Tic Replacement

    Has anyone ever been sitting in class, a business meeting, or a friendly  get-together and all of the sudden there's a sudden twinge in your foot and you feel like if you don't scratch it, you'll just scream? So you take your discreetly move your foot around pretending that nothing is going on, but that itch is still there and you cannot get it to stop. That is what some tics feel like. If you don't press, shake, sniff, etc. just right, not only will the feeling not go away, but it gets worse.
    I have a particularly bad pressing tic on my shoulder. Sometimes my muscles get sore and tense from it too. Unfortunately, when it's bad, no matter how many times I press, the feeling will not go away. I heard about this thing called tic replacement therapy or habit reversal.  A consultant of mine suggested getting a hand grip and whenever I have the tic, instead of pressing my shoulder, to press on the hand grip. Now for someone with TS, a regular grip wouldn't cut it, because there's individual fingers involved. While researching different grips, I found the Grip Master. It can work your fingers individually and has a number of uses. The best part is they're small and discreet and there's different strengths for different people. I ended up getting mine on Amazon and going with the extra light tension, which is 3lbs. per finger, which may sound like a lot but actually isn't. There's an xxlight too.
    So, I suppose you're all wondering what I thought of it. I was pretty hesitant about it at first. Would it work? Would it cause another tic? It's no miracle cure and it didn't help overnight, but I found that by working each finger individually and/or all at once (with the hand that did the pressing) that it did actually seem to help. It reduced the tic. The trick has been to remember that I have it and when I get the tic, to use my gripper.