Title: Tourette's
Syndrome: A heroic response
Subject: A woman’s
life with tourette’s syndrome
Date: Tuesday 17 April 2012
Summary
Jess Thom is a woman who battles her Tourette’s syndrome (TS) by putting on a hero costume. She first noticed the TS when she was 6 years old and it has gotten worse since up to a point of her having to wear protective gear to protect her from her own physical TS fits. Her TS fits mostly consist of blurting out random sentences that at times can be quite poetic. She founded Touretteshero with her friend Matthew Pounty. Touretteshero aims to increase awareness for TS by posting her blurts online and inviting artists to make pictures describing those blurts. Jess says: “It's about changing the view of people with disabilities as victims or scroungers and seeing them as professionals, whilst having a sense of humour about it."
Jess Thom is a woman who battles her Tourette’s syndrome (TS) by putting on a hero costume. She first noticed the TS when she was 6 years old and it has gotten worse since up to a point of her having to wear protective gear to protect her from her own physical TS fits. Her TS fits mostly consist of blurting out random sentences that at times can be quite poetic. She founded Touretteshero with her friend Matthew Pounty. Touretteshero aims to increase awareness for TS by posting her blurts online and inviting artists to make pictures describing those blurts. Jess says: “It's about changing the view of people with disabilities as victims or scroungers and seeing them as professionals, whilst having a sense of humour about it."
Opinion
I find that Jess Thom is a very brave woman for
coping with a worsening disease that she has next to no control over. Using
humour in the process is a technique advised by many a psychologist (own
experience) and she does so expertly going to the point of giving the words she
said to unknown artists to toy with. My favourite blurts would be: "Lego is for life, not just for
Christmas" and "Derren Brown is in the room – shut your mind!"
Because Lego is awesome and Derren Brown is an evil man.
Tourette's can be quite hard to deal with. I know a boy with Tourette's syndrome and even though I know it is not his fault, I still think his tics and verbal comments can be very annoying. It is awesome that someone has found such a creative way to deal with this problem.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI agree. I think that Jess Thom really faces her disability and changes it into an ability, instead of avoiding or ignoring it. I think this way is a beautiful way of dealing with it, especially because she is willing to share her experiences to others.
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