Tourette’s syndrome (TS) treatment

Struggling with tics or Tourette’s Syndrome? At Your Mind Matter, we offer tailored treatment plans to help manage symptoms and improve your quality of life.
Take control of your TS symptoms today – get started with a free consultation.

Tourette’s syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder that usually starts in childhood. It includes sudden, rapid, repetitive, non-rhythmic movements or vocalisations known as ‘tics’.

The tics that are associated with TS can include simple movements, usually concentrated within certain groups of muscles such as the face and shoulders. Some of the most common tics include repeated eye blinking, shoulder jerking and grimacing, while simple vocal tics may involve throat clearing or sniffing.

Signs and symptoms of Tourette’s syndrome

Tics in TS tend to fluctuate in frequency and severity, with their peak being at around the age of 10 to 12 years. TS frequently co-exists with other conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), or other neurodevelopmental and mental health issues so someone may experience additional symptoms associated with these conditions.

Treatment for TS  

While there’s currently no cure for TS, most children and adults with tics won’t need medication or specific treatment to relieve symptoms. If your tics are frequent and severe, to the extent that they’re affecting your day-to-day life or are causing you to experience social and emotional problems, then Your Mind Matter’s therapeutic treatment programmes for TS can help.

Behavioural therapy and psychotherapy sessions will be provided by specially trained therapists or psychologists who are highly experienced at treating people with tics and other symptoms of TS. These methods can help to reduce the frequency and severity of your tics through controlling urges to tic and increasing your awareness of triggering situations.

Some of the behavioural therapy and psychotherapy techniques used at Your Mind Matter include:

Cognitive behavioural interventions for tics (CBIT)

CBIT includes habit reversal training, which involves understanding the feelings and emotions that lead to you experiencing tics. After this, you’ll work with your therapist to determine other ways that you can reduce the urge to tic.

This may also involve learning how to voluntarily move before you believe a tic is about to occur, which can ultimately reduce symptoms by not allowing your body to fall into a pattern of involuntary movement.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy may also be used to help you learn coping mechanisms for not only dealing with symptoms of TS, but also any associated social and emotional problems that can develop as a result of the condition.

This can include turning a negative outlook into a more positive one, focusing on proactive methods of improving your relationship with the condition, and working towards making you feel more hopeful about living with TS, both now and in the future.   

Medication for TS

If you’ve been diagnosed with TS, and the tics and associated symptoms of the condition are negatively impacting on your wellbeing, then medication can help to reduce the frequency and severity of your tics. While there’s no one medication that will guarantee significant relief from symptoms, Certain medications can also be useful when treating related neurodevelopmental or mental health disorders that can occur if you have TS. These include stimulant medication for ADHD and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for OCD, anxiety and depression.

FAQs

It’s believed that some people with TS can control their tics, particularly when they’re especially unwanted, such as during social situations, a work meeting or school classroom, although this takes a great deal of practice and concentration.

Even if you’re able to control when tics occur, it can be very tiring each time you suppress the urge. This can lead to an increase in tics subsequently as your body’s way of compensating.

You may notice that tics occur less in certain situations, like when you’re reading, playing sports, or are taking part in any activity that needs more concentration during your day.

The precise cause of TS is still unknown, although it’s believed to develop from a problem in the part of your brain that regulates body movements.

Due to the complexity of many instances of TS, there are likely to be a combination of genetic and environmental factors that influence the brain’s ability to correctly transfer information required for movement. Therefore, chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin, which play a part in sending these messages, may also be involved.   

Further risk factors for developing TS include:

  • Family history – if an immediate family member to either yourself or your child has had a history of TS or associated behavioural disorders, this may increase the risk of developing the disorder
  • Gender – it’s believed that boys are 3 to 4 times more likely than girls to develop TS

Your Mind Matter understands that living with TS can be very difficult and can even stop you living the life you want. That’s why we offer flexible outpatient therapy programmes delivered by specialist therapists, that help to improve symptoms of Tourette’s and work towards improving your quality of life.

Trichotillomania treatment

Struggling with the urge to pull your hair? At YMM, we offer personalised treatment plans to help you overcome trichotillomania and regain control.

Take the first step towards managing trichotillomania today – speak to our experts for a free consultation.

Trichotillomania is a mental health disorder characterised by the urge to pull out hair from parts of your body, usually from your scalp, eyebrows or eyelashes. This behaviour happens despite you wanting  to stop or knowing about the consequences, including associated pain and bald spots.

Feelings of distress and anxiety may be associated with the urge to pull out your hair, and the act of hair pulling can cause temporary relief from these emotions. The recurring nature of your hair pulling can leave you feeling embarrassed or ashamed, with people suffering from the condition often attempting to hide any visible loss of hair with items of clothing or make-up, which may disguise bald patches.

Some people with trichotillomania also experience a desire to suck or chew on their hair, particularly if their hair is long. This can result in them eating strands of hair, which can cause additional health problems.

Treatment for trichotillomania at YMM

Struggling with the urge to pull your hair? At YMM, we offer personalised treatment plans to help you overcome trichotillomania and regain control.

Take the first step towards managing trichotillomania today – speak to our experts for a free consultation.

Trichotillomania is a mental health disorder characterised by the urge to pull out hair from parts of your body, usually from your scalp, eyebrows or eyelashes. This behaviour happens despite you wanting  to stop or knowing about the consequences, including associated pain and bald spots.

Feelings of distress and anxiety may be associated with the urge to pull out your hair, and the act of hair pulling can cause temporary relief from these emotions. The recurring nature of your hair pulling can leave you feeling embarrassed or ashamed, with people suffering from the condition often attempting to hide any visible loss of hair with items of clothing or make-up, which may disguise bald patches.

Some people with trichotillomania also experience a desire to suck or chew on their hair, particularly if their hair is long. This can result in them eating strands of hair, which can cause additional health problems.

Trichotillomania treatment

Treatment at Your Mind Matter for trichotillomania takes advantage of growing research into the condition, with talking therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) found to be useful in reducing the severity of symptoms. Your Mind Matter’s nationwide network of wellbeing centres and hospitals can offer highly specialised outpatient care with experienced therapists and consultants.

Psychological disorders such as trichotillomania are known as impulse control disorders. The condition shares some similarities with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and it’s also possible for trichotillomania to co-exist with OCD. The compulsive desire to pull out hair on your body can sometimes cause baldness. Methods of hair pulling could be using your fingers and occasionally tweezers or similar instruments.

Once parts of your hair have been removed, this may temporarily reduce any anxiety you’re feeling. Hair pulling usually happens during periods of heightened stress, but it can also happen when you’re distracted or relaxed such as when you’re reading a book or watching TV. The condition can cause embarrassment; many people with trichotillomania engage in this behaviour in private, with a general desire to hide the disorder from others.

While some people may experience mild and even manageable forms of trichotillomania, if you feel that your compulsive urge to pull your hair is overwhelming, then treatment options available at Your Mind Matter can help you regain control over these urges and get your life back on track.

Therapy treatment programmes are usually recommended for treating trichotillomania, and would usually be offered to you on an outpatient basis. If you have other mental health conditions that co-occur with trichotillomania, such as depression, anxiety or addictions, a more intensive inpatient treatment programme may also be recommended in order to tackle the underlying cause of the condition.