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Question 26: hey:) I saw your article
in Macleans Magazine, and I was intrigued. I am a 17 year old student
who....has ADD, and actually, much like you appreciating your TS,
I like ADD...I mean honestly, imagine how boring it would be not to
be thinking of 10 things at once! Anyways, the reason I am writing
is because I was wondering how closely related ADD is to TS and OCD.
Through reading some of the articles on your site, I see many simelarities.
I guess I am basically curious about the differences between the three
because based on my understanding....very often people diagnosed with
ADD have, to some degree, obsessive-cumpulsive tendancies, and very
minor tics. Just Curious. K.A.B., ON, Canada.
Hi
K.A.B.!
My apologies
for being awhile in responding................I hand in my Ph.D. dissertation
tomorrow and so have been writing furiously this past week (it is now
99 pages)!!
I like
your attitude sir................you will go far. You could also be
a hell of a role-model for a lot of folks with similar diagnoses: I
don't know what you plan to do with your life but I hope some work (volunteer
or career) will be putting your positivity to good use!
The short
answer to your question re: how closely related are TS, OCD, and ADHD
is: "very". In terms of numbers, 28-67% (depending on the
study) of people with TS have OCD, and 35-89% (again depending on the
study -- doctors like to argue a lot) of people with TS have ADHD. In
my presentations I talk about how all 3 disorders are simply different
ways of not being able to regulate yourself well -- TS is not having
great control over your movements, OCD is not having great control over
your thoughts, and ADHD is not having great control over where your
attention and energy levels are directed (in other words, ADHD doesn't
really mean you have LESS attention than anyone else -- it is just a
little less 'reigned in').
I should
end by mentioning that while people with TS are diagnosed with ADHD
or OCD much more often than people without TS are, it ISN'T true that
a lot of people with ADHD are diagnosed with TS. It also isn't true
that a lot of people with OCD are diagnosed with TS. In other words,
it is sort of an accumulative thing -- if a person has OCD, fine. If
a person has ADHD, fine. But if a person has TS, (s)he probably has
at least elements of the other two disorders too. We TS'ers don't do
anything half-way.......... :-)
Hope this
helps K.A.B. -- enjoy your summer!
cheers,
Dr. Dunc.
