Tic Mythology 9 - Treatment: Exercises Pt 1

This is a continuation of discussing treatment techniques for Tourette’s and tics. We previously discussed the premonitory urge (aka “The Urge”) and how building awareness of it is important for treatment of tics. As a recap: The Urge is the feeling that comes before tics. People are not always aware of The Urge, but with practice they can usually develop awareness pretty quickly. Once one is aware of the feeling, then they can use it to begin targeting the tics with competing responses (aka “Exercises”). Exercises should be: 1) Incompatible with the tic. Either completely preventing the tic from occurring or just making it much more difficult for the tic to occur. This results in the brain getting less of a pay off (reinforcement) for performing the tic, which gradually weakens the tic. 2) Something that can be ACTIVELY sustained while The Urge is present. In the video I accidentally only discuss the importance of being able to sustain it at first and then remember the ACTIVE component. I