Tics vs. "Stims"

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My son has always had various stims or stereotypical movement. Lately, a lot have seemed more like tics to me. I casually looked up "examples of tics" and came upon a video about Tourette Syndrome. My son has or has had in the past about 90% of the tics portrayed. My question is what is the difference between a tic and stereotypical movement that is common with ASD? And, does it matter? Does anyone else have a child with some sort of tic disorder? Or is there someone here that has been diagnosed with Aspergers and has tics or a tic disorder? I should add my son is 11 and in the 6th grade. Thank you.

No personal experience with tics, but a friend's son has Tourette's co-morbid with his Autism. The main differences between a stim and a tic seems to be that while stims can help a child with sensory processing and cope with the sensory demands placed on their nervous system, there does not seem to be any functional use / benefits for tics. However, like stims, tics *can be* (and sometimes are) suppressed by a child, although this is extremely stressful. The child will have to eventually "relieve" himself or herself by performing the tics. My friend's 20-yr-old son was on ADHD medications for a little bit (I believe about 10 months or so) and they actually did not help him much with his tics. He has this blinking tic which initially - when he was younger - freaked his mother out into thinking that he was having absence seizures. He also has a winking tic that can be annoying to people who don't know him and have no idea why he is winking at them.

If your son can communicate, you can ask him why he has these repetitive movements / behaviors. If he says that they help him (for example, to tune out noises in the background or to focus etc), then you know it's most likely a stim. If he says he has no idea why he does them, and only knows that he must, then that is a tic. Also, tics appear more frequently when an individual is sleep deprived or highly stressed, so if your child does not typically have a lot of stims when they are well rested / happy, but does when he is anxious or suffering from insomnia, then in all likelihood, that "stim" is really a tic.

This is an oversimplified response, and maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can explain this better.

I don't necessarily understand the distinction either. I wouldn't say that stimming can't be exacerbated by sleepiness or stress though, b/c stims are also used to stay-focused and self-calm and the ability to stay focused and calm can be lessened by sleepiness and stress.

My son does a couple of things that seem like tics, but the spinning and the snuggling he does I am pretty sure are stims and those do vary with mood.

A tic is an involuntary movement that you cannot really control. A stim is a self-regulatory behavior that more closely resembles fidgeting. I can certainly make a choice whether or not to stim.

I think the important piece is this: do the behaviors seem to cause your son distress? Usually, it's recommended for people on the autism spectrum to stim as needed, and if the stim is in some way unacceptable (say, self-harm) to redirect it to a different stim.

I think that there is some grey area. Not only is there the issue of how voluntary a movement is, there's also the issue of compulsion, which is different from a self-regulatory behavior, which is used to calm stress rather than creating stress. It can get a little muddy determining the variables that make something Tourette's, OCD, or autism.

For instance, my son used to be compelled to step on things a certain way, and if he didn't, he had to "do it over." This made zebra crossings a possibly life-threatening issue where we would have to physically prevent him from stepping into traffic if he "did it wrong." Or in certain situations, he would need to touch something with first one hand and then the other.

He did have other OCD-like behaviors like this that were sort of in his control and sort of not, but none of the other symptoms associated with OCD, for instance, no obsessions or fears related to these behaviors other than being frustrated about having to do them. We finally figured out that it had something to do with him being extremely rigid (as he got older and more flexible, these "compulsions" have disappeared.) He did not, however, have any stereotypical behaviors of the type typically associated with autism like hand-flapping or lining things up or rocking (he does have chewing behaviors that fall into that category, which are still there to some degree.)

We tended to describe these behaviors as "tic-like" because they didn't seem to be stims nor to fulfill the same function of stims: these behaviors caused my son distress instead of calming him (chewing does seem to calm him) Our service provider at the time recommended that we look at OCD treatment methods, and recommended the book "What To Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck" which I often refer here: we had to explain to my son that he didn't really have OCD, but the behaviors that were bothering him could be looked at in this way. Worth looking at, if only to see if any of it makes sense to you.

