Compulsive Shouting and Muscle Jerks Ruining My Life

I honestly thought I was the only one that did this. Its changed over the years. Various words, head jerks or even slapping my own face involuntarily when an intrusive memory comes up. At the minute it seems to make me shout out a horrific swear word I would never usually say! How do we manage it??

This sounds like an impulsive response due to getting too immersed/dissociated into memories. I sometimes say things on accident when this happens to me, and I realize what I said AFTER it comes out of my mouth.

I do a couple of things, but they are not related to memories. I have no idea what they are and I’ve been doing them for 2 years now. My main one is jerking my head and making a sound (it’s changed a couple of times now, but when it changes, it’s that same constant sound). I do notice get gets worse with stress and goes away entirely when I’m focused on my music (my happy thing). I have two others I do only when I am stressed or having a dissociative episode. I with tense my arms and shake them randomly and I will also lift my eyebrows up and widen my eyes as wide as they can go. These happen as warning signs or while in an episode. The last two I’ve only developed in the last year when my dissociation started and they only happen then. The first one started one day while I was in health class my senior year and I do it almost everyday now. I would be curious to know if anyone knows what these are and how to better manage them.

Yes I am suffering with this too. The CRNP that provides my meds thinks it is over stimulation and stress/anxiety related to my PTSD. They also are sending me for neurological testing to rule out anything like that. We have been referring to them as "tics". They get to be painfully (physically/emotionally) taxing.

Talk with your doctor about tourettes..