After my diagnosis, nothing significantly changed. I was an anxious, ticking, lazy 16-year-old boy who just wanted to play sports and be popular. It was only when I moved schools that life became more challenging. I was beginning my GCSEs, had to make new friends, meet loads of new people, and generally just be a teenager. I knew how to do all this, but with the knowledge that I now had this bizarre condition, I felt an overwhelming sense of isolation.

People started saying, “What’s happening to your face?”, “Why are you doing that?”, “That’s really weird.” I never had the right response and was always too afraid to admit that I had an uncommon neurological condition.

Fast forward two years… I had done poorly in almost every exam I sat, moved schools twice more, made plenty of friends, scraped into university because I was a fantastic charmer in my interview, found my first childhood sweetheart, got dumped by my first childhood sweetheart, and all in all, was a thriving young adult. However, I still had this horrible condition that tortured me every single day and gave me a huge, overwhelming sense of anxiety, shame, anger, and sadness that never ceased.

In short, I postponed university, traveled solo for six months in Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. I went from a relatively shy 18-year-old to a global traveler making friends all around the world and becoming (in my head) a global sensation. I wasn’t… I had just pushed myself like never before and became a completely different person, which felt amazing. I also got a tattoo… a bad one… on my hand. It’s a branch that also looks like a lizard.

Anyways, I then went to university to study real estate and dropped out after six weeks because I was depressed. I couldn’t face the new people—LOTS OF THEM. I hated being away from my comfort zone. I hated the idea of being back in education (my biggest nightmare), and I realised that the Tourette’s was starting to haunt me. It was strange because, on paper, traveling around the world is far more outgoing than starting university, but for me, it wasn’t. I felt trapped, I went from being anyone I wanted to be, back to my shy, nervous, and scared character. It was horrible. After leaving university, things took a turn for the worse, and at this stage, I was put on medication, one of them being Aripiprazole. This was not a lighthearted drug and not a decision my parents or myself took lightly. I felt I didn’t have a choice because I couldn’t cope during the days. I was tired, anxious, sad and scared. We had tried everything from cannabis to THC oils, Chinese medicine, cranial osteopathy, beta blockers… nothing helped, so we agreed to try the medical route—a decision that, to this day, I regret.

I left and got a job as a waiter in an Italian restaurant. I LOVED IT. I learned to be charismatic, calm, respectful, patient, and for the first time, I had a huge sense of responsibility. The tics never disappeared, but being so busy didn’t allow me the time to think about my troubles. The medication also suppressed my tics by about 75%, which seemed great at the time.

I did this for a whole year before getting a job in retail as a merchandiser for an Italian brand, before being made redundant halfway through COVID. Now, at the age of 22, I finally felt like I had some life experience behind me. Unfortunately, three years of medication had made me 115kg, a nervous wreck, emotionally suppressed, and constantly irritable. Very few people knew about my condition, and very few needed to know because the medication suppressed it dramatically. I never wanted to let people know because I was so incredibly ashamed of being different. I hated the idea of being “weird,” and it was easier to play off the tics as something I was unaware of or my usual excuse, “hayfever”… NEWSFLASH, this was an odd excuse in the height of winter. It was time to stop the meds. Six months later, I had come off them and was back to my ticking self. After my redundancy, I had a brief stint in the world of finance and became an even worse person mentally, physically, and emotionally. It was time for a life change. I needed to “find myself” again.

Fast forward to 2024, I have just finished my degree in Counselling Psychology with a 2:1, have my early level Counselling Certifications, and am in the midst of becoming an accredited coach. I have a beautiful, loving girlfriend, a puppy, and an exciting career ahead.

My idea of a life change was to be able to change the way that others live. I know what it’s like to live with Tourette’s. I was a struggling teenager, I hated the world, I was filled with so much sadness, and in hindsight, all I wanted was not a doctor, but an older version of myself to sit down and say, “I know it really sucks. It’s not going to be easy, it’s not going to be incredibly fun, but I SWEAR TO YOU, it will make you a better person. It will make you see things in a light that not very many people get to see. You will learn to be kind to yourself and kind to others. Every time you tic and want to punch the tic out of you, just take a breath and remember: some days will be good, some days will be awful, but just know that not now, not ever, will Tourette’s Syndrome define who you are as a person. Your life will be better because of it.” Finally, at the age of 26 I have been given the opportunity to be the older, wiser version of myself and to be able to make a difference. I am not promising a life-changing service because the truth is, I won’t change your life… I will, however, give you the tools to use in order for you to change your own life. I will also teach people, parents, and siblings how to deal with what their loved ones are going through.

My family was the greatest gift I could have received, but honestly, they had not a FRIGGIN clue how to deal with what I was going through. To be honest, they were quite useless at times. Not their fault; they just didn’t have anyone to tell them!

Apologies for the long spiel. I am done now. I am Jonah. I have Tourette’s, and I want to help EVERYONE.