Since my husbands diagnosis he has a habit of repeating certain words over and over. Is this a symptom of HD or something else? He will do it constantly when he is awake. It's very annoying and embarrassing when we are out in public. Does anyone else experience this?

I don't remember my father-in-law doing that, but he'd make little noises like humming sorts of noises, and clearing his throat repeatedly that would embarrass his wife in church. Also he'd mutter a lot...like talking his thoughts out-loud. I'm not sure if any of that's HD related or not

Yes, that can happen, My father in law used to yell WHOOOOOOP WHOOOOOOP... and it drove my MIL absolutely out of her mind. my ex, would hum. Some tend to preseverate on a thought and not let it go. It doesn't happen to all tho. Pat

Yes Judy, it does happen with hd. It's like the brain is misfiring or something. I remember a few years ago, bonos and his wife were having a problem with this with their daughter who has hd. I don't know if they found some help for the situation or not, but maybe if they did bonos will post later maybe and let us know. I remember they were going to try and find a medication to help this.

PS The medical name for this, if you'd like to google it, is echolalia



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2010 05:47PM by Barb.

It would be nice if a medication could help. Sometimes he is so loud. Family members have told me to ignore it. Another example of how clueless they are. I'd like for them to experience it on a daily basis. He does seem to be able to control it at times. Mostly when other family members are around.

Hi, Judy!

This is not a typical sign of HD. I've spent lots of time with very many folks with HD and I've only seen it twice. It was very memorable though. It didn't sound like a stutter and it didn't sound like they were "stuck" on a word; rather it sounded simply like they were repeating a single word many times in an otherwise normally articulated sentence. Is this what you're referring to? And as annoying as it could be at times, it was as if they were playing at times and at other times unaware they were doing it. Never could figure it out.

This third instance may interest you. A few years back I spent many days at the Woody Guthrie Archives reading everything that Woody wrote about his HD or in the later years of his HD. There was a period of time when Woody was a patient at Graystone in New Jersey where he would write the same word over and over within an otherwise perfectly perfectly perfectly perfectly constructed sentence. Like that. It wasn't always a verb or noun...it was hard to predict but he did it...and with very clear penmanship.

Jimmy

He has certain words or phrases he will keep repeating. Sometimes the same thing over and over and he will end a sentence with one of the words, for example: He will say," I'm hungry, boo. "I'm tired, boo." Why the heck he says boo I have no idea. His favorite thing to say is "why don't you love me, boo!"

He also talks to himself all the time. I've walked in the house and thought that someone else must be there because he seemed to be carrying on a conversation with someone. I know that many people talk to themselves, including me, but not like this.

One of my other friends would swear her son was talking on the phone while he was taking a shower... when he came out of the bathroom, she asked him who he was talking to.. he said MYSELF. SHe swore it was a normal conversation and was really shocked.. yep, it happens.

My wife said "I love you" over and over... might sound cute but it was pretty annoying after a while... went on for years. She also went through a stage were she did a whistle constantly like the one you make to emulate a bomb dropping. That was early on and asking her to stop did eventually work after about a month. Makes ya feel for people who live with Tourette's people.

I may be way off track here but when my son was very little he had a stutter that we had evaluated. the speech pathologists felt that he was using it as place holder in order to formulate sentences that were beyond his normal vocabulary. perhaps the same thing is going on here, the repeat of words may be to hold your attention until he can find what he wants to actually say to you or because he actually cannot find the words.

As it turned out my son's stutter was actually a form of seizure and once on medication it has pretty much stopped! But apparantly it is a valid reason for stuttering or rapid repeat of words or phrases. This could very well be the reason he can control it around others.

Francine

"Makes ya feel for people who live with Tourette's people."

Makes me feel for people who have HD.

Brett T

My husband is smacking his lips constantly. Sometimes I can block it out, sometimes I can't.

He is also saying things he is thinking, so if we drive by a sign that he is reading he sez it. Not to long ago in a restuarant the women seating us was not the most fem lady, my hubby assumed she was lesbian and blurted out LESBIAN, thankfully she didn't hear him.

Did you hubby like to scare kids with the word boo? Is he saying it when people come into the room,maybe he is doing the same as my hubby, thinking something while saying it?

Our Daughter that Barb mentioned still has echolalia! We have exhasted all kinds of proffessional help, and no anwsers. Even had several drugs she is on reduced or increased at different times, but no help. While her repeating started with one maybe two words it has now become a constant repeating of whole sentences.She is now in advanced stages of HD (at 48)and in a care facility. Echolalia started when she was about 35. We used to wonder if it was a habit that she picked up because she was alone in her room for to long, but not so. Even on stayovers at our home and her sisters she carries on repeating and also we have several years back taken her on an extened holidays of 15 days to new cities etc and she still repeated and repeats. Like Jim Pollard said, "its not common in HD" but it does happen to some HD individuals. Like Jim it is rare, over many years I have only encountered one other instance of HD people repeating.

It can't be that rare, it comes up here in various forms all the time. And people know what the original question is about. It's along the lines of a tick but audible... whether a cough, throat clearing, a word or phrase, or a whistle. Once repeated several times it becomes a patterned behavior. Even we "normal" people do the same. A person who says "like" one or two times in every sentence. It's like, understandable if you like, think about it. And that's why meds don't change it. It takes behavior modification to change it and constant attention to changing the behavior. In fact if you extend that thinking to ordinary life, give a person a few beers who says "like" often, and you will get even more "likes". They will be more reliant on patterned speech and less on concentrating on the subject matter. So I can see where meds might actually increase the tick rather than help with it.

Tim has been making snorting/snuffing sounds, constantly! I've tried saline spray in his nose, reminding him to stop it, allegra...nothing works. It totally sucks because even though I can and do live with it, other people can't understand it. Sometimes it gets so bad he sounds like an animal. I guess it's part of the progression.

I think it's safe to say that it happens in HD. Common or not.

my sister Karen used to repeat words, like "buzz-cut". It started one day when i came to the home to cut both my brothers hair, and i always gave them buzz-cuts. It got to the point that i don't think she realized she was saying it, and often substituted those words for others, like i would tell her i love her, and she would respond with buzz-cut, but spoken in the same kind of tone and-what do you call it-cadence, maybe? She would say that, and "just do it" or "do it". I don't really know how long that lasted, and at first my niece and i were like, what??? but after a while, it just went away. We were at least able to interpret that even when she said buzz cut, we knew what she was really trying to say.

My brother John used to whoop, and loud! that drove me bonkers at times, mostly 'cause the man was LOUD! He had a good set on him, that is for sure! he did that when he was angry, excited, or any other emotion that was intense.

i cannot say that i have noticed others at the home doing that, even though we have spent lots of time with some of them every two weeks for the past 10 years.... we usually had an audience whenever we were there.

Hugs,
Suzanne

My PHD brother-in-law writes LOL constantly in his text messages, at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of any thought. Whether it's funny or not.

As for the sounds, my grandmother, who doesn't have HD makes a continuous sound with her mouth, like clearing her throat or a clucking sound. She has severe anxiety and it gets worse when she is worried about something but she does it all the time now. So I know how annoying it can be. We tell her to quit and she will for a few minutes but after that she's right back at it.

Judy, I don't know if your aware or not but in some cultures the term Boo is an affectionate name for someone, maybe he's picked up on this somewhere?

MY Mom repeats the word "shoot" constantly. Like probably 30 times in a 2 minute phone conversation.