I also know kids with co-morbid Tourette's, co-morbid OCD, epilepsy and migraines (my son has migraines.) There seems to be a vague connection between all of these things neurologically.

No, tics *can* be controlled, but only for short periods of time. So, they are not really involuntary. This confusion comes because muscle twitches are involuntary, and some people tend to use the words "tics" and "twitches" interchangeably, although they are not the same thing.

My friend's 20-yr-old has learned to control his winking and blinking tics, especially when out in public, but he can only control it for so long. Eventually, he excuses himself and goes into a washroom or a private spot, executes the tic and returns. This is a recent development though. As a child, he did not have the communication abilities or the social skills to ask for a "tic break" or to even understand that his blinking was causing his mother to panic into assuming that he was having seizures.

ASDMom, yes, stims can seem to intensify following a night of no-sleep or when social anxiety sets in, but tics become pathologically more noticeable when the individual is under a lot of stress / anxiety / suffering from severe insomnia.

My son has a tic disorder. He said that he "feels weird" when he needs to tic and the feeling continuously builds until he tics. He has had tics to the point of tears before. His muscles hurt, particularly his gluteals and neck. Sometimes they interfere with his ability to do things that he wants to do. For him, suppressing tics is very difficult and he really can't do it for long.

He also vocally stims sometimes. He describes the experience in a totally different way. He says he does it because he is "bored" and he finds it mildly entertaining. I think he enjoys the sensations in his throat. He has never really had any physical stims before and he doesn't have any vocal tics, so I can't really compare.

My friend has TS and she said that tics are always accompanied by prodromal feelings of tension and feelings of relief after ticking.

These are the feelings my son used to describe about his behaviors, except I don't think he really felt relief after doing it; often he would need to repeat the behavior several times and still feel uncomfortable afterwards.

Thank you everyone for your replies. When I asked my son about some of his tics, he either wasn't aware of them or assigned a "reason" for them. For example: because his fingers itch, because his hand itches, because his neck's sore, because his fingers are dry, because his hands smell weird, to get hair out of his eyes. I haven't noticed what situations bring them on and when they're reduced but I am going to observe more this week. I know he has some definite stims, that he does when he's happy and relaxed. I just want to make sure the tics aren't bothering him in anyway or causing him any distress is why I am interested. Sometimes he doesn't express very well if something is making him anxious or bothering him or else it'd be easier for me to figure out. Thanks

I forgot to mention: some medications can cause tics; if your child is under the care of a psychiatrist, bring this up with them.

My son also often has trouble expressing discomfort - I usually just say "If X is bothering you, there are things we can do to make it better. Let me know if you want to try that."

My middle child was diagnosed with Tourette's when he was about 7. This was after an incident of his eyes turning out and then upwards and then he'd blink, over and over. He came to me and said that his eyes kept doing this thing, and asked if I could help him make it stop. We took him to the doctor, got a neurology referral, and he was checked for epilepsy but it was ruled out. I've always remembered that and associated tics with INvoluntary movements. Things a person doesn't necessarily always even know is about to happen until it does. Or which they feel powerless to control for the most part, like it's something that is happening to them. Not something they're doing.

My stims are things I know I'm doing but choose not to stop doing, like picking at my fingernails and cuticles pretty much nonstop. I sometimes do it unconsciously but when I notice, I can stop for awhile if I want (I often will start again without noticing but if someone points it out to me I'll be able to stop again and switch to something else, usually foot tapping). My hands never make me think "I wish they'd stop that picking motion!" But when I get extra stressed, my left eyebrow will twitch uncontrollably sometimes and I don't always know it's about to happen and even if I put my finger on it and press down, it will just do it again if it feels like it. I can't control it. That's a tic, in my opinion.

I didn't really add anything that others didn't say already I guess, but I hope it's helpful in some way anyhow.