Whispers

A few weeks ago I was sitting in church. The building was incredibly quiet and the atmosphere pensive. Paula, doing her usual attention grabbing thing, jumped out. Not just once, a few times and nice and loud. My favorite part was the whispers that followed.

“She has Tourette Syndrome.” “It’s Tourette’s.” “Oh, that happens, her Tourette Syndrome is great!”

I’m sure there were more conversations that followed, once the reverent atmosphere had passed. If not, there might have been more research done at home. I love the awareness that Paula spreads for herself. Best of all, that due to awareness she has already spread, others now get to help in this endeavor and can now answer questions. If they don’t know the answer, the know where to to get it.

It’s funny, I have heard people with Tourette Syndrome say that the worst part about TS, is the people that don’t have it.

I don’t know much about these people. I see posts in Facebook groups that I am a part of. I don’t know these people, so I really can’t judge their experiences, but I don’t think we share similar experiences.

I don’t know about you, but I like talking about myself. It’s human nature. How lucky am I that people ask so many questions about my life. It’s easy to tell that I am different right away. Yet most people can’t quite put their finger on what exactly is going on. It’s hard to make assumptions with some of these random tics that pop up. Other times, there are lots of assumptions made. Sometimes they are right and sometimes they are wrong.

Any of these circumstances have always wound up entertaining. My Tourette Syndrome is always finding new ways to make me laugh. I think that makes it easier to share. Others can see if you are uncomfortable and if you don’t want to talk about it, they won’t ask what is going on. Others can get confrontational and don’t get corrected.

Confidence is the key factor here. It can make you more approachable. It helps you stand up for yourself when others make incorrect assumptions. When you care about others, it makes it easier to be lighthearted about the situation. I love to laugh, and it always ends up happening when I get to explain what is going on.

When someone starts yelling at me, I have worked hard to be in a place where I simply laugh at the situation. Sometimes it angers them more, sometimes it confuses people. Either way, I tend to laugh and apologize for laughing at them. Then they are willing to listen, because who doesn’t like a good joke? People want in on it.

These make it easy to share my story and to spread awareness. Awareness facilitates better relationships. I am lucky to have so many good ones in my life.

I’m kind of a fan of my ability to be different and share and sometimes, even educate others on what it is and how it affects me. These whispers bring joy to my heart that others can do the same. Share the love, people.