I was diagnosed with tourette syndrome when I was 6 years old. As you can imagine, this is not an easy thing to deal with at school. I was constantly bullied, misunderstood by my parents and teachers and never given proper help at school. I've never had behavioral issues, but unfortunately uneducated school officials mistook my many days of school absences that way. I was on multiple medications including benzos which made it impossible for me to get up at 6am without being severely tired. This led to depression, anxiety and ended with me missing over 200 days of school in just a few years.

My intelligence was never the issue but I just flat out could not function at school between being bullied and having a mismanaged medical condition. One day, my parents told me we were going to look at a new school which was nothing new for me. As we walked into the building I was sat down in a room and immediately I noticed this was not actually a school. I was told I'm being placed in a residential treatment facility to address my truency issues. I was almost immediately abandoned by my parents and was not allowed to see or speak to them or my friends for months.

This place was absolutely terrible. Violent kids who would attack staff and others who had major drug problems. I was 6'1 and being forced to sleep on a twin mattress. I saw right away this place wasn't for me and wouldn't even remotely help me. Some of the lower level staff members didn't understand why I was there, going as far as straight up telling me it doesn't seem like I should be here and they were sorry I wasn't being listened to. So now to the good part-

One day I had enough, I felt like I was in prison. If anyone even said the word "crap" we would have to write a list of 10 positive sentences. I couldn't stand it anymore so when it was time for me to shower I decided to try something drastic. When I got out of the shower I just layed down on the ground with the towel wrapped around me and waited. About 45 minutes went by before I heard the staff ask if anyone had seen me. Shortly after that, staff busted down the door and called 911 while trying to shake me "awake". I told them I passed out and couldn't feel my legs at all.

I told the doctors the same thing and they admitted me. I spent multiple nights in the hospital while they did tests. The doctors knew damn well I was lying but had to cover themselves from liability and couldn't really force me to get up and walk so they tried to call my bluff. The doctor says well if you can't walk we have to put a catheter in. She was definitely expecting me to freak and say no no I'm faking it. Nope. I committed to this and they put a catheter in and I didn't flinch at all. The doctors were so confused.

One time in the middle of the night I hear someone come in and lift up the sheet and started poking me with something but still I did not move a muscle. A few days later a social worker for the state came in. He said he was there to make a decision on my living situation. He was an extremely nice man and I decided to take the risk of telling him exactly what I did and why. He came back an hour later and told me his decision is that i should never have been placed in a home as my only real issue was missing so much school due to not being advocated for.

He ended up calling the head of the residental treatment facility while I was in the room and basically tore into her. He was so upset that instead of these schools actually advocating for me and making accommodations, they just decided to basically put me in jail. That man was the first person in my life who had truly listened to what I needed.

When my parents picked me up from the hospital they wouldn't speak to me. They told me I was going back to regular highschool and I told them straight up I would go into the military or test into college but I would never go back to highschool. My father laughed at me, he said "how are you going to go to college if you've barely ever been to highschool"

I told him to drive me immediately to the local college so I could take a placement test which is one of the only ways to be able to start college without ever officially finishing highschool.

2 hours later I walked out having passed my placement tests and began classes to become an EMT just a few weeks later. I never saw the inside of any highschool again after that day. The difference in my experience between highschool and college was huge. I had a nearly perfect attendance record and didn't deal with one second of bullying.

I demanded to be taken to new doctors who would take me off of heavy medication and approach things differently. I was on 6mg daily of Clonazepam as a teenager and anyone here who is aware of benzos knows know significant that is. My new doctors were angry at my previous treatment.

Nearly 15 years later and although I still struggle with my tourettes sometimes, I receive proper treatment by world class neurologists and have a much better relationship with my parents. They did apologize when I got older, they didn't understand my condition at all and thought they were doing what was best for me. It made me bitter towards them for a long time but eventually I had to let that go.

Previous to today, no one outside of my immediate family and best friend knew this story but I figured it's about time I share this with the confessions sub lol