What Having Tourrete Syndome is Like

[SashaButters]

3 minutes ago, BabySpiderBoy said:

Let me guess? your tics did THAT too?!???????

I mostly blame McDonald's ? then the 4 gas stations that wouldn't let me use their restroom, then my tics ??

[Little Cub Pants]

52 minutes ago, SashaButters said:

I mostly blame McDonald's ? then the 4 gas stations that wouldn't let me use their restroom, then my tics ??

Why would a gas station not let you use the restroom???? that's just weird.????

[SashaButters]

4 minutes ago, BabySpiderBoy said:

Why would a gas station not let you use the restroom???? 

No one lets y ou use the restroom here >.< they put fake Out of Order signs on the door ? 

[Little Cub Pants]

8 minutes ago, SashaButters said:

No one lets y ou use the restroom here >.< they put fake Out of Order signs on the door ? 

What?!???? That's insane! That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.?? That's ridiculous! If I was there, I would have raised HELL!?????? And why would anyone do anything like that anyway?! That makes no sense at all.???

[SashaButters]

On 3/26/2022 at 11:39 PM, BabySpiderBoy said:

What?!???? That's insane! That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.?? That's ridiculous! If I was there, I would have raised HELL!?????? And why would anyone do anything like that anyway?! That makes no sense at all.???

I live in the city with a large homeless population. It's gotten really bad since covid. It's almost impossible to find a bathroom since covid. Even pre-covid you'd end up eventually peeing behind a dumpster.

[~Brian~]

15 minutes ago, SashaButters said:

I live in the city with a large homeless population. It's gotten really bad since covid. It's almost impossible to find a bathroom since covid. Even pre-covid you'd end up eventually peeing behind a dumpster.

@SashaButters

Not only that, but even pre-Covid, they were some individuals probably who were possibly making a mess in the bathroom, and they probably end up making it so that employees only could use the bathroom. During the Covid pandemic, most of the places I have gone don’t even allow you to use their bathroom if they even let you inside at all. I’m glad I have diapers now, because a couple times I had to use my diapers in a situation where I could not use the bathroom, and even if I wanted to I probably wouldn’t because I’m wearing my bathroom. ?

in Vermont, we have several rest areas that people use when they are traveling, and there are public bathrooms in certain locations. However, as stated in other posts there are people who will use the bathroom, and make a mess out of it, and that means that someone will have to go in there and clean it up. Sparing the gory details, people want to be able to use the bathroom that is clean, and often times bathrooms in gas stations and other places are not as clean as others. When Covid hit in 2020, I started thinking that my bathroom was the safest bathroom out of every one.  Therefore, I use my bathroom for most everything that I need, and the only other bathroom that I would use if I was close enough would be the one in the church where I work. This is because I know who cleans them and I know they are cleaned and kept in good condition. With Covid being around, we probably will have it still, but it may end up coming down after a while, but we still have to be vigilant, and keep areas clean as possible. Bathrooms are bathrooms, and they get used, and they get dirty, but sometimes gas station bathrooms aren’t that good. It all depends on who cleans them and how often they’re maintained. I’ve been in bathrooms that stink to high heaven and I wouldn’t want to use the bathroom and simply because I can smell it from the hallway, and those type of bathrooms are ones that are kind of disgusting and I wouldn’t want to use them.

On 3/27/2022 at 2:39 AM, BabySpiderBoy said:

What?!???? That's insane! That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.?? That's ridiculous! If I was there, I would have raised HELL!?????? And why would anyone do anything like that anyway?! That makes no sense at all.???

most public bathrooms during this pandemic have been limited access to no access. This means that only individuals that work in the buildings, or have business within it have access to the bathrooms. Because of Covid, building closures were necessary because of the fact that Covid was so rampant, and we may still have times when it goes up and down. Those that were able to work were probably using the bathroom, and it was cleaned by Whomever is cleaning them. In my job, I have access to the bathroom in the building, and we know who cleans it, and we keep it is clean as possible. However, because we serve the homeless in our “community lunch” program where we feed people for free, there are people who come down and they use the bathroom, and sometimes they leave the bathroom in the condition that is not favorable. Therefore we have to be on our guard, and we have to keep the place clean.

