He DOES have a strange tic, but only when he's driving. It's a bizarre thing, he says he can't control it. I thought Tourettes was when people just yell out obsenities at random times.
No, most don't actually yell obscenities. Tourette's patients usually have physical tics of some sort, as well as some OCD. The verbal stuff can be absent, or can take the form of repeating words or saying words for just their sound (think of the movie Amadeus). Angry outbursts can be a problem, and sometimes they might say mean things in an outburst that they wouldn;t normally say.
I have a son with very mild Tourette's. He has facial tics (grimacing and eyerolling). Usually they're not too noticeable. Sometimes they're misinterpreted (his PE teacher read him the riot act for rolling his eyes at him once!).
Along with the physical tics, he has mild OCD and what I like to call "mental tics". He will get stuck on an idea and he just CAN'T let it go like a normal person would. For instance, once he came home from school, looking forward to eating some leftover restaurant food he had saved, only to find his older sister had eaten it. He was mad - rightly so. He whined about it and complained to me and his sister - pretty normal. BUT - when it's a week later and he is STILL whining about it EVERY day, on and on - THAT'S OCD.
He used to do tapping and counting, but that's largely resolved. He's not actually the neatest kid in the world, but things like his sister using his toothpaste drive him up a wall.
All this just makes me wonder if your H's inappropriate language with you is actually abusive, or just a Tourette's thing?
Another good book on OCD, btw, is Brainlock by Schwartz.
