How to Treat Tourette's With Behavioral Treatment

Tourette's Syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes vocal and motor tics, can usually be suppressed and controlled through the use of behavior-modification treatment. Many of the symptoms caused by Tourette's can be reduced by simple awareness by the sufferer, as well as the support and understanding of friends and family. Read on to learn more about how to treat Tourette's with behavioral treatment.

Things You'll Need

• Mirror
• Physician or mental-health professional

Instructions

1. Try mirror therapy, through which you study your behavior in front of a mirror, to observe your motor tics so that you will know what they look like to others. Usually, simple awareness of these tics will motivate a sufferer of Tourette's Syndrome to suppress them and work to get them under control.

2. Tell your friends, family and co-workers that you suffer from Tourette's Syndrome, and ask them to let you know when you are exhibiting motor or vocal-tic behavior. Many Tourette's sufferers are simply unaware that they have tics and cannot correct the behavior until it has been identified by others.

3. Use cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, under the guidance of a physician or mental-health professional, to treat the symptoms of Tourette's Syndrome. Cognitive-behavioral therapy involves keeping a diary of all unwanted behaviors, identifying the negative thoughts and feelings that may be causing the behavior and modifying that behavior by replacing it with a more acceptable substitute.

4. Treat Tourette's Syndrome using more traditional psychotherapy techniques to get to the root of the behavior. Tourette's Syndrome can be aggravated by the repression of stressful emotions. It may lead to other psychological problems, such as clinical depression, if not properly addressed.

5. Add relaxation techniques to your behavior-modification program in order to relieve the stress that can exacerbate motor and vocal tics. Yoga, stretching and deep-breathing exercises should be performed whenever the symptoms of Tourette's Syndrome become noticeable.

Tips & Warnings

• Computer software is available to replicate behavioral treatment, such as cognitive-behavior therapy, at home or at work. This may be especially helpful if the symptoms of Tourette's Syndrome are becoming more severe, and a mental health professional is not immediately available to help with behavioral treatment.

• If you are diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome, you should also ask your doctor to see whether there are any signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The link between the two conditions is common, and not identifying this in advance could result in the wrong type of behavioral treatment.