I think basically it’s because of cleanliness or because of safety. Locking the bathroom keeps the bathroom available for those who need it, and and if someone needs the bathroom, there are ways to get access, when it is locked. Most likely, if you ask and I give you permission, and it’s locked, they give you a key that do you use to unlock the bathroom. When I go to Burlington Vermont downtown transit Center, where the buses roll in, I can go into the facility and walk up to the desk. I asked to use the bathroom, and I have to leave my bus pass or my ID with the individual so that they know who has use the bathroom. I guess this takes care of security, but all through Covid bathrooms are locked. 
 

let’s just say that it is up to the station owner or the store owner whether or not the bathroom is available for people to use. In public bathrooms, it’s one way, and private bathrooms it’s another. Because of Covid, the rules have changed, and they get really really nervous about people coming in and using the bathroom, because they probably don’t want to spread anything that someone has even if it’s just a cold. I know it’s a pain in the ass to have to go through all the stuff that we do, But part of the reason for all of this stuff is because people use the bathroom, and they leave the bathroom in a mess- Janitors have to put up with a lot of stuff, and they deal with an ungodly Amount of stuff – and I bet there’s a lot of stuff that they clean that they probably would be squeamish about, but because people go into a bathroom, and they don’t respect it, and leave it a mess, the next person that comes in we’ll have to clean the bathroom because it grosses them out – this is a reason why the bathrooms are locked in addition to the fact that the pandemic has been running rampant for the last 2 1/2 years.

Thank the Lord for diapers: during the pandemic and times when the bathrooms were unavailable, these things have been amazing, and because I’m incontinent, at least I have a way to be able to use a bathroom, even if I have to come back to mine and change. When I end up changing, it’s really easy, because all I have to do is take the diaper off, throw it in a bag and throw it in my disposer and then clean up the mess.  When I am away, it’s a little bit harder, but I make do. During this time, diapers have been a salvation: I don’t have to worry about Locked doors are people who say no when I ask if I can use the restroom.

Brian

 

[SashaButters]

Omg omg omg. I did it! I got up and did stand up comedy for the first time at a bar that was having open mic night. I was terrible at it and tripping over my words, but people were laughing and it made me so happy! While I was up someone put a glass of $ on stage next to me and the host found me after and explained it was for me as a tip 0.0 

They got my phone number and asked me to come back next week, so I guess it went pretty well! 

[Little Cub Pants]

4 hours ago, SashaButters said:

Omg omg omg. I did it! I got up and did stand up comedy for the first time at a bar that was having open mic night. I was terrible at it and tripping over my words, but people were laughing and it made me so happy! While I was up someone put a glass of $ on stage next to me and the host found me after and explained it was for me as a tip 0.0 

They got my phone number and asked me to come back next week, so I guess it went pretty well! 

Oh wow! Congratulations buddy!!!!!???✨? Did your tics say anything funny? LOL!??????? How much money did you make by the end of the night bud???????

[SashaButters]

1 hour ago, BabySpiderBoy said:

Oh wow! Congratulations buddy!!!!!???✨? Did your tics say anything funny? LOL!??????? How much money did you make by the end of the night bud???????

$4 lol I was just shocked by the gesture. 

[Little Cub Pants]

2 hours ago, SashaButters said:

$4 lol I was just shocked by the gesture. 

Well that's better than nothing.??☺️???♥️?? Keep up the good work!??

[SashaButters]

Going to the open mic night again tonight and this is the 5 minute collection of stories I have to share. Last week I did the telling the cop I had drugs up my ass, grandma's funeral and a really awkward pap smear. This week is the disability fair, pulling my aunts wig off,  telling a cute guy I had a penis, and the one time I experimented with an edible.

 

Hey, my name’s [Sasha] and if you couldn’t already tell, or you remember me from last week. I have Tourette’s. I have the rare kind that 5 to 10% of people with Tourette’s have, the kind that makes you blurt out the most inappropriate thing possible, whether it be yelling racial slurs, anti-Semitic remarks, homophobic or sacrilegious statements, etc. The more pressure there is not to say something, the more likely I’m going to yell it at the top of my lungs. It has to do with the settings I’m in. I’m not going to walk into a cracker barrel and start shouting the N word. What I do end up doing is yelling things like “I have a bomb” at the airport, “I have drugs up my ass.” to cops, “I have a gun” when in a bank. What sets it off the worst in religious symbolism. I live by a Catholic Church and sometimes there are nuns running errands around the area. If I see a nun I will immediately go the other way. 

 

The last time I had to deal with nuns was at a Disability fair. The Tourette’s booth was looking for volunteers, so I drove all the way out to Pasadena not knowing it was at a Catholic Church. It went okay until Mass let out and everyone from the church started pouring in. There were nuns and boy scouts in uniform, old people in wheelchairs and I managed to involuntarily sexually harass all of them. Whenever a nun would come by I kept yelling I was going to shove a crucifix up their ass. I could just see their fingers itching to reach in their habits and pull out a yard stick to smack me. 

 

I know everyone’s heard of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock, blah blah blah, but if that's his reaction to a little joke, I would be dead if I did to his wife what I accidentally did to my aunt. She also has alopecia, shaves her head and wears a wig. So this one night we are at her sons’ girlfriend's house having dinner and playing board games. I start to feel that tell-tale pressure build up feeling in my arm, so thinking it just needs to shake or something, I let it happen. Only instead of shaking or wiggling around, I reach out, grab my aunts head, and rip her wig off in front of everyone at the dinner table. The girlfriends' family has never seen her without her wig, probably didn’t even know she wore a wig, and were just both staring at each other horrified. I’ve never felt so betrayed by my own body before. Luckily for me, she found the situation hilarious. 

