Well we've been to see the doctor, called in at the chemist, and now we have the drugs. Clonidine. It seems to be the least of a bad bunch. Tomorrow I will get magnesium as well. Thanks freda, I ran it past the doctor and he agreed it might help and if it doesn't, it won't hurt.

dianavan, I appreciate what you say about the medication removing the necessity for him to learn to live with it, and also therapy. We would not consider medication if we didn't think there was a real possibility of him hurting himself, or as long as the tics weren't interfering too much with his social/school life. It seems that both those criteria are satisfied at the moment.

The trouble is that the drugs have to be started at a low dose and increased slowly, and then when we take him off them they have to be tapered away slowly, so it has to be a reasonably long-term thing. I haven't seen Jill since we left the doctor, she went back to work, but right now I'm thinking we'll try him on the drugs for about 6 months and then get him off them. As you say, he has to learn to cope, and he has been, very admirably, until this latest very severe bout. It's a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't situation, because they come and go anyway, and they might just go away tomorrow by themselves.

We (Jill and I) have had a session with a therapist and we are taking Tom to the next session.