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BARKING
UP THE WRONG TREE BY
KAREN DOWELL
CANADA
MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION
Tourette
Syndrome doesn't have to control your life, you can learn ways of
controlling it. So says Duncan McKinlay, B.A., M.A.Sc. who lives with
Tourettes and is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at U. of Waterloo. Duncan
was not diagnosed with Tourettes until the age of 19, but came to
understand that he had been exhibiting symptoms and trying to hide
them since about age 7 or 8. Tourettes is seen as sudden involuntary
physical movements (ticks) and verbal utterances (barking and swearing).
This, you can imagine, can manifest into feelings of anger, anxiety,
low self-esteem, and depression.
Duncan
no longer tries to hide his Tourettes, rather it has become his Masters
thesis and Ph.D. focus. Spreading the word of what Tourettes actually
is, how to recognize it early and ways to live a full life not only
in spite of it, but BECAUSE of it consumes much of his time. It was
during one of his many "in-service" talks, this time at
Canada Mental Health Association in Milton, that I met Duncan and
saw and heard Tourettes for the first time. What an amazing young
man! At age 25 he is engaged to be married, working on his Ph.D. and
spreading hope around what, for (some) "Touretters", can
be a severely limiting (disorder). Attitude is the determining factor,
not severity of symptoms. Education is what will make the difference.
Canadian
actress Neve Campbell of "Party of Five" fame got behind the
Tourette Syndrome Awareness Week campaign which ran September 26th through
October 2nd. Her brother has Tourettes.
Duncan
invites anyone looking for information on Tourettes to visit his website
at http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~bdmckinl, or the Tourette Syndrome Foundation
of Canada website at www.tourette.ca.
