Dear Ann Landers, cheer- leading, drill team, student council and sports. I was elected to the homecoming court. My home life is fine. I have two successful, loving parents. Outside of school, I was involved with a church youth group, taught Sunday school and have done some professional dancing. I entered my freshman year majoring in biology-premedicine and later that year pledged a sorority. I've never been short of fun or friends, and am the most cheerful, friendly, outgoing person you could know. Because of my bright smile and love of making people laugh, you'd never guess that I want to die. I don't know when I first became obsessed with dying, but every night, I lie awake in my bed and beg God for cancer or some other ter-minal illness. The way I see it, I've had the best of everything and I want to die young with all the chips in my comer. Please understand that I'm not suicidal. I would never kill myself. I just wish something would kill me. I've mentioned this to a couple of close friends and they can't under-stand why I feel this way. What's wrong with me, Ann? Why is it that I want more than any-thing to die, when I have had it all? I know very well that if I put my name and city on this letter, my phone will be ringing off the hook, so I'll just sign myself
Hi! It's Margo here. I'd love to know what you think of the letters -- and the answers!
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Dear Readers, , he started to blink his eyes a lot. I mentioned this to his pediatrician who said, “Just ignore it.” A year later, “Joey” began to shrug his shoulders and fidget a great deal. “Just nervous tics,” the doctor assured me. “He’ll outgrow it.” These symptoms and others would come and go. I almost went crazy trying to protect Joey from anything that might produce stress. I took the boy to three other pediatricians and was told I should not be concerned because there was nothing to worry about. After doing some research on my own, I insisted that our pediatri-cian refer Joey to a pediatric neurologist. Sure enough, the diagnosis was Tourette’s syndrome. The boy was put on medication and has dra-matically improved. Ann, I’m writing to you because half the people I’ve met whose chil-dren have Tourette’s syndrome told me they first became aware of this illness when they read about it in your column. You had correctly di-agnosed Tourette’s syndrome from the description in a letter of some-one’s behavior. You then listed what types of things to look for. Will you please tell parents again that if their child develops tics or engages in repetitive blinking, shoulder shrugging, grimacing, tensing muscles, throat clearing, belching, sniffing, humming, etc., they should contact the Tourette Syndrome Association for information. Send a large, self-addressed, stamped (75 cents) envelope to: The Tourette Syndrome Association, 42-40 Bell Blvd., Suite 205, Bayside, NY 11361, or call (718) 224-2999. Thank you. -Longtime Reader
