My name is Jeff, I am a father of three children and have a loving wife. I have Tourette’s. My children aren’t afraid of my condition and nor is my wife. I have medication but some days my anxiety starts up and my condition is more noticeable. We laugh and we make jokes about it but it doesn’t really effect us all that much.
One day as I was picking up my children from school (their ages are 6, 4 and 8) I saw my oldest laughing with a friend over a video on her phone. I thought nothing of it and took them home. Only the week after that did I get called into my boss’ office that he explained the situation.
The video was of me. Now, everyone knew I had Tourette’s. He asked me if this would effect my work and I told him that it never did and it shouldn’t in the future, but that didn’t change people from looking over their shoulder at me and staring.
Soon afterward the spasms and yells got more frequent and I was put on a stronger medication, and shortly after that, the strongest medication didn’t even work.
My family was going into a downward spiral and I was fired from my job.
With the more expensive medication we were loosing more money than ever.
I hadn’t cried like that since I was a child.
That is how the meme “My name Jeff” ruined my life.