Body: | The case of "Twitchy"
(Tourette's syndrome, Obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD, Ticks, blinking,
grunting, nervous habits)
Casebook of Biblical Psychiatry © Version 7
Based upon
Real Mental Illnesses
Real Cases
Real People
Real Causes
Real Solutions
Casebook of Biblical Psychiatry© brings the principles of Biblical
Psychiatry to life based upon real-world cases and familiarizes Christians
with different types of situations. This practical companion volume to
Biblical Psychiatry© includes not only diagnosis, but also in-depth
discussions by experienced Christians for Biblical approaches to treatment.
This meticulously detailed volume of dynamic real-life case studies is
simply a "must read" for all clinical Psychiatrists, mental health care
professionals and Christians interested in expert opinion on today's
treatment approaches. Psychiatric students, educators, and
practitioners-as well as social workers, nurses, medical physicians, and
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The case of
"Twitchy"
(Tourette's syndrome, Obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD, Ticks, blinking, grunting, nervous habits)
Tourette's syndrome
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The case of "Twitchy"
Tourette's syndrome
Biopsychiatric labels DSM-5
Tourette's syndrome F95.2, OCD F42
Checklist Behaviours DSM-7
Lack of Self-control, failing to take thought of that which is right in the sight of all men, bodily lust fulfillment through tics
Insights MMPI-7
Quick Pick EDS-7.1
No self-control: unnatural thought addictions and lusts: ticks etc.
Psychologically induced biological lusts.
Self-disablement EDS-7.2
Can become unemployable
Chemical imbalance EDS-7.3
No. They were never prescribed psychiatric drugs.
Benefits EDS-7.4
Fun, entertainment, relief from boredom and monotony: EDS-7.4.2
Attention seeking, Pride, Praise, Honour, Fame: EDS-7.4.3
Revenge: EDS-7.4.8
Satisfaction of fulfilling a bodily/psychological lust.
Monetary EDS-7.5
Can be used as a smokescreen of self-disablement for welfare.
Annoyance Scale EDS-7.6
Medium
Diagnostic Laws EDS-7.7
Law of Narcissistic Behaviour Choice (NBC) EDS-7.7.1.NBC
Law of Pediatric Multifarious Obfuscation (PMO) EDS-7.7.12.PMO
Law of Misfortune Culpability Aversion (MCA) EDS-7.7.15.MCA.
Determine the Problem
Lack of desire to change, will and self-control
Ask a Child:
He is the best clown I have ever seen. EDS-7.7.12.PMO
5 years later EDS-7.7.LPT
Once Jose learned his tics were not caused by defective DNA or bad brain chemicals, He forced himself to stop and was tic free in 90 days.
The case of "Twitchy" (a tic junkie)
As a young boy in Peru, Jose loved books and would look at the photos, but
not understand the story because most of them were in English. His favorite
book "Stuart Little" was given to him one Christmas and all he knew was
that the story was about an adventuresome "twitchy" little mouse who lived
in New York city in America. A very bright young boy, his mother could see
his strong desire to learn and get an education. Jose's mother longed for a
better life for her children, so after winning the annual immigration
lottery, they immigrated to USA. It was a new life with new beginnings for
Jose and parents when they got off the boat at Ellis Island New York. It
was a dream comes true. They moved to Ft. Myers, Florida where it was the
warm climate they were used to in their home country of Peru. Jose's mom
told him that he was going to school where he could learn to read his
favorite book himself! But Jose did not fit in very well in his new social
environment. Jose had always blinked a lot from age 4, but it was getting
worse. He also started making grunting sounds. He began to twitch his nose
like the mouse hero in his favorite book. When his mother asked him why he
was grunting, he replied that he was merely humming a tune that he could
not get out of his head. Being a rhythmic person, Jose was not merely
humming to the same tune, he was also grunting out the percussion. Jose's
father would blink and suck air through his teeth when he was angry.
The kids at school did not take to Jose very well and he was somewhat
socially isolated. Jose felt he really didn't have many true friends.
Although he was bullied he was a positive person and did quite well in
school and was able to overcome the initial language barrier with English
as a second language and rise to the top of the class.
Throughout high school, Jose began to develop physical twitches that were
repetitive and included loud grunts and squeals. It felt like something
inside was forcing him to act out the ticks. He would hold his breath until
it felt just right to act out the tick. However, he was able to delay them
or suppress when out on a date with a new girlfriend.
