fears and tics. | ADHD Information

WOw, i am SOOO happy i found this board i keep sneaking on at work adn reading the stories you all are posting and it makes me realize how i am not alone in this struggle. I was just curious my son just turned 6 but he seems to have alot more "fears" than my son who is about to be 5 or any of the other kids he plays with. If there is a wasp anywhere outside, he refuses to go out and play. He will even go to his bed (my threat) before he will go outside. He's scared of the dark, he has to have the hall light on and a night light. He's scared to take showers.  I know there are some other ones that i cant remember at the moment but is that just a normal thing for a 6 year old or is it more common with children with ADHD.   He also has had a "tic" since he was 3. I had questioned his peditriican aobut it, but she said at the time it was quite normal for 3 year olds to have some type of tics and he would out grow it.  He has never developed anymore tics  but the neck thing is still there 3 years later. He does it mostly when he is stressed or tired. I have researched TS and he doesnt have any other symptoms so i dont think it's that, but i have heard tics are more common in ADHD and even gifted children. Anyone have any experince with tics?

 

 

Janie,

My son is 9 and ADHD.  He has had a couple of different tics in the past few years.  His dr. (pediatric behavior specialist) told me that TS is usually considered when the patient has ADHD, anxiety, and tics that involve the mouth, either sound or my son licks his lips.  Some of my son's tics have gone away on their own.  We were able to catch one of them early on and retrain him.  I am working on retraining another one.  Retraining doesn't work a lot of the time and sometimes the tic is harmless enough it doesn't matter.  My son licking his lips drives his dad crazy and I always feel like his raw spots would hurt.  My son says they don't hurt and he has learned what to say when people ask him what's wrong with his mouth.  Under these circumstances, we have decided to ignore this one.  It actually seems to be getting better now. 

Hope this helps.

 

Thank you for sharing your situation, with Gavin there are no verbal tics.  Which if i am correct is one of the factors in diagnoising TS, it's only this neck tic.  It's annoying but i try for the most part to ignore it, or i usually ask him, are you tired? B/c it seems worse when he is tired, stressed or excited. I suppose i will bring it up to the dr. when we go in for evaluation just so that it can get a second look. The neck thing also drives my husband nuts too...lol

Tics come in different flavors evidently. Previous my daughter dx a year ago for ADHD- Inattentive I thought tics were "motor tics" , hand flapping- head bobbing etc. . Upon reading up on it more I've found refences to vocal and phonic tics which are what my daughter has. Uncontrolled repition of same sounds  and phrases. For over a year at school she would say "I like cheese" or "that's very cheesyful". For several monthes she had this annoying squirting/sqishing sound she would make for hours on end. Now she whistles allot and blurts out the abc song. She's 10 yr.old and on daytrana 15 mg. per day.  Forgot to address the fears. My daughter has had some what may be considered obsessive fears in addition to above mentioned tics. I don't know how many were just age appropriate but for over a year she was fearful of burglers coming into house amd then would want her bedroom closet door left closed- demanded the hamper be put in front of it each night. These have diminished the last few monthes, hopefully they were just "afraid of the dark" typestuff.

my oldest 13 has ADHD and has had tics in the past. Hers seem to be directly related to stimulant use. Does your son take meds? Off stims she really doesnt have them. Right now she is taking a low dose stimulant along with Strattera and we are not seeing any tics. Most stims increase her anxiety too. Right now that is also in check. My youngest (no ADHD, we dont think) has some fears. She used to VERY afraid of the dark and slept with her bedroom lamp on all night, she's afraid of bees, afraid of being hit by a car, used to be terrified of drains,a nd especially toilets flushing. Most of these have gone away. She will now sleep in complete darkness, she told us she was now too old (6) to sleep with a light, she is over the drains at least in pools, tubs and sinks and mostly over the flushing    (), thank GOD. The bees and cars..........we're working on it.

So, my point, some of it may be anxiety, some of may be just typical and he will get pst them

My 6 yr old dd doesn't like wasps, either! I had to educate her about how
they are good pollinators and help flowers grow, eat "bad" insects, etc. That
has helped a little. We also talk about how they go to bed at about 5:00
p.m.! She doesn't seem to have any fears, really, except that she refuses to
sleep in her room. She makes herself a bed on the hallway floor (between
her room and her 9 yr old sister's) and sleeps there. She has for a couple of
years now.   Oh, she won't shower in her bathroom, either. Doesn't like the
sound the pipes make.    

      My !2 year old ADHD DS has big time fears.  He has slept either in the hallway or our bedroom for YEARS.  This fear began when he was 6.  I thought it would just go away.  He is scared of "bad guys".  We don't know why.  He also is very bee/wasp/mosquito phobic.  He completely freaks out.  Just this year it has come to our attention that he may have some anxiety.  I feel bad that I didn't put two and two together earlier.  I am looking more into it all now and will be talking to his doctor about it as well.  I would b interested in whether others have had success helping their child get over their fears.  This anxiety thing is all new to me.

Both my kids are deathly afraid of bees, spiders, etc - one has ADHD, one doesn't.  My dd was afraid of drains for what seemed forever - seriously until she was like 10 - but she doesn't have ADHD.  We actually had to buy an old fashioned plug and put it in the tub, even though it had a stopper that worked with the handle, just so she could SEE that the drain was plugged, and we could NOT pull the plug while she was in the tub - or all hell would break loose.

Might just be the age, or a kid thing. 

yes, i agree it could be his age, but i wonder if can be a symptom of anxiety. I guess i will know more after his pysch appt.