How does CBT work for Tourette’s?
My doctor wants me to start cognitive behavioral therapy for some of my more problematic tics. The tics physically exhaust me, some are self-injurious (not on purpose), and I always have a high level of anxiety from their constant presence and interruption. I’ve had CBT before for other things and am not really sure how it works when it’s a non-voluntary neuro/movement disorder. What should I expect as treatment?
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November 17th, 2009 at 12:07 am
As far as I know, tourettes is purely neurological in nature. That doesn’t mean that tics are involuntary (at least not 100%), but they are controlled by the central nervous system. As far as CBT, I understand that to be mostly for psychological or behavioral disorders. So it doesn’t make sense to me that CBT would be used to treat tourettes. My only guess is that if you have an associate disorder, like OCD (you said you’ve had CBT in the past?), then maybe your doctor thinks that treating the other disorder will help with your tics.
So in short, I don’t know… sorry for being so long-winded about it