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Medical Shows before/after The thing about certain medical and psychological educational videos, shows, and other programs, is that they will target a certain ailment, show the sufferer in the worst display of the symptoms, and then go on to describe what is happening. So last week. Tourrette's syndrome. I saw an hour-long TV special about it last week. I laughed great booming laughs for an hour or so, as a parade of pitiful souls appeared on the tv barking, hissing, spitting, and cursing. "And this is Rex Coleman...he suffers from severe symptoms..." Cut to Rex barking, hissing and generally scaring small children. What was truly awful to learn is how the twitches feel, mentally speaking. It bubbles up through the brain, until it can't be repressed anymore, much like breaking wind at a haute-couture social occaision. They then showed a kid, clearly fighting a twitch, concentrating hard, licking his lips, fighting it, fighting until it erupted from him in an innocuous head twitch. I whooped. The same kid also had a spitting tic. They showed him eating with his family, all the while spitting on them, and feeling truly awful about it. He must not eat with his family often. Many dinners alone with a drop cloth for that one. His sisters giggled at him. Anyway, I laughed hard for about an hour. Don's girlfriend was still awake baking pies. So I told her what was on T.V. "Oh yeah, " she said, "My sister has Tourettes." Whoops.
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