 

So I had a lot of health problems growing up. I think I fell out of my family tree and hit my head on every branch on the way down. When I was 16 I had a cardiac pacemaker put in the left side of my chest, and when I was 30 I had a deep brain stimulator put in the right side, Which really just amounts to me having the most high-tech and expensive boob job money can buy. Your boobs may be perky, but can they connect to Bluetooth? Where’s your Bluetooth boobies, peasants?

 

My symptoms have really gotten a lot better since the DBS surgery, but no matter how many times I tell people about it, I can’t get the acronym right. I keep accidentally calling it BDSM surgery. It took a really long time to get too because all the surgeons were currently tied up with other patients. 

 

Something I used to do a lot before the surgery was punch myself in the face. No annoying child needed to play the “stop hitting yourself game” So I was in the bathroom up at Chumash, and I’m washing my hands at the sink, and this lady approaches me and hands me her card and she goes “If you ever need help, call that number” and leaves. I’m looking at the card feeling confused, like why did this lady give me a card for a domestic abuse hotline. I look at myself in the mirror and was like oh god.  I had this large green and purple bruise healing on the right side of my face, my eye was all swollen. She thought I was in an abusive relationship. How was I supposed to explain I’m in an abusive relationship with myself? 

 

So I do find myself getting into fights sometimes in public. I’ve been hit, slapped, had someone kick my car. I can’t really blame them though. With all the racial tension right now, the last thing someone's going to think after turning around in the grocery store to find a white woman yelling slurs isn’t going to be, “this lady has a medical condition and is probably even more horrified about it than I am.” No, they’re going to channel that one fish off of sponge bob that’s always like “HOW MANY TIMES ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON OLD MAN!” and next thing you know I’m channeling the other fish that goes, “MY LEG!” 

 

I think the strangest fight I’ve ever been in has got to be with someone's service dog in a Starbucks. I had turned around suddenly and spotted this yellow lab, and before I could do anything, boom the association had been made. I started barking, not little yaps, but full on guttural growls and barks from deep in my throat. This freaks the dog out, and in turn he starts barking back at me. The “conversation gets heated”  Soon the lady is yanking on the dog's harness, going, “I’m so sorry this never happens” and my friends got me by the shirt collar pulling me back saying, “I wish I could say the same.” The employees are like “what the heck lady?” and I’m just like, “I’m sorry, my friends tell me I turn into a bit of a bitch when I’m on my period.” 

 

Ordering drinks or food is really hard for me sometimes. No matter how well I think I’m doing, tics can come out at the most randomest of times and even interrupt me mid-sentence. Does anyone ever have to rehearse several times what they need to say before walking into minor social situations? I’m an introvert, and even things like that can be terrifying. Like this has happened to me several times, I’ll be going through a drive through and be like“ hi, yeah, can I get the number 10 with the GRANDMA PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!” Roll up to the window, and they’re like *covers eyes* “Here’s your order.* 

 

Here’s another couple of examples of tics changing what I’m trying to say. So is anyone here familiar with the song THE BAD TOUCH from the Blood Hound Gang? I had been listening to it before getting out of the car and there’s this specific lyric of the song. My tics literally could have chosen any other one, but no, it had to go with this one. There was this guy I had been talking to working the host desk. I liked him, he was nice to me, even if it was just because he had to. So I see him and I go up to say hi, only what ends up coming out of my mouth are the worst song lyrics possible for this situation. “STICK YOUR HANDS DOWN MY PANTS AND I’LL BET YOU’LL FEEL NUTS.” I was so horrified I ended up just walking away, and I never saw him again after that to explain. So there’s this guy out there who thinks I randomly walked up to him, yelled at the top of my lungs I have a penis, and left. 

 

So I tried a lot of other things before I did brain surgery, obviously. All sorts of medications, neuro-biofeedback, meditation, but I think the worst was weed. Everyone kept telling me I needed to try weed, and it was a bucket list thing for me. I wanted to see what it felt like to get high at least once, just to see what it was like. I have asthma, so I can’t smoke, so I had the bright idea to try an edible. I had no idea what a dosage was, all I knew was yummy, this is a good brownie. I ate the whole damn thing. And I’m waiting and waiting. I’m starting to think, these edibles ain't sh- *eyes grow wide* Never again. I have never in my life been that scared. All night long I had zero control over my body. I was lying on my friend's bed, sweating and involuntarily punching and kicking the air non-stop. And my dear, dear friend… so supportive and helpful, took her cellphone and started playing a song. The next thing I heard was, “EVERYBODY WAS KUNG FU FIGHTING!” And my tics started making me punch and kick to the beat of the song. 

 

So yeah, those are this week's stories I have for you, I hope you enjoyed them.