He became a Christian and attended three times a week with a Bible
believing church. His occasional outbursts of foul language were an
embarrassment in church. Jose became quite financially successful. He
finished his MBA and was hired by a major stock brokerage company. When he
got married, the ticks had gotten worse, but his wife noticed that they
stopped the moment he fell asleep. She also noticed that when his mind was
pre-occupied watching TV or watching a live on stage theatre production,
that he was able to control his "nervous habits". She noticed that he was
able to control his ticks in the parent/teacher meetings. He told her that
he was able to completely control his ticks in important Job interviews.
However, sometimes when he was frustrated at people, he would randomly
blurt out a vulgarity or swear word.
Jose also had some "obsessive compulsive" habits like arranging all the
wrenches in his garage tool chest in perfect order. If someone opened a
drawer and moved it an inch, he would move it back. He would also arrange
his shoes in the closet in a particular order based on style and colour. If
someone swapped two pairs in the little cubby holes, he would switch them
back. He also carried around a lip balm and repeatedly applied it to his
lips. His cell phone was always in his pocket or on his pillow when he
slept. If he left the house without his lip balm or cell phone, he would
turn around and go home to get them.
She urged him to seek professional help, which he did out of love for her.
He was diagnosed with Tourette's Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
(OCD). He was told by the psychiatrist that he had a genetic disease that
was outside his control and that he had a chemical imbalance in the brain
with abnormal neuron activity.
He began to blame God for his disease and left the church and eventually
became bitterly anti-Bible.
Jose checked himself into a special clinic and paid to get fMRI scans of
his neuron activity. Sure enough, the fMRI scans confirmed that strange
stuff was happening inside his brain. He meditated on how he felt as
biological misfit because of his defective DNA. He found comfort and solace
that he lived now and not 200 years in the future, when atheistic Darwinism
had final conquered religion and standard DNA pre-natal screening for
Down's and Tourette's syndromes meant he would have been culled from
humanity like a defective puppy by the breeder because he did not conform
to the new Eugenics breed standards of humanity. He resigned himself to the
fact that he was going to have to live with Tourette's for life, but he
became concerned about passing the genetic disease onto his children.
Although Ritalin has had mixed results on children, He was told that this
is something that psychiatric drugs cannot fix now he is an adult.
He found some hope that a new procedure called, "Deep Brain Stimulation" would correct the random electrical short circuits in his brain. But he was a little worried about having two meat thermometers pushed into his brain, so he decided to just live with his disease.
Jose successfully attained the American dream he could never have known in
his home country of Peru. He has a Lexus, 2 Harley Davidson Motor bikes
even a private Lear jet. His spontaneous twitches, grunts and contortions
are actually the life of the party and a great source of entertainment for
his many friends. He has found inner peace within himself that he will
twitch like his hero, the little storybook mouse he called "twitchy", for
the rest of his life. He adopted three children from Peru and reads to them
all from the book he loved as a kid himself.
A Christian named James happened to see Jose in Starbucks and brazenly
said, "What if I could cure you of your Tourette's in 6 months? Would that
interest you?" Stunned Jose paused a moment and said, "Sure!" James handed
Jose a series of quotes that showed there is no known biological cause for
Tourette's syndrome and everything he had been told about his "genetic
disease" was a lie. Just start resisting those "irresistible urges" to
perform the tics and at the end of 6 months you will be tic free. You have
been lied to by psychiatrists who have robbed you of any hope of a cure
because they say it is 100% biological and ridicule Christians like myself
that know it is all a matter of will power and self-determination." Jose
ripped the paper out of James' hand, swore at him and walked away in a rage
of furious anger. A week later Jose found the paper on the floor of his car
and read the quotes. He was stunned by what he read and did not believe it.
He went to the university medical library and looked at the graduate level
medical reference textbooks and sure enough James spoke the truth. He
determined to try to resist his ticks and at first it drove him out of his
mind, but after a week, he noticed a clear change. By the end of three
months he was tic free. He thanked God, went to church and confessed his
sin of rebellion against God and was restored. He then became an activist
to warn others about the lies of biopsychology.
Discussion:
Jose is an addict, a tic junkie. Just as a heroin addict's body craves the
drug, Jose craves his tics. Although fundamentally a choice the spirit
craves, the mind can actually develop a physiologically pleasing feeling.
