Disinhibition

How many of you or your children experience disinhabition? Disinhabition is a tic-like phenomenon where you have the urge to do something you shouldn't such as touch a hot stove, run into the street, or do something else you know you shouldn't do. When I was younger I had bad disinhibition where I would put my hand in water glasses at the dinner table even though my parents had told me not too or I would grab at people's hair or touch dogs in the nose in a way that might bother them. Now, I have disinhabition urges that I don't act on but they sometimes scare me or surprise me.

For example, yesterday I was cutting out a tag in my shirt and left my scissors out on my dresser. Today, I walked by my dresser and had the sudden urge to pick up my scissors and cut off a large chunk of hair. Of course I didn't actually act on this urge but it sure did surprise me. When getting on the metro, I also have the urge/ image of myself jumping in front of it and onto the tracks right as it is coming at me full speed. Same thing, of course I wouldn't ever actually act on the urge. I don't want jump in front of the metro, but my body none the less has the urge to. That's just disinhibition for you.

When I told my friend today about this she said that it sounded really scary. She said she couldn't even imagine wanting to do something that she know she shouldn't do or having her body tell her to do something that would surprise her. It's funny because I half expected her to say "Oh yeah, that happens to me too sometimes". Living in this body and having these urges for my entire life is something that is so normal for me that I expect other people to have the same urges or feel the same way. Of course it's my Tourette's and other people without Tourette's don't experience these things that I do, but that does really come as a surprise to me sometimes because it's just so normal for me.