My experience with being a Tourettic adult is a little different to many others in the community. My tics were not obvious in my childhood, I had a positive outlook on living with Tourette Syndrome from the very beginning of my tics, I was 18 at the time of my diagnosis and my first experience with the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia was at a charity "Zombie Walk" in the Sydney area. So to say my journey with Tourette Syndrome is unique in many ways would be an understatement.

I have a complex presentation of Tourette Syndrome. My tics affect every aspect of my body and life, and at times can lead to some rather dramatic misunderstandings and terrifying experiences. However, this hasn’t always been the case in my life. I grew up in a family where neurodiversity and disability were 'the norm'. 3 of my siblings have Autism and I grew up believing I was the "normal" child. I remember the years when my mum would get upset at me for rolling my eyes and I would go to my bedroom as an angsty 10-year-old believing she was crazy. Looking back in hindsight, it is clear to see the tics I had throughout my childhood. However, Tourette Syndrome wouldn't be a word I would learn about until my later teen years.

My tics would make themselves known when I was 17 years old. Two weeks before my HSC exams I would wake up from a nap, punching myself in the head, kicking my foot, and squawking like a parrot. I remember my parents rushing me to the local hospital, worried that I had been drugged or that something was happening to me that was really wrong. It was in the local emergency department that my family first heard the term Tourette Syndrome, however, the journey to diagnosis would be a long one. For the next year, I would be juggled between doctors waiting for the confirmation that I had Tourette Syndrome. When I was finally diagnosed in 2017, I was in my first year of university and I remember feeling a sense of intense relief just from having an answer to why I made the noises and movements that I do.

In 2018, while dressed as a zombie for an event that was raising money for brain research, I found the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia. I initially had fears that because Tourette Syndrome is most commonly associated with children I wouldn't be accepted. This was NOT the case, I met some of the most amazing, kind and accepting people and I would go on to find my community of loud, sweet, and passionate people through camps, support groups and a Facebook group. Some of which would become my closest friends and mentors.