tics

tics are spasm-like contractions of muscles
most commonly involving the face, mouth, eyes, head, neck or shoulder muscles.
tic movements often appear to be intentional but in fact are not under the control of the person making them.

there are two kinds of tics, motor and vocal.

motor tics can be simple or complex.

simple motor tics involve only one muscle group.
they can be embarrassing or painful (such as jaw snapping).

simple motor tics include:
01.quick eye blinks or eye jerks
02.tongue movements, including sticking out the tongue
03.head twitches or head jerks
04.squatting and hopping
05.shoulder shrugs

complex motor tics
can be a combination of many simple motor tics or a series of movements that involve more than one muscle group. complex motor tics are slower and often appear as if the person is doing the movement intentionally. these type of tics can interfere greatly with daily life and may be harmful (such as head banging or lip-biting).

they include:
06.facial grimacing
07.touching people or things
08.obscene gesturing or gyrating movements

vocal tics can be simple or complex.
simple vocal tics
involve sounds made by moving air through the nose or mouth, including grunting, barking, hissing, sniffing, snorting or throat clearing.

complex vocal tics
may involve words, phrases and sentences. patients with a complex motor tic may repeat their own words (palilalia) or other people's words (echolalia) and may use obscene words (coprolalia). these vocal tics may interrupt the flow of a normal conversation or occur at the beginning of a sentence, much like a stutter or a stammer. complex vocal tics include statements, such as "yeah, that's right," or "now you've got it."

stereotypy

symptoms and signs

01. eyebrows
02. eye blinking
03. staring
04. flared nostrils
05. mouth twitching
06. lip puckering
07. biting
08. chewing (including tongue and cheek)
09. bonbon sign
10. mouth opening
11. teeth grinding
12. tongue in and out
13. tongue, sustained protruding
14. putting fingers to lips
15. putting other objects to lips
16. putting fingers into mouth
17. putting other objects into mouth
18. grimacing
19. head rolling
20. head tilting
21. other head/neck stereotypy
22. other head/neck stereotypy
23. hand flapping
24. hand wringing
25. finger wiggling
26. slapping objects
27. patting thighs
28. clapping hands together
29. rubbing fingers on surfaces
30. rubbing thighs
31. covering eyes with hands
32. covering ears with hands
33. covering nose with hands
34. covering mouth with hands
35. spinning objects
36. toe wiggling
37. patting foot on floor
38. rubbing foot on floor
39. rubbing foot on items other than floor
40. rubbing feet together
41. crossing legs
42. foot eversion
43. foot inversion
44. body rocking
45. tip-toe walking
46. forceful breathing
47. smelling, sniffing
48. bronx cheer
49. other stereotypy

mannerisms

these have two things in common:
they are physical manifestations of simple nervousness.
they are performed unconsciously.
01.move around a lot
02.gripping or leaning on the lectern
03.tap on the table podium
04.speak too fast or too slowly
05.become speechless
06.pause inappropriately
07.repeat yourself
08.make strange facial expressions
09.shake shudder
10.become stiff
11.sweat
12.a quick smile in greeting or nervousness
13.greeting everyone with a hug or handshake
14.adjusting hair or clothing
15.play with objects in pockets
16.toying with coins or jewelry
17.a toss of the head or head wagging
18.frowning
19.lowering the eyes flirtatiously or timidly
20.inner cheek biting
21.lip biting or lip licking
22.blowing breath out through the mouth in exasperation
23.say “uh or uhm”
24.giggle
25.breath heavenly
26.cracking knuckles
27.snapping fingers or tapping a finger
28.biting fingernails
29.wave hands or arms
30.gesture inappropriately
31.tapping with your foot or feet

frustration

a continuing or unresolved motivational conflict
thwarting circumstances rather than their consequences
results of obstacles, deficiencies or conflict

symptoms or signs of frustration:
immediate consequences of frustration

1. restlessness
a. excess of movement
b. fidgeting (druk, gejaagd)
c. pace up and down (ijsberen)
d. boring (zeuren)
e. complaining (klagen)
f. sighing (zuchten)
g. whimpering (dreinen)

2. tension
a. blushing (blozen)
b. trembling (trillen)
c. clenching fist (vuist maken)
d. thumb-sucking
e. nail-biting
f. hair-picking
g. smoking
h. chewing gum

3. aggression
a. kicking
b. knocking
c. hostile attack
d. spitting
direct vs indirect = displaced aggression

4. destructiveness
a. breaking
b. destroying

5. self-destruction
a. mutilation
b. suicide

6. apathy
a. indifference
b. withdrawal
c. inactivity
d. inattentiveness
e. stare

