To Twitch or not to Twitch, That is the Question?

To Twitch or Not to Twitch: Tourette Syndrome, Tools, and Nature-Based Wellness (Episode 2, Season 5)

Host Bobby K—comedian, mental health advocate, executive producer of the documentary “No Magic Bullet,” and someone living with Tourette syndrome—welcomes listeners to episode two of season five of “What’s In Your Toolbox,” focused on destigmatizing Tourette syndrome. Bobby shares his own diagnosis at age 22 following illness and hospitalization, his brief experience with medication, how he turned high energy into a “superpower,” and later faced severe depression  He explains Tourette syndrome as a neurological/neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by involuntary motor and/or vocal tics, notes its historical naming and early documentation, mentions well-known people associated with Tourette’s, and points listeners to Tourette Canada in the show notes. Guest Jarvis Strong, executive director of the Escarpment Corridor Alliance (ECA), discusses being diagnosed with mild Tourette syndrome at 19 after recognizing symptoms during a University of Waterloo Psychology 101 lecture, and being diagnosed by his family doctor. Jarvis describes medication side effects that led him to stop taking it, and emphasizes the relief that came from having a name for his symptoms. Bobby and Jarvis discuss Tourette-related challenges such as mimicry, social self-consciousness, stress and anxiety worsening tics, accompanying issues like ADHD/ADD, OCD, and anxiety, and strategies/tools including exercise, time in nature, and self-acceptance. Jarvis credits embracing his quirks and humour with building social confidence that supports his leadership, public speaking, and relationship-based fundraising work. They reflect on relationships and how Tourette’s can be misunderstood as bad behavior, and Bobby describes managing cycles in symptoms by being kind to himself. The episode closes with Bobby summarizing their shared tools—exercise, nature, and relationship-building—promoting nature-based wellness as “medicine,” and noting future plans to publish the podcast on YouTube with links to ECA and contact information. Bobby also mentions a newspaper story about AI “true companions” and the emerging use of AI chat for mental health support. He invites people who suspect Tourette’s to reach out, says he and Jarvis will continue collaborating as Bobby builds his charity, and previews the next episode, “Good Vibrations,” featuring his osteopath. A disclaimer notes Bobby is not a doctor and speaks from lived experience.

Links

Escarpment Corridor Alliance

www.myescarpment.ca

Tourette Canada

https://tourette.ca/

Linkedin

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarvis-strong-3b1743b/

Subscribe to What's in your Toolbox? http://nomagicbullet.org/

24/7 Crisis Support 1-888-893-8333

Transcript

0:02

Welcome to No Magic Bullet podcast series. What's in your toolbox is a monthly podcast on mental health. I'm your host, Bobby k comedian, mental health advocate, and executive producer of the documentary. No Magic Bullet, what's in your toolbox? An honest Discussion on Mental Health. I am 70 years young, suffer from Tourette syndrome and love doing these podcasts. That always reminds me. To practice what I preach.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 0:36

