby isn't in throw-himself-in-front-of-the-train mode. Unfortunately, he was having a bit of a frustration day himself. Kids that are really into testing limits can really push your buttons on those days. Don't get me wrong. I'm not hitting anyone. I'm not screaming obcenities. I'm not locking anyone in closets, rooms or garages. I'm yelling when angry. And it's usually way out of proportion for the offense the kids have done. I mean, when an almost-3-yr-old is flipping out because his 6 yr old brother has touched a toy that said almost-3-yr-old has deemed as "his" (along with every other toy in the world), you should cut him a little slack. He's almost three. Last time I checked, that meant that he should be fulfilling the freaking-out-at-the-drop-of-a-hat portion of his toddler contract. And he was doing a bang up job. But I lost it and yelled and had to physically pull him away from the 6 yr old. And earlier, the 6 yr old wasn't listening to anything and was arguing over and over about the same issue that had already been answered by mom over and over. So I lost it and yelled. This pattern repeated itself in the time that the 6 yr old got home from school enough times to...(drum roll please)...make his tics not only reappear but INCREASE.

Yeah mom.

So yah. This afternoon and evening, we had lots of exaggerated blinking, eye rolling and 2 new verbal noise tics.

So if anyone asks you, "Hey, do you think stress can bring on or increase the frequency of a Tourette's kid's tics?" you can answer in a very informed manner, "You're damned SKIPPY they can!"

I know we'll all get over it and tomorrow will be a better day. But at this very moment? I suck.