Chemar - thank you for all the info, I really appreciate it.

I'm newly diagnosed, but am not unfamiliar with the problem, I've been struggling with it for around 10 years and referred myself to a neuro who finally diagnosed me based on my history as well as the observance of the tics. I guess I’m more of the odd ball in this case. I didn't start the twitching probably until around 19 or 20 years old. But being that my father has very mild facial tics that can be accompanied with a sound and that my grandmother has the blinking tic; among other things like normal brain mri and normal ekg in the past and I haven't progressed into any other kind of disorder. As far as we know I've never had strep, so based on all this we both seem to agree I have Tourette's. Also probably because of the comorbity issues... I had ADD supposedly as a child and seemed to grow out of that and slowly grew into Tourette’s it seems. There is one thing that I have done since childhood off and on that could be considered a complex motor tic, but this may be hard to determine, not sure.

Its so weird having this problem, especially knowing that its usually something dealt with in childhood. I think I'm starting to feel what many of these children feel.. the isolation. I was at my physical therapy last night and seemed to hear the pt's laughing quietly behind me while trying to do one of the exercises. And they KNOW that I have this problem. I don't know if its just a nervousness they feel or because it looks funny out of context, but its still a blow emotionally. Its really weird for me to even say that I have Tourette’s, maybe partly due to the fact that it is so stereotyped and partly because I seem to be such an odd ball with late onset, I feel like I'm lying or that its something to not be believed when I say this. Anyhoo, thanks for reading my venting. I'm okay, I'm not plunging into despair or anything, but its hard to grasp.

I did see the neuro again and he said that my B12 was really low, so I'm going to start getting monthly shots, in the meantime I've made an appointment with an allergist and will be doing reading here and there on other stuff. He put me on a VERY VERY low dose of an antihypertensive because I've been ticing so bad lately off and on, but hopefully knowing my allergies and supplementing will do the trick in the near future, and he encouraged this.