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My
Story
I
know of no one else in our family who has
Tourette Syndrome other than my son John.
This is despite the widely-held belief and claim
by the medical community that it is an inherited
mental disorder. For this reason, I
personally believe that John's Tourette Syndrome
was triggered by a strep infection. As a
child he had numerous strep
infections. Recent medical research
has proven that in a rare number of
cases, strep infections can trigger Tourette
Syndrome and OCD.
Although
I personally do not have any motor or verbal
tics, I do have ADD and never realized it until
the early 1990's. This is not uncommon with my
generation (I was born in 1948). Growing
up in rural North Louisiana I always assumed
everyone else was like me and had difficulty
concentrating and being focused.
I
could always overcome the difficulties this
presented in school because I was very
competitive and always wanted to beat everyone
else's test scores. Yet it seemed that I
always had to "force myself into a
corner" to gain the "will" to
concentrate enough to study and do well. I
would purposely put myself under immense
pressure to concentrate by delaying studying
until the last minute in the hours immediately
preceding a test. This technique worked so well
in high school that I graduated as valedictorian
of my high school class. Although this
technique may have worked to "force my
concentration", I caution that any children
reading this story "not practice this at
home."
Studying
in this manner was certainly not ideal for
college, but I knew of no other way to
concentrate sufficiently to succeed without
backing myself into a corner. Once, I
scored a 96 in my college Comparative Anatomy
class after having studied only 2 and 1/2 hours
immediately before the test, which was at 8
am. This was considered an amazing feat by
my peers at the time because they had literally
studied for days and my score was 15 points
higher than the next closest score.
As
an LSU freshman I put off reading an extremely
boring book entitled "This History of the
Anglo-Saxon Language and its Impact on Modern
Society" until 2 hours before class time. I
was to give an oral review of the book to my
classmates. Once the pressure of imminent
failure and desire to succeed at all cost became
so great, I was able to concentrate long enough
to read the first sentence of every paragraph in
the book and make the verbal presentation two
hours later. The presentation was a hit
with my Professor and resulted in the only
A that I made in that freshman English
class, and is living proof that the first
sentence of every paragraph is the "topic
sentence" as we are taught in high school
English.
The
message behind these two examples is that we can
all do anything we want if we put our minds to
it and commit ourselves to succeeding, whether
it be for a given task or for life in
general. When I look back at my life
and all the things I have accomplished, I find
that I am a walking testament that people with
these disorders and conditions can do and become
anything they want to be if they remain focused
on maintaining a positive mental attitude and
desire to succeed regardless the cost.
My
own son John has never let his Tourette Syndrome
tics stand in the way of having fun. When
I look back at how many friends he has had over
the years and the quality of his life, I realize
that he has had a normal childhood with lots of
great memories and plenty of friends.
However, unlike me, he has had greater
difficulty dealing with his ADHD. His
grades have suffered badly since his ADHD became
more apparent and seemed to increase around the
age of ten. Sometimes I ask myself if John
actually "knows too much" about his
conditions, so much that they have become a
reason for not trying harder because he knows
its more difficult for him than others without
ADHD
When
I look back at my own life I think my ability to
overcome the challenges that ADD presents has
been largely attributed to the fact that my
generation of students and teachers knew nothing
about it. I frankly, cannot recall ever
having heard the term "attention deficit
disorder" until 1970. In short, I had
no crutch or excuses to blame failure on.
I simply always thought I was the "Master
of Procrastination" and was the principal
cause of my own difficulties. I just
always felt that no one in life ever seemed to
be talking about things I wanted to hear or talk
about.
If
you have comments, or would like to write me,
simply click
on this link.
Best
regards to all living and dealing with TS, ADHD,
ADD and OCD,
Craig
Whitley
P.S.
Despite having a severe case of ADD, I graduated
from college with honors with B.S. degrees in
Chemistry and Zoology. I have worked in
the liquefied petroleum gas industry for 30
years. I'm currently a Senior Partner in
the international energy consulting firm of
Purvin & Gertz.
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