JERK

MAGAZINE

What is Tourettes?

An interview with

Jonathan Freisen

The BIG Rothesay

read!

How well do you know

him?

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JERK CALIFORNIA By Jonathan Friesen

A Book about a teenage boy with Tourettes Syndrome

and his battle to figure out who he really is.

THE BIG ROTHESAY READ This book, Jerk California, was chosen for the The Big Rothesay Read 2011. Where an entire high school was given a copy of the book.

PAGE 3

Context of the Magazine Page 5 article on Tourette’s

Page 6 How to treat Tourettes?

Page 8“How Well do you

Really know Jonathan

Friesen?”

Page 10 Interview with

Jonathan Friesen

Page 11 The Big Rothesay

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What is Tourettes?

Your business tag lie here.

Either called Tourette's syn-drome, Tourette's disorder, Gille de la Tourette syndrome, GTS or most com-monly know has Tourette's or TS. Is an inherited disorder that can cause a person to have motor or vocal tics. Tics are sudden nonrhythmic movements that involve discrete muscle groups and vocal or phonic tics are involved by sounds from air moving through the nose, mouth or throat. Tourette's is one of the various tic disorders, its classified by the Diagnostic and Statis-tical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

The exact cause of Tourette's is actually

unknown. But it is established that Tourette's

is mainly passed on from parent to child or

happens during development in the womb. A

person who is diagnosed with Tourette's has a

50% chance of passing it to his or her children.

Doctors and scientists are not certain of the

exact cause of Tourette's most research

suggests that it occurs with a problem with

how your nerves communicate in the brain.

Tourette's is diagnosed when a person

have multiple motor or vocal tics over a year,

with no more than three tic free months. There

are no specific medical or screening tests that

are used to diagnose Tourette's. It is actually

frequently misdiagnosed or under diagnosed,

because of its wide ranges of severity. It can

range from mild (which is what most people

have) or moderate, all the way to severe.

When being diagnosed it is usually based on

observations of the persons symptoms and

their personal family history. A lot of people

with Tourette's do not actually realize they

have Tourette's for a while. Just like it the

documentary “Life's a Twitch” the man was

not actually diagnosed until he was older.

o

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Written by Laura

Oland

ow to Treat

Tourettes

The treatment of Tourette's is done by helping the individ-

ual manage the most troubling symptoms of the disorder. Most

cases are mild and do not require pharmacological treatment. In-

stead they try to use psycho behavioral therapy, education and re-

assurance. There is no cure for Tourette's and no medication the

will work for all people without effects. But various medications

are avaliable to try and help with the symptoms. People use differ-

ent medications and different amounts depending on how severe

their case of tourette’s is.

Popular medications:

Clonidine

Pimozide

Atypical Neuroleptics

Haloperidol

Tenex

Cylert

Buspar

Anafranil

Haldol

And many others

How to Treat Tourettes

This is a Clonidine one of the most popular

medications to help treat tourettes

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Orap medication

This drug is used for rescuing

tics such as vocal tics and move-

ment tics caused by Tourette’s

syndrome. It is not for use of

mild symptoms, only for major

cases. Orap works by decreasing

the activity of a natural sub-

stance (dopamine) in the brain

to reduce the activity of the

tics.

Address: 11016 Rushmore Drive, Frenette Building

Suite 275, Charlotte, NC 28277

To contact us:

Phone: 704-544-5501

Fax: 704-544-5505

E-mail: Medication@Orap.com

Try a free sample online at

www.Orap.com/freetrial

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During the weeks of

suspense before the big un-

veiling of the Rothesay Read,

every student was either plac-

ing bets, hypothesising or just

pondering while all thinking

the same thought; “What in

the heck could it be?” Nobody

in the school, except for a se-

lect few *cough cough* Mrs.

Jensen *cough* knew what it

was going to be and sealed

their lips when asked the

dreaded question “So what is

it?” Until finally it was re-

vealed.

Jonathan Friesen’s, Jerk

California, was announced to

be the Big Rothesay Read

which was followed by a live

video chat with the author

himself and quite remarks

among friends relating to the

title of the book, some more

serious than others... The story

of Jerk follows the story of a

fictional teenager, who is un-

sure if his name is Jack or

Sam, as he goes through his

final year of high school and

the rest of his young adult life

and how he thrives to over-

come his Tourette’s syndrome.

In an interview, Jona-

than explains his means for

writing his book. The actual

adventure that Sam/Jack takes

is completely fictional but the

internal struggle that he goes

through is almost an exact

mirror of Jonathan’s. Grow-

ing up, Jonathan had a great

life; good marks, lots of

friends and was quite popular

among his teachers. However,

this all changed after grade 5.