Hello everybody. Welcome to episode two, season five of What's In Your Toolbox. I'm again at the world headquarters of No Magic Bullet, and my guest is at his world headquarters, I believe in Near Thornberry. So this is an honest discussion on mental health. I am excited because it's called to Twitch or not to Twitch, and I finally found somebody out there that excels at what he does because I excel at what I do, but also wants to talk him a little bit about Tourettes, how'd this come about? Jarvis has been helping me because he's the executive director of the Escarpment corridor and I just had got charitable status for no magic bullet and he's been helping me with all of his professional background. And when we were meeting at his office he had a little twitch, which to me. Is a problem because Tourettes is a mimicking disease. So I just said casually, Hey, this is really bothering my Tourettes. And he said, Hey, I have Tourettes. I said, oh my God, this is incredible. Lemme tell you about my Tourettes. I was diagnosed at 22. I had encephalitis, I got Rocky Mountain Fever, and Edmonton was in the hospital before they did a spinal tap on me. The, psychiatrist came in and said, look at, is there anything that bothers you? I said, yeah, I Twitch. He says, you twitch really? Anybody twitching your family? I said, yeah, my grandmother twitches her brains out. Are you nervous ever? Yeah. Do you have a lot of speeding tickets? Yeah. Do you have bad behavior? Yeah. Can you not sit still? Yeah. He says, I think you have Tourettes. And at that time they were just starting the Tourette's Clinic at the Toronto Western with a Dr. Harvey Alki. He was an interesting guy'cause he also specialized in sleep therapy. So I didn't know if it was putting me to sleep and getting rid of my Tourettes or he was getting it, giving me some advice. But anyways, he did put me on medication for a bit. I hated it. So I've just toughed it through. I guess if I had been on Haldol or Ritalin, like he wanted me to, I wouldn't be here with my guest talking like this. I'd probably be a zombie somewhere, although I might have been a doctor or a lawyer if I could have sat still in school, but it was an energy thing and I turned lemon into lemonade and energy became my superpower until I was 50. And then all of a sudden my positive energy became negative energy, and I got terrible depression. I was hospitalized a couple of times with what they thought was the flu, but it was really a nervous breakdown. But nobody wants to talk about that, especially my family, because my family were all doctors and we were perfect. Nobody was going to have a nervous breakdown, but here I am. My podcast talk about destigmatizing mental health. And so today we're gonna destigmatize What about Tourette? What is Tourette's? Tourette's Syndrome is a neurological or a neurodevelopment disorder that affects children, adolescents, and adults. The condition is characterized by sudden involuntary movements and or sounds called ticks. Ticks can range from mild, inconsequential to moderate and severe, and are disabling in some cases. It was named after a French neurologist, Jean Mar Kot, for his interim. George Gil la Tourette was published in 1885 in account of nine patients with convulsive tic disorders. It's actually known as an orphan disease'cause it was just discovered in 1895. Before I introduce you to our guest, we're in good company because other, some famous people that have Tourettes include Billy Eilish, David Beckham, Dan Aykroyd, Mozart had Tourettes. Howard Hughes has Tourettes, and now oh, also. We all heard, maybe heard about Lewis Capaldi just in 2025. He was playing his music in Glas Town Berry, which is in England, and his Tourette syndrome flared up and while performing his hit someone you loved, he wasn't able to finish singing the song and fans had to help him get through the final course. Seth Rogan has Tourettes. After attending pottery classes with his wife in 2017, he began making ceramics. He cites an a, an artist Kenneth Price as an inspiration in January, 2021. Rogan revealed on Twitter that he has a mild Tourette syndrome, which runs in his family. So at the bottom of this podcast, in the show notes will be a link to the Toronto or the. Tourette's Canada, which is an association, a nationally registered, volunteer based charitable organization dedicated to improving the lives of Canadians affected by Tourette's Syndrome and its associated conditions. So with no todo, I'm gonna introduce you to our guest. His name is Jarvis Strong, and he's the executive director, as I mentioned before, of the Escarpment Corridor Alliance. Jarvis joined the Escarpment Corridor or Alliance as an inaugural executive director in March, 2023. He has 10 years of experience as a nonprofit executive director and has lived in the southern Georgian Bay area since 2012. Before coming to the area, Jarvis spent 10 years managing summer camps and outdoor education organizations for children and youth. Previous to the ECA, Jarvis led other charities including Camp Quality Canada, big Brothers, big Sisters, and the Collingwood YMCA. Jarvis has served a volunteer on a numerous charity boards. It was the founder. Of a hundred men who care Southern Georgia Bay. He has an HBA from the University of Waterloo specializing in recreation and park. He's originally from Kitchener. He's the father of two teenage daughters. But here's the key. At 19, Jarvis was diagnosed with mild Tourette syndrome as well as a d. So with without ado, I wanna introduce you to Jarvis Strong.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 7:11

Hello. Thanks for having me, Bobby.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 7:14

My pleasure. Thanks for making time. I know that you were just on a ski trip and of course we had to arrange rearrange things, but how do we know each other?

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 7:25

I had, the first time I met you, Bobby was we were doing an event for the the Scrub Corridor Alliance a few years ago. And you wandered in, this was the Edward Brosky event and at gatey, downtown Collingwood. And you started talking about your fly fishing passion And, offered to see if there was some way that you could provide some services with the fly fishing, maybe help out, donate a package or something like that. So we kept in touch through that. That was the first time that you crossed my path.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 7:55

And, but at that time. We didn't know anything about each other except that'cause I would've told you that fly fishing is one of my tools. If I knew that you were interested in finding out what about my podcast, but I was just there to help learn more about the ECA. And you had just started and it was a perfect storm.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 8:18

That's right. Yeah, I, at that time, we didn't really get into mental health. I certainly you certainly struck me as somebody with big energy, a quirky fella. And I, and I liked you right away because you were unapologetically yourself which was very cool. I loved that about you. But yeah, as you said in the intro I guess it was maybe four months ago, six months ago you reached out, you had just gotten your charitable status with the with no magic bullet. Congratulations again. That's a big achievement. And you were endeavoring to now be a charity executive director, and you were looking for some advice on setting some stuff up. And you happened to spill the beans that you you had Tourette's, and that was a big part of,

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 8:59

We met at the foundry and you had a great office and I was looking at you and you had this little twitch and I said, as I said in the introduction, and did you know that Tourettes was a mimicking disease?

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 9:12

That's right. That's right. Yeah,

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 9:14

Yeah, it's a mimicking disease. I've seen lots of people, but I've learned not to say, by the way, do you have Tourettes?'cause most people are in denial. They don't wanna be labels. But you were forthcoming, but you said my Tourettes is mild. So when did you find out, you said at 19 that it was mild. And who diagnosed you?

