Tics

Repetitive muscle movements that are often triggered or made more frequent by nervousness, anxiety, or increased self-awareness or worries about the movements are tics.  Most kids will describe a tic as their body scratching some sort of “itch.”  Whether it calms the body or temporarily relieves some stress for the child.  Often times the best treatment families can offer for this is ignoring it as most tics will self-extinguish in 3-6 months.  Often, the more we comment on them, the more the pattern gets reinforced. 

Now, if the tic is debilitating or associated with vocalizations, it can cross into the territory of Tourette’s Syndrome which is rare in children, though in recent years there has been an increase in what is called “Tik Tok Tics.”  This is a relatively new entity that is considered a functional neurologic disorder, which means that when kids watch and follow social media users with Tics, they note secondary gain and attention from it, which can, in turn, cause them to start mimicking these Tics even on a subconscious level.  For both Tourette’s and these functional Tics, we often refer to a cognitive behavioral therapist to help understand the stressors and reasonings for the behavior, while simultaneously teaching kids healthy ways to cope with stressors and anxieties that may be the root cause of these behaviors.