Have you ever wondered what the funny feeling is before a tic? Or been curious as to why people with Tourette need to tic at all?
Here we take a look at the urge to tic and where this urge comes from.
The difference between wanting and needing to tic
We don’t want to tic, in the same way we don’t want to scratch an itch. It’s more that we have to.
By carrying out the tic, the uncomfortable feeling before it goes away. But only temporarily.
Tics come and go like itches do. Some stronger, some weaker. Every second or every minute. But before the tic there is often a feeling driving it.
The premonitory urge.
What is this premonitory urge?
The NHS states that:
Most people with Tourette's syndrome experience a strong urge before a tic, which has been compared to the feeling you get before needing to itch or sneeze.
As a sufferer, this seems accurate. I do find myself going to the itch comparison over the sneeze comparison however.
An itch better describes a voluntary movement to rid an unwanted urge, similar to my experience with tics. I can often control the tic and hold it in most of the time. It isn’t totally involuntary.
The only involuntary aspect is the premonitory urge that makes me want to do the tic in the first place.
How to describe this feeling?
It can feel like static. Like a fuzzy tickly feeling under the skin. it can feel like a dull ache in certain parts of the body.
Everyone has a different experience, and a different way of describing the sensation.
Some people don’t experience a feeling before a tic
Some people may find the sneeze analogy more suitable, as the tic feels much more involuntary and sudden.
A tic may feel like it happened to us, more than a voluntary action. I have noticed this myself when looking back on videos, noticing way more tics than I acknowledged at the time.
Think about being with friends, enjoying deep conversation. Imagine if it was being filmed to look back on. Notice how many times you scratch an itch, from the obvious instances to the more subtle touches.
It is realistic to assume that some of those scratches were done subconsciously. We do it so often our body does it without thinking. The same when we sleep.
For some, tics feel much more involuntary and unexpected.
Studying the premonitory urge
Jade-Jocelyne Zouki is a PhD candidate researching functional brain connectivity and Tourette syndrome at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.
Jade-Jocelyne kindly answered some questions for Dealing with Disorder, on the technology and methods used to better understand the premonitory urge.
For a deeper understanding of the urge, you can read the article here.