Senior Michael Crosa, 21, has a lot on his plate. He’s a music and psychology double major. He’s a resident adviser in Cobb, a member of the UNC-Chapel Hill Men’s Glee Club and a fraternity education officer for music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha. But he also has to deal with controlling the thousands of involuntary movements and sounds his body creates each day.
Crosa has Tourette syndrome, or Tourette’s, a disorder that causes people to make sounds or movements that they cannot control called tics. He had his first tic when his arm shot out involuntarily during class in March 2007. After months of doctor visits, he was diagnosed with Tourette’s in August 2007.
Now, Crosa has become an advocate for Tourette’s through public speaking with his presentation, “Let’s Talk Tourette’s.” He has given his talk to about 15 UNC-CH classes, several UNC-CH housing programs and programs at Western Carolina University and Augustus State University. Crosa was inducted into the prestigious Order of the Golden Fleece this spring for his public speaking. He also has worked at Camp Twitch and Shout, a week long summer camp for kids with Tourette’s, for the past two years.
Crosa uses humor in his presentations, such as talking about how his Tourette’s came from being attacked by PANDAS (that’s Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections) and showing a diagram about which kinds of tics suck the worst. He uses his friendly and open personality along with his own emotional experiences to teach others about the disorder.
HC: Why did you decide to start doing “Let’s Talk Tourette’s”?
Michael: When I got (to college), I realized that Tourette’s is often portrayed as a comical disorder. I wanted to be able to make jokes about it from my point of view and laugh not necessarily at it, but with it. I wanted to be able to do that in public speaking.
HC: What was your first talk like?
Michael: The first was a program that I did in Morrison, when I was an RA there. I put up a flyer that said, ‘Hey, show up and I’ll talk about Tourette’s and you can ask some questions.’ What was cool about it was that a lot of my friends came. They asked questions that to me were fine questions, but they didn’t feel like they were allowed to ask them before, I guess. Opening up that opportunity and saying, ‘Ask me questions now’ really gets a lot on the table that maybe I didn’t realize they were wondering about.
HC: How did you start speaking in classes?
Michael: I sent an email to a bunch of my teachers saying, ‘Listen, if you ever have the opportunity, if you think this would be worthwhile to your class, let me know.’ Dr. Loeb wrote back and said, ‘Well I’d love to have you for 20 minutes or so in a class.’ So when I got there and I started doing the presentation, I wasn’t really paying attention to time or anything; and the next thing I knew class was over. She had just been enjoying it so much and it was going so well that she let it go on. She immediately invited me to other classes, and has had me in all of her classes since then.
HC: What do you want people who don’t know much about Tourette’s to learn from your presentation?
Michael: Based on the media, people think that Tourette’s is just people yelling curse words. The reason behind it is often vague, too, so people may think that it’s a social disorder or joke disorder like, ‘Oh, I curse a lot, haha, I have Tourette’s.’ But it actually is a neurological thing, and the people who have Tourette’s don’t necessarily mean to be saying those curse words or anything like that. As crazy as it sounds, the neurology just pops up crazy stuff that sometimes includes obscenities.
HC: In your presentation, you talk about the difficulty of coming to terms with your Tourette’s and being able to accept it as a part of your life. What is it like sharing that personal story with hundreds of strangers?
Michael: I think people realize that what I’m saying is very sincere and very genuine; I think that’s part of the reason that people do enjoy it. They can tell that I’m both having fun and that I’m sharing with them some of the more intimate details; they respect that and they listen to that. I think that what I’m able to offer and why Dr. Loeb has me come back is because I have [Tourette’s] and I can relate to it. I’m not putting up facts on the PowerPoint that you need have to take notes on.
HC: What’s the best part about doing these presentations?
Michael: There is the built-in satisfaction of educating and teaching others about Tourette’s. I think it’s also kind of an adrenaline rush to get in front of a huge group of people you don’t know and talk about your most intimate moments in life. Also, I really enjoy making people laugh during it. Sometimes classes are kind of dead, but that’s part of the game: Can I make this group laugh? Can I make them enjoy coming to class?
HC: What is Camp Twitch and Shout?
Michael: Camp Twitch and Shout is a one-week program in Georgia for kids (age 7-17) with Tourette syndrome. They come there and Tourette’s becomes a common denominator; it doesn’t matter if you have it.
HC: What was your favorite part of camp?
Michael: The kids saw me as being so cool and they would say, ‘The counselor, Michael, he has Tourette’s too. He’s like us.’ Being able to be the role model and have these kids looking up to me; that, in itself, was extremely rewarding.
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All photos provided by Michael Crosa.