Tourettes, I Swear I Can’t Help It
It was televised in May of this year, although during the show we see various clips from both men’s lives. At Serge’s introduction to the programmer all we see Is a camera shot of a nice looking private school… And then loud screams. This shocks the viewer a great deal because we do not understand what Is going on and Immediately thoughts fly through our heads. Questions Like Who’s screaming? ‘, why are they screaming? And even What’s going on? Join our train of thoughts, but then the RPR voice-over of Sue Johnston explains that Greg developed Trustees at the age of seven.
It then skips to the Greg of the resent – aged fifteen, and he explains how he had to leave that particular private school due to the fact that his parents could not afford to keep him there as well as pay additional for the special care he required. He goes on to mention that he now attends a public school after a campaign to get his necessary assistance. I noticed that when Greg and John are talking most of their clips are in interview format, I believe the producer chose to do it this way because the camera is focused on their faces so you can see their expressions much better and see their eyes.
This makes It el the more personal for the viewer at home. The next clips of Greg are ones of him in school In a lesson and his tics go off and you’d think they would disrupt the classroom but everyone Just goes on as normal “It’s Like It was the wind” as Greg says. In the home videos of Greg as a child there Is always sad music backing It which I believe is to emphasize the emotion and distress the whole family were feeling at this time. Here is where the viewer begins to sympathize with Greg and his family and I believe this was the intention of the programmer. As the interviewer talks to
Gregg father he explains that after Greg developed Trustees he was feeling down and even went to see his GAP about it – the doctor told him he was suffering depression over the loss of a child, and Serge’s father was getting emotional while repeating this memory then he said… “And it was true, I felt like I had lost a son. “. I think there are many parts of Serge’s childhood (or what we see of it) that are very hard-hitting and this Is when the viewer begins to realize that the condition Is truly dreadful. At one point Greg tells about a time when he was young he Just wanted “IT” o stop and he actually was begging his parents to kill him.
As the younger Greg Is being interviewed we find that he is a very articulate and eloquent child. He explains now Nils tic makes NV swear sometimes Ana nest saying something Like “l I know if I should say it…. ‘Shut your F***inning gob’ “. When he says this the last part is whispered and this emphasizes his innocence and proves that it can truly happen to anyone. What I found most interesting about Greg is that he doesn’t associate the tic as being himself, to him it is a different person and he even compares himself to Googol’.
A few people might be familiar with John Davison because when he first developed Trustees at the age of sixteen, a documentary was made about him called “John’s Not Mad” (1988) and we see clips from this documentary in the latest one, I think we see the clips of his youth and so on to emphasis that this condition does not Just come and go, it is ALWAYS there, and it shows John’s constant suffering. Also when Greg first developed Trustees (when he was seven) a documentary was made about him, and this included John at the age of thirty “The Boy Can’t Help It. . As we e clips of John we see the difference between him and Greg almost immediately; John had to endure his illness through a time where it was virtually unknown so people’s understanding and acceptance was minimal. We learn all about John’s life and how he deals with the Trustees. He goes to support groups where he has a good friend called Chopper, who also has Trustees. We learn that John works in a community centre with children, and we wonder could this be because he missed out on his childhood because of his Trustees?
He says in the interview that he feels left out and likes to work with kids and it’s “nice to get a hug”. I believe this shows that sometimes John feels truly isolated from the rest of the world, and this brings the viewer to an understanding of John – and we feel more connected because of how personal this documentary is. We learn that John’s family wasn’t as half as understanding as Gregg which made John’s teenage years all the more unbearable. In some clips from “John’s Not Mad” we see a canteen full of teenagers but no sign of John, that’s where the camera skips to another room where John is sitting all alone eating his food.
This emphasizes his isolation as a youth. As we find out more about John’s family we discover that John hardly sees them now because they’re all living their own lives in other places…. This makes the viewer think that the family was not, and still is not, very understanding and accepting of his condition, almost as if they’re ashamed of him? But he goes on to explain how he’s got a sort of ‘surrogate family with a woman called Dorothy/Dotty. He goes on to mention that he eats round at their house three to four times a week.
I believe this is to show the viewer a glimmer of hope, show that even the loneliest of people can still find friendship and even the Emily they always wished they had. One thing that surprised me about John’s illness is that he has a tic which causes him to spit his food. I did not realize that this could happen. But there is a clip of John as a young man eating a meal with his family and he’s putting food in his mouth but then spitting some of it back out again. The viewer then realizes that this is probably why he ate alone as a young man and also realizes how many aspects of a person’s life Trustees can affect.