How well do you really

know Jonathan Friesen ?

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Written by

Nathan Martin

In elementary school his

tics and twitches didn’t bother

anyone around him, and since

they were young they paid lit-

tle to no attention to them. But

as he entered junior high, his

tics and twitches began to af-

fect his friendships and he lost

a lot of buddies due to this, his

dishonesty about them may

have had an effect on them

also. When high school came

around, he described it as a

very lonely and had hardly

any friends left at all. But

when he got into college, it

was when he learned to con-

trol his movements more and

began to accept them. He

gained some close friends and

met his future wife there

aswell.

The main insipiration

for him to write the book, and

throughout his life was his

grandmother. “My grandma

had the rare ability to build me

up and kick me in the rear at

the very same time.” Meaning

that even though she made

him feel proud and inspired,

she pointed out what was

wrong and what he should

work on. The character from

the story that resembles her

description would be George

that Coot.

Jonathan is the author of

many otherbooks that includes

“Rush” and “The Last Mar-

tin.” He now resides on a

peaceful horse farm with his

wife

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My grandma had the rare ability to build me up and kick me down all at the same time. One minute she

would talk about how proud she was of me, then BAM! She would let me have it. But I listened to her,

because I knew she loved me.

Yes. Most people’s view on TS is people blurting out curse words. Stressing that makes for good TV

ratings and humours clips. For some people that do have tourettes, this does happen, but it happens

involuntarily. I would also like to point out that I have never met someone who has TS that is not extremely

creative or gifted in some way. We are good people!

My symptoms first appeared when I was 5. Eye blinks and shoulder jumps. Early on those

didn’t affect me much. Most of my pears didn’t make a deal of it, but though junior high it

started to disrupt relationships. By high school, school had become a lonely place.

Although Sam/Jack’s story is completely fictional, most of the internal struggles with tourettes are similar

to mine.

Like Sam/Jack, you also have tourettes. How much of Sam/Jack’s story is true?

At what age did the symptoms first appear? How did this affect you growing up?

Are there common misconceptions about tourettes that you would like people to know about?

George seems to be there in Sam/Jack’s time of need, is there any individual in your life that was a “George”

The novel came first. The band members read an early copy of the novel and came up with the song. I

heard it and my jaw dropped because they nailed it the mood and all!

There is also a song titled jerk, California by Halloween, Alaska what came first, the novel or the song?

Jonathan Freizen, a fantastic author of Jerk, California, an emotional journey that entails Jonathan’s story on

dealing with tourettes, sat down with us in our studio for an exclusive interview.

We asked;

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

No. I always wrote but had no idea of being a writer. I entered collage with a guitar major. Writing just

muscled in and took over.

We thank Jonathan very much for joining us. We look forward to books to come.

Jonathan Freisen Interview

PAGE 10

Written by

Daniel Hapgood

The Big Rothesay Read

Located in New

Brunswick Canada, is a

small town called Rothe-

say. For the past three

years, a book has been

chosen for the, Rothesay

High School students and

the community to read.

The first year of the pro-

ject in 2009 they chose

the book “ A long way

gone: Memoirs of a boy

Solider” by Ishmael

Beah. After the original

project they decided to do

it again in 2010 choosing

the book “The Book of

Negroes” by Lawrence

Hill. This year after the

past two books were such

a major success they de-

cided to do it again. This

year 2011 title of the Big

Rothesay Read, was cho-

sen “Jerk California” by

Jonathan Friesen.

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This year Rothesay High

School purchased 700 cop-

ies of the book “Jerk Cali-

fornia” that was given out

to the entire student body

and teachers at the school.

The students were all en-

couraged to read the book.

Through out the time of the

Rothesay read this year

they had a poster figure of

Jonathan Friesen called

“Flat Jonathan” that was

placed at various locations

around Rothesay so people

could get their picture

taken with him and up-

loaded to FaceBook. The

person with the most pho-

tos is suppose to get a

prize. Also everyday on the

announcements at RHS

there is a trivia question

related to the book that is

asked and the winners get

prizes.

The community has

also been involved with the

Rothesay Read. They

showed a documentary of

“Lifes a Twitch” at the

public library in the area

for all of the community to

see. Also the had scheduled

a “Jerk” walk for the com-

munity to walk 3km to dis-

cuss the book. But due to

the poor weather they

walked ended up being

canceled.

On April 28th, at

Rothesay High the author

of this years Rothesay

Read book is coming to

talk about his book and his

life with tourette's. At this

the students will be al-

lowed to ask the author any

questions people have on

the book. It will most likely

be a great success.

This is a photograph of the student body at Rothesay High School with the

copy of their Jerk California Book

PAGE 12

Written by

Laura Oland