This is known as a psychologically induced biological lusts which can be
controlled the same as true biological lusts like the sex drive and hunger.
However just as tics are initiated by repeated choice, Tourette's is
"cured" by free-will power alone.
Jose must be commended for his resolution to find acceptance for his life
situation. Considering the devastatingly negative message his psychiatrist
gave him about his ticks having their etiological origin in inherited DNA
and he will have Tourette's for life. The "chemical imbalance" for life
news has sent many a psychiatric patient into a depression and even
suicide. So Jose gets a gold star for denying self, being content with his
life situation (ticks for life), accepting his disease for what it is and
finding happiness and contentment in spite of all this.
The problem with this whole story, is that he has been lied to by the
psychiatrist. The truth is like the joke, "How many psychiatrists does it
take to change a light bulb.... Any one of them, but he really has to want
to change [it]". Just like Dorothy possessed the power to get home the
entire time she sought the answer on the Yellow Brick road, so too Jose had
the power within himself his entire life to cure himself of Tourette's and
OCD. The difference is that Dorothy was finally told by the good witch to
simply click her heels together three times, but no one in the entire
mental health industry ever told Jose the cure to Tourette's/OCD was his
own will power and self-control. Jose believed the lie that ticks are
involuntary and outside of his ability to control like an epileptic
seizure.
Why did Jose believe he had a defective brain with bad DNA?
He believed the lies of the mental health industry.
He was unaware that top scientists admit they have no idea what the
biological etiology it.
He was unaware that the bad DNA etiology was theoretical, not an
observable scientific fact.
He wrongly assumed that his father's rapid blinking and tics proved
a genetic link, when in fact none existed. The truth is that nervous habits
can "run" in families the same way religion does. Both are sometimes
learned behaviours that are imitated.
He believed the lie that the fMRI scan indicated he had unusual
brain activity. In fact fMRI measures blood flow and nothing more. It is
assumed that this blood flow corresponds with electrical activity.
The history of psychiatry is a path of destruction of life and damage to
the human body whose cures are summed up in physical disablement of the
body through surgery, shocks and drugs. Biopsychiatry is rooted in atheism
which denies many has a spirit separate from the body and sees all human
behaviour rooted in the body, not the spirit. Look at the cost Jose paid
for believing the lies of chemical psychiatry:
He viewed himself as a misfit with defective DNA
He lost hope of ever being normal.
He chose never to have children of his own fearing his bad DNA would
be passed on to his children.
He had to endure a lifetime of annoying and bothersome and
distracting behaviour that interfered with a normal lifestyle.
He believed the lies of the atheist Psychiatrist and gave up his
eternal salvation.
Tourette's syndrome, like Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), is a nervous
habit in full control of human will. It is a freewill choice not the
involuntary consequence of defective DNA, bad brain wiring or a chemical
imbalance of the brain. In psychiatric discussion circles, there is little
difference between Tourette's syndrome and Obsessive-compulsive disorder
OCD. Both are cross diagnosed by biopsychiatrists and there is a very
blurry line of distinction. Tourette's syndrome and OCD share a quality
with schizophrenia, namely, that there are no medical tests and diagnosis
is based solely on behaviour observation. Just as you cannot diagnose a
schizophrenic unless he talks, neither can you diagnose Tourette's or OCD
unless you watch them. It is not a medical matter for doctors, but a
personal matter of learning self-control over one's thoughts and actions.
Nervous habits are "though addictions" sometimes come to the surface in odd
and unnatural behaviours that range from over blinking to switching on and
off the bedroom light for 30 minutes "until it felt right". Sometimes
nervous habits are obsessive thinking converted into obsessive actions. For
example, you keep wondering if you turned the alarm system on while you lay
in bed then finally get up, go down stairs and check to see if it armed.
The solution to this very common problem is to install a keypad beside the
bed so you think about it once, then just look over to see it is armed.
Tourette's or OCD are inner compulsions that lead to outer actions which
end the obsessive thinking in order to restore inner peace and gain relief
that is short lived, until the cycle is repeated over and over.
It is well documented, that this kind of repetitive thinking/action
actually changes the wiring in the brain the way a weightlifter increases
muscle mass.
"The key problem with OCD [Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder] is that the more
often the patient actually engages in a compulsive behavior, the more
neurons are drawn into it, and the stronger the signals for the behavior
become. Thus, although the signals appear to promise, "Do it one more time
and then you will have some peace," that promise is false by its very
nature. What was once a neural footpath slowly grows into a twelve-lane
highway whose deafening traffic takes over the neural neighborhood. The
challenge is to restore it to the status of a footpath in the brain again.
