Question: What does TS stand for?
Answer: TS is the common abbreviation for Tourette Syndrome.

Question: What are the types of motor tics?
Answer: Simple motor tics can be eye blinking, shoulder shrugging, or head jerking. Complex motor tics can be jumping, smelling, or touching.

Question: What are verbal tics?
Answer: Simple verbal tics can be whistling, humming, or throat clearing. Complex vocal tics can be repeating words or phrases or coprolalia.

Question: What does TS feel like?
Answer: Remember how it feels when you have to sneeze. You just have to do it. That's how having a tic feels. Tics are things that a person cannot help doing.

Question: Is TS contagious?
Answer: No, you cannot catch TS from anyone.

Question: Can you die from TS?
Answer: No, the disorder is not fatal. People with TS live normal, healthy lives.

Question: Is there a cure for TS?
Answer: No, there is no cure at this time. However, medications can diminish the frequency and severity of tics.

Question: Can people with TS control their tics?
Answer: While people with TS can sometimes suppress their tics for periods of time, for the most part, the movements are involuntary and out of their control. In fact, after a period of suppression, the tics often emerge more intensely.

Question: Does TS ever go away?
Answer: The disorder is characterized by periods of greater or lesser intensity. Sometimes, people are completely free of tics, and sometimes, their tics are at their worst. Some people find that during late adolescence, their tics subside considerably.

Question: Do people who have TS swear?
Answer: Sometimes, but actually, this type of tic, called coprolalia, is relatively rare. It occurs in less than 15 percent of all cases of TS.

Question: Do people with TS lead productive lives?
Answer: Of course! You will find people with TS in every profession and enjoying every recreational activity.

Question: Who are some famous people with TS?
Answer: Jim Eisenreich, a professional baseball player, and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, a professional basketball player, both have TS. It is believed that Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the famous British writer who wrote the Dictionary of the English Language, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), a composer, also had TS, but this is not based on actual evidence.