FOR a few years now, I followed foreign films, movies and TV shows, looking for releases that featured in a good part something about the Filipino culture, the Philippines and her people.
I believe this started with Cesar Montano’s appearance in the 2005 war film, The Great Raid, which covered that event in Cabanatuan during World War II, and starred Benjamin Bratt and James Franco.
The Bourne Supremacy followed it in 2012, starring Jeremy Renner, which involved Manila cops and shot on the streets of Manila and a final shot in the paradise bay of El Nido in Palawan.
The latest of these “Filipino specials” came up with Episode 314 of the two-year running series Grimm. Filmmakers entitled the episode “Mother Dearest,” referring the Filipina mother who preyed on her daughter-in-law’s unborn child. This episode depicted the Filipino folklore character aswang, which Tagalogs call tiktik and the Visayans, wakwak. The Tagalog name comes from the characteristic ticking sound that the aswang supposedly makes.
The medical definition of the word “tic” is “the sudden, brief repetitive movements (or sounds)” that involves a limited number of muscles in the body including that in the throat area.
I mentioned in an earlier article “Tourette” its characteristic presence in the disease. However, tics are not unique to Tourette syndrome (TS). You may find it in people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorders, and anxiety disorders. You will need a seasoned physician to differentiate these three disorders for a diagnosis.
Scientific studies confirmed tic triggers such as excitement, anxiety and even tight collars. Tics come and go though. The first symptoms usually occur in the head and neck area, and progress to the muscles of the trunk and extremities. Motor tics (those coming from muscular origins) generally precede the development of vocal ticks. Simple tics often also precede complex tics.
Two complex tics appear to me as interesting as they are surprising: coprolalia and echolalia. Coprolalia is often involuntary uttering socially inappropriate words such as swearing, and often with frightful passion and quickness.
Echolalia refers to the impulsive repetition of the words or phrases the person heard from others. It is like eavesdropping while other people speak, and then repeating them loudly for others to hear. You can imagine the chaos this can result.
While one in four people who have this condition progress to adulthood, watching people suffer from these tics can be painfully pitiful. We just have to thank God for not giving us this physiological trial; and hope that those who do will find consolation in His love.
(zim_breakthroughs@yahoo.com/http://breakthroughs.today.blogspot.com)