Cannabis for Tourettes Syndrome - Tics and spasms

dom2mac

Well-Known Member
Greetings!

Since I was 11 years old I have had Tourettes syndrome and I wanted to share my experiences and answer questions to those who might have gone down a similar path as mine. Like I said, my first symptoms started around the age of 11 with unexplained eye rolling that progressed into abnormal and frequent neck stretching. A painful childhood memory of being called "ostrich neck" by some of the kids on my baseball team is one that has stuck with me. These tics were often followed by neck soreness and stiffness. In addition to these, I also experienced silent vocal tics, were I would be talking and suddenly my throat would seize and I wouldnt be able to say even the simplest of words like: when, where, cat, dog.

Thankfully, as I grew older the tics lessened in severity however, they never completely subsided. I am mostly thankful because I can easily hide my tics which makes socializing easier but the muscle tightness and soreness in my neck area remain, I am 37 years old.

Around the age of 15 I discovered marijuana. Im not going to beat around the bush, I used it for recreation and didnt even give it a thought to use it for medical purposes. I was quite the pothead until the age of 18 when I joined the Army. Between then and now, I have been on the strait and narrow, occasionally using cannabis for recreation probably less than 10 times over 20 years. More recently, I was able to obtain a relatively large amount of marijuana which was intended to be used for fun however, I have discovered that while using cannabis my tics are almost completely gone while under the influence and the tightness and soreness in my neck area is much less at all times than it was a few months ago. After running out of that weed, even now as I type, The stiffness and soreness has returned.

In total, My wife and I smoked around and 1.5 ounces of weed over the course of 4 months 2-3 hours before bed and occasionally I would smoke during the day on the weekend. Im not a physician, but from my experience my quality of life had improved significantly while using cannabis. I would suggest speaking with a doctor about the benefits and drawbacks of using medical marijuana for Tourettes or other related tic disorders.
 
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