Neuroplasticity (the ability of neurons to shift their connections and
responsibilities) makes that possible." (The Spiritual Brain, Mario
Beauregard Ph.D., Neuroscientist, 2007, p 128)
The line between normal repetitive thoughts (is the alarm on, did I lock
the door, did I remember my passport) and Tourette's/OCD is the "frequency
of your repetitive thinking", mind the pun. In other words, two people fret
about exactly the same things, but one frets for a while and stops, but the
other frets day and night and is diagnosed with Tourette's/OCD. The line
between mourning and depression is a judgement of when someone has been sad
too long and not a medical issue. Likewise, it should be obvious that
repetitive thinking is not a disease or a medical issue caused by defective
DNA.
A key is to take note that Tourette's tics usually stop the moment a person
falls asleep or when their mind is pre-occupied watching TV or in an
important Job interview or on a first date. This proves the mind is in full
control of the repetitive behaviours. If it was solely a biological problem
and the behaviours were truly involuntary, they would continue unchanged in
any circumstance.
"Tourette's Syndrome is a chronic condition in which both motor and vocal
tics are observable. The tics are often presaged by premonitory sensory
urges that build in tension until the tic is released (Leckman et al.
1993). Many patients feel more troubled by the pre-tic tension than by the
tics themselves (Leckman et al. 1993), and some patients can successfully
control their tics in public and unleash them when they are alone. Tics are
markedly attenuated by sleep (Fish et al. 1991; Hashimoto et al. 1981).
Tourette's Syndrome waxes and wanes over time and can vary enormously in
severity from mild and undiagnosed to disabling. Anxiety and stress can
increase symptoms." (Textbook of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical
Neurosciences, Yudofsky, Hales, 2002 AD, p 1080)
Tourette's and OCD can also be attention seeking, the desire to be the
object of discussion (Fame), and in some circumstances even revenge
(outbursts of vulgarities). Ultimately Tourette's and OCD bother and annoy
other people the same way other psychotic behaviour does.
Benefits from behaviour: This illustrates the Law of Narcissistic Behaviour
Choice (NBC) EDS-7.7.1.NBC
Fun, entertainment, relief from boredom and monotony: EDS-7.4.2.
Jose clearly derived a personal entertainment value by being the object of
personal ridicule for his silly behaviours.
Attention seeking, Pride, Praise, Honour, Fame: EDS-7.4.3. Jose
loved the attention of everyone looking at him in public and the fact he
had a reputation for his random behaviours.
Revenge: EDS-7.4.8 People diagnosed with Tourette's have a "free
pass" on any bizarre behaviour including randomly blurting out a vulgarity
or swear word. This gives them an opportunity to seek revenge by swearing
at people with immunity.
Satisfaction of fulfilling a bodily/psychological lust. For those
who have never considered Tourette's and OCD to be caused entire by
self-will with no biological etiology, it comes as a surprise that they are
deriving benefits from this repetitive behaviour: Just as the body gains
satisfaction after a meal or sex, so too the mind gains satisfaction when
fulfilling this lust through a tic.
Diagnostic laws that are seen illustrated in the case of "Twitchy":
Jose had studied to great lengths of biological, genetic and medical
causes of his tics. He was certain he suffered from a bodily disease that
caused him to uncontrollably and involuntarily twitch and utter
vulgarities. A child would say, "He is the best clown I have ever seen."
This illustrates the Law of Pediatric Multifarious Obfuscation (PMO)
EDS-7.7.12.PMO.
Jose mocked the very thought that Tourette's was a personal defect
caused by his own lack of self-control. This illustrates the Law of
Misfortune Culpability Aversion (MCA) EDS-7.7.15.MCA.
Jose was addicted to certain behaviours because he continually chooses to
engage in them. He had likely developed a physiologically pleasing feeling
of satisfaction after he does the tic similar to the feeling of release
after a build up to a sneeze. All behaviour is a choice. Repetitive tics
are chosen by will and can be overcome in will power and self-control.
Note: Although these are based upon real case stories, the names and
details have been changed to hide the identities of the people. This
practice follows the standards of medical case history publication.
By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.
Send us your story about your experience with modern Psychiatry
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