7. fantasy, escape into a dream world
a. reciting nursery rhymes
b. pin-up girls

8. stereotypy
a. reward (positive reinforcement)
b. punishment (negative reinforcement)
discrimination vs frustration experiment

a. non functional routines/rituals
b. repetitive motor mannerisms
c. persistent occupation with parts of objects
d. compulsive movements

a. blinking
b. blepharospasm
c. gestures,
d. mannerisms
e. rituals
f. tics
9. regression
a. retrogression return to an earlier stage of development
b. primitivation return to a more primitive stage of development

a. crying
b. shouting
c. yelling
d. squeling

warning signs of frustration
a. shortness of breath
b. knot in the throat
c. chest pain
d. stomach cramps
e. headache
f. compulsive eating
g. excessive alcohol consumption
h. increased smoking
i. lack of patience
j. desire to strike out

conflict

1935 lewin
when two motives conflict
the satisfaction of one leads to
the frustration or blocking of the other

1. approach-approach
both incentives positive
the nearer to a positive incentive
the stronger the approach reactions

2. avoidance-avoidance
both incentives negative
the nearer to a negative incentive
the stronger the avoidance reactions
withdraw reaction + indecision + vacillation

3. approach-avoidance
positive + negative aspect of an incentive
ambivalent attitude
to-and-from-tendency

4. double approach-avoidance
both incentives positive, but choosing one
give rise to the anxiety to loose the other

1942 brown 1948 and 1959 miller
the concept of the gradients of approach and avoidance
the slope for avoidance is much steeper than for approach

1. tendency to approach a positive incentive

is stronger the nearer the subject is to it
2. tendency to go away from a negative incentive

is stronger the nearer the subject is to it
3. the strength of avoidance increases more rapidly

with nearness than does that of approach
avoidance-gradient is steeper than the approach-gradient
4. the strength of the tendency to approach or to avoid
varies with the strength of the drive upon which it is based
increased drive raises the height of the entire gradient

approach-avoidance conflicts in our society

1. independence vs dependence
2. cooperation vs competition
3. impulse expression vs moral standards

the ilgama puzzle

first of all you have to ask yourself if it is that significant, to analyze yourself in depth and accept some loss of spontaneity. you will never been the same. yet life is changing, so what matters anyway?

as the desert stands for hardship, every one will met on his/her journey through the dessert. you could see that as fatum and the way you see life (on earth) in general, such as described in depth by he author ilgama (ilga from the philosophical department of riga).

in the introduction the very old question is posed: "to be or not to be". it seems logical therefore to ask yourself: "am i really here, and if so why i am here?". the only point is that i am and thus can put that question now. anxious isn't it?

not only that the hardship of life, the desert-track, influences that question by the efforts and strains, life saddles you up with and upsets you, it is also a philosophical question, knowing that conscious life has a beginning and an end and that life is always there in a way.

and because most people can't deal with that or digest it, they call for believe such as religion does. it is a kind of a "remedy" that heals the sinlessness of life and the anxiety for death by putting away that essential question by believing.

the fact, that you know the way to go, doesn't means that it answers your basic question. of course you was always there, before your conception as egg and seed and thus as proteines-partikels aso, but not in a state of awareness, during life. after death you will progress to dust and partikels again but in a different context.

my philosophical approach is that you are always in a certain form of expression and that awareness of actual being, or life in narrower sense, plotted against time is relative, but it is not the same as uselessness of existence.

existence has no quality of usefullness or uselessnes per se, it is simply there. so acceptation or not is of no interest. but you may ask after the meaning of it, because you are human (and imperfect), especially because life is short.

therefore flirting with death is of the same order as flirting with life or even better because you will be longer death than alive. the longer you are death, the shorter the life was. or infinite death defines life as minimal, but not neglectable. or is real life the way to be and more important?

and is it childish to think that you are controled by environment and lack of choice as in genetics the phenotype is build up from genotype and environment in equal parts? choices are there, but don't exaggerate their impact in a regulating society or environment.

and even when freedom is narrow or limited, how free are your choices then in reality? if the negative incentive is strong it will has his impact on freedom of choice, because we are humans. can you choose for the impossible? yes, it can but consequences will be disastrous.

the forest or my real attitude for life, without powdered by my philosophy? silly question. you ask me to climb the mountain without leggs. and is it not for my analytical mind to sense the imposibillity of the existence of a forest in the desert?

define desert better than, you put me there. why you don't use the normal word oasis, a well with some palm-nut trees? and by reflexing it in my maybe distorted mind i should have waste a lot of valuable time? who tells me that i see life only as a stage before death?

i called the forest a place of shelter, a place to hide and relax. and nevertheless it could be a mirage or maybe not, that is anyway the way i have to go, because the forest is in front of me. besides knowing that life will end, especially in such conditions, that is not a mirage.

a pail with water stands for my attitude toward "my" woman. the word is singular. but it stands for wife, friend and mistress. derived from woo man. how nice to see, that i can appreciate woman, and that i won't exaggerate by putting my head in the pail, so i must care for love and knowing at the same time they are the mysteries of life, i wouldn't spoil water.