There is one particular scene which really did shock me, it was when John and Dotty were shopping and heir stood in an aisle looking at something when suddenly John smacks Dotty in the face. This part confused me at first because I didn’t realize Trustees could cause this sort of behavior, and I believe that this was one of the main reasons it was actually shown – because anyone with little knowledge of Trustees will stereotype it to be someone won swears Ana can’t Nell I t wanly Isn’t all Tanat serious, out tens clip snows that it is physically dangerous because he genuinely can’t help what he does.
As we go further into the programmer we learn how John and Greg have accepted that they eave this illness and they try to live their lives as normally as possible. Greg is happy to state that his Trustees doesn’t control most of his life, he can still go out and make friends and it doesn’t get in the way of his drumming either. We even learn that Greg and some of his friends are in a band by the name of “The Brotherhood”. We get comments from his friends about Greg and his illness; one boy says that in Year Seven he didn’t realize that Greg actually had Trustees, he simply thought he was being rebellious.
I think this clip emphasizes how little the common knowledge about Trustees is, that people don’t even realize what it is and simply think the person is doing it willingly. Another friend makes the statement “He lives with it – why can’t R”. This is a major statement in the documentary because it shows how things have changed and how different ages react differently to things, for a boy of fifteen to say something like this emphasizes the maturity of people in this situation.
In an interview John says that he accepts his illness and even goes as far as to say if his illness was gone then he would miss it. All he wants is one day, Just one day, where e has no tics at all. But Greg is mentioning he actually had a day like this, he says that it was the best day of his life’ and he wishes to have another like it. This makes the viewer feel compassion when we realize that although Greg has had a “free day’ – he will probably never get another one in his lifetime, and the fact that John is nearing his forties makes you wonder if he will EVER get such a day.
I believe the purpose of this programmer was to raise awareness and increase understanding of Trustees Syndrome, because most people see it as a very funny sort of illness because it makes people swear. In all fairness the affliction can be quite funny and light-hearted at times and I think this was the producer’s aim, to get people laughing first and then it would be more of a shock to them when it actually came to the serious stuff. Also it was to let the previous viewers (the ones who watched “John’s Not Mad” and “The Boy Can’t Help It”) know how these people were doing.
When you’re watching a documentary like this, I believe you start to care about the particular person because the programmer is so detailed and personal you almost feel as if you really know them. I believe the target audience for this was a very wide en. Greg is my age so I think people my age would find it interesting and reasonably easy to relate to Greg, and a lot of people are interested in Trustees after Pete Bennett, a sufferer of Trustees, who won Big Brother 7. It was somewhat of a phenomenon, and this is where the real awareness first rose, but people stereotyped Trustees to be funny, quirky, something laughable.
Unfortunately the true illness was never fully explained; Trustees is a neurological condition (a condition that affects the nervous system). It causes both physical and verbal tics, which are involuntary repetitive movements or sounds. Trustees is named after the French doctor, Georges Gilles De la Torture, who was the first person to describe the condition and its symptoms. Most people have no idea whatsoever how common Trustees is and it is difficult to know exactly how many people are affected by Trustees because people with the mildest form often disguise their symptoms from others.
A recent estimate is that one in every 100 people is affected by the condition. T Is primarily a canon Leases, Ana Toys are affected more than girls. Most people with Trustees will begin to have physical tics at the age of about six or seven ND vocal tics at around eleven. The cause is unknown, but research suggests that the condition is caused by problems with a part of the brain known as the basal ganglia. This documentary was very effective in my eyes, because I realized the true misfortune of Trustees, and now I won’t laugh when I hear about it or see it.
I strongly believe the programmer will have raised a lot of awareness on the subject and hopefully increase understanding so that the sufferers of Trustees can live a little better. It definitely conveyed to the viewer that it is very serious, especially with some of the clips from Gregg childhood, e. . The home video in which Greg Just collapses and can’t move. The viewer sympathizes with and respects both Greg for having to go through it and his parents for having to deal with such things.
In my opinion the programmer was very interesting, enjoyable and it opened my eyes. It could drag on in certain parts – particularly in the personal interviews, but it was not made to be exciting and interesting, it was made to raise awareness. Watching it for the first time has more of an effect on you than watching it a second time, so it was good for me being a first time viewer. Part of it makes me want to watch the other two wows but I realize that Vive already seen the ending so it would be a bit pointless.
I would definitely recommend this to others, it is important for people to know about and understand this illness. So, in conclusion I enjoyed watching this show and I’m glad to have learned so much about a subject that was practically unknown to me. I would give it 6/10 because it was very good but I didn’t enjoy the whole thing, I don’t think I’d watch it again unfortunately. My personal taste didn’t favor the programmer very much because it was a bit too much like a lesson so it made me feel as though watching it was mandatory and not my choice.