even i take the pail with me on my safari. does that mean that i shall met on my journey of life new friends, or make one my mistress? probably i would say, in the mean time it will cause grief to my wife by knowing and accepting it. better than belief in the infinite fidelity of the marriage, obtruded from society and religion for their own bargaining.

the lake means the attitude toward science. and it seems to be my top priority, even beyond woman. but remembering i was bearing the pail with me, i can refill that pail and even play can-can to enjoy it. though science is only a product of human mind it's quality has been disputed. and therefore why should i have to sublimate my attitude to science.

it offers me a realistic point of view to the wall as it relates to work. why people thinks often that there work is of any importancy? it is a pain in the arse to admit, that there is a lot done without any sense except bargaining from self-esteem. the consequence is a certain idealistic view on the matter as reaction-formation to sustain hope.

the ocean should stand for sex? it tells more over the unknown author of this desert-test than it does about me. appearently i like sex, me idiot, and by connecting it with the beginning or origin of life, i do see the perpetual cycle of be born, life and death in the same time. maybe also the recognition of ectasy. sex is to be for a moment in the origin of the big-bang.

the desert test

introduction: imagine that i am trying to get over a desert. first of all i would ask my self, why i should try it, knowing that i would never put me in such a horrible situation by myself. secondly i assume that i know where to go, in what direction i have to go, because i am trying to get over. so at least i have to know that east is where the sun rises and west is where the sun sets. in the middle (south) where the sun is at his zenith, i can calculate the angle to the earth by looking at the shadow from a certain object, perpendicular placed on the surface of the desert, and now i know the way to go?

as always i am alone, exhausted, worn-out, thirsty by the incredible heat. it means that not even i am trying to get over a desert, but also that you put me already in that situation long after i took the decision to try. so you thought i was so stupid to go without a caravan, a camel, my food and water supply maybe clothes and an umbrella. it seems to me that you take the decision for me that i had to go (fatum). then the desert, a vaste inaccessable plain of sloping sandhills, devoid of green or brown sunburned bush, probably without cacti for water, and by the "way" paved with skeletons of animals and man telling me there were some stupid ones before me.

i walk in the night, preventing sunburns and dehydration and spearing energy. nevertheless i drag along because lack of food and energy and see, i think i am becoming delirious by seeing suddenly a forest in front of me, a place of shelter, where you can hide for the burning sun and look for water, telling myself that there would be never a forest in a desert, and if, there must be water. i rub my eyes and because it is obvious in my mind or in front of me it does'nt matter, because it is the direction i had to go. besides thinking it is a place to hide it looks also a good place to relax. and by holding direction it is not me, but the forest that disappears in front of my eyes. it seems to me it must been a mirage.

and being so thirsty and delirious meanwhile, it is absolutely not incredible that i suddenly wish to see a pail filled with water. of course i will take that pail and one can see me drinking out that pail by analyzing my gestures and acts. i won't wast the water by putting my head in the pail - i am not mad - and even without any water, there is a moment of quenching my thirst, so i lay fore a minute in ecstasy on the hot ground with my eyes closed. the imaginary can, i take with me in case of finding water in short future as it stands for hope. and see when i continue my journey as good as possible, at last i will find that, for what i was looking for.

on horizon's end i see the lake, filled with sweetish water, to refresh and to cool me from thirst and burning wounds. i drag myself through the sand, doubting if i would reach the lake so far away, but being unreasonable, i go on and on and on. how nearer the lake, the stronger my drive to reach the impossible and imaginary lake, that is by definition not present in a desert. so i know in an clear moment of my desorientated brain that my ultimate destination will be soon there. no wonder, that i walk against a high, high and long, long wall.

the long wall stands for the not-so-imaginary border, the final action you even don't have to make by yourself. is'nt it not ridiculous that you can overcome the high, high and long long wall by going around it or even climbing it, while you creep on all fours or belly in the hot sand totally exhausted and without strenght any more, the real burn-out. if i was not that delirious, i would laying down on my back to face the burning heaven, that feels like hell (belief me), and starving and dying slowly bit by bit, it seems logical that i take that wall in my thoughts by reaching my ultimate goal in life.

the deep ocean, that wonderful place to be, to feel united with nature in cool splendid colours of corals and fish and the bright light on top as i sink to the bottom, remembering the motherwomb, where i can safely rock the tidal waves of the ocean, noticing that my return to the origin of life is pleasant and safe, and i feel the warmth as i am touched by my return to the inborn fate of my destination. so by analyzing the-desert-test it is in a way the way you have to go trough in life for fulfilling your destination in an ocean of tears.

fatum is like a game, a kind of sukodu and i named it ilgama.