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 9:34

So I found out I informally found out in Psychology 1 0 1. I was at University of Waterloo and I was watching a guest lecturer who had. you? guessed Tourette syndrome. He had a much more I don't want to use the word severe, but nothing else is coming to mind. Case of Tourette's, where he had actually what I believe is called Coprolalia, which is what most people associate Tourettes with, which I think it's like less than. or 5%. And that's that involuntary outbursts of vulgarity and things like that. And I assume that's what to Tourette's was. But he started talking about all the different variations of motor and phonics and noises and physical twitches. And he started doing this head bonk, which is my signature twitch. It's this jerky head kind of thing. And now I'm gonna do it the rest of the podcast. And then you're gonna start doing

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 10:29

No, you won't.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 10:30

cause you're gonna mimic me.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 10:31

And we're all gonna be doing it.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 10:32

Yeah,

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 10:33

But yeah, to Twitch or not to twitch, that is the question.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 10:37

saw this guy and he was describing all his different symptoms as Well. as accompanying disorders like OCD and anxiety and so on. I thought, whoa, I think I just put the nail on the head here of what I've had for the last eight, 10 years of my life that my parents were totally mystified by. And I went to my family doctor. And described these symptoms. I didn't want to self-diagnose. I just said, I've got this sort of this twitch, I guess is the word you would use. And sometimes I do it so much that it's giving me headaches or I am distracted and it's a bit awkward socially. any ideas for me? And he's yeah, I think I have something that might help you. And he was actually really quick to put me on pharmaceuticals, which was maybe. ideal, but as he was filling out the script I asked him, I'm like, so is there like a name for this? He's and he was hesitating. I'm like,'cause I wondered if it might be Tourette's. He's oh yeah, it's Tourette's. That's exactly what you have, but I didn't want to tell you because some people don't like the label and then get into denial and so on. So he wasn't even gonna tell me he was just gonna put me on the drug. But that's how I was diagnosed by a family doctor. Like you, I didn't last too long on the meds. They they really sedated me, which is, I guess what they do. They block receptors or something or other in your brain. And feel like myself it, it bottled up that, that energy and I had to find other ways. Had to learn about Like you say.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 12:06

We're gonna talk about that, let's make this personal.'cause I was really looking forward to this, through I failed Jim. I was 10th in Canada and freestyle, but I failed Jim because I just was too anxious. And I had, I just couldn't sit still. I had a teacher, Mr. Grant, who would make fun of me.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 12:29

Yeah.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 12:30

I was a ski instructor. I did crazy, a aerial acrobatics, not to take accolades or not for ego, just it was a great way of blowing off my energy and my own granddaughter makes fun of me. She said, she starts mimicking me and making fun of me. And I actually went to a Tourette's talk in Toronto and a friend of mine who had organized it, she knew I always had bad behavior. I said bad things and did bad things, and she said, you behave yourself. I said, it's a Tourette talk for God's sakes. So it was really. Crazy, but it became my superpower. And I think that's what probably happened to you. So we go off the Haldol and the Ritalin and the, and everything. And then what tools did you develop in order to harness this energy? And let's talk about it both in your personal relationships and your business relationships.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 13:39

Yeah. So yeah, I did, I tried the meds for a bit and that was just sedating me, doping me up, as I said. And so just, took myself off of that. And but I guess one of the original, not even a tool, but the acknowledgement by somebody that I actually had something that was different in my mind, in my brain. I actually found that immediately helped me. It didn't necessarily make me less twitchy. Maybe the opposite, but I no longer felt guilty about it as a kid. I dunno if I ever failed anything of it, but I definitely was self-conscious of it. My dad love him to death, but he he would sometimes get a bit frustrated by it. I'd be at the dinner table and it's just distracting if someone's trying to talk and someone else that you're looking at is bobbing their head and sniffing and twitching like crazy in different ways or making noises that, it's distracting. So I can remember my dad, sometimes asking me like, okay, jar. Just look at me, just stare at me. And I just want you to focus and not twitch. And of course, we now know that is the worst possible thing you can do because the only thing you're thinking about is twitching. And you tr, and as I'm sure you've heard Bob, it's it's like an itch that you have to scratch. And so the longer you go. When you finally have that outburst, it's just way worse and goofier and so on. But my point here is that the acknowledgement by somebody that actually I actually had a legitimate neurological disorder issue, whatever you want to call it, but an ism if you will, but that it wasn't just something in my mind that I couldn't control that I made up myself. That really helped me big time. And then ahead.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 15:21

So I was gonna say, what did your dad do? Was he a doctor?

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 15:25

no, he was a banker and then he ran his own business and he was great. He was a busy guy very supportive. But in things he didn't understand he found that challenging and my parents had never heard of. Of Tourettes or if they'd heard of it, they thought of the very extreme cases and definitely not that, that their kids would have such a thing. and the other thing I actually, it makes me think about is the OCD, side of of Tourette's. Do you have any, do you have some of those kind of.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 15:57

I say in my comedy act, I said, I went to see the psychiatrist. I asked him for an opinion. He said I was crazy. I said, I need a second opinion. He says, you're ugly. I said, really? What do I have? He says, you got Tourettes. So I looked it up and I Googled it and it said, body twitches an uncontrollable utterances. And I said it comes with a triad, A-D-D-O-C-D, anxiety. And now I have a fourth problem. I'm delusional. I think I'm a comedian. So the triad was A-D-D-O-C-D and anxiety. But before we talk about that, Jarvis, I asked what your dad did.'cause my family were all doctors. Yeah, my dad was a doctor, my mother was a nurse. I had five uncles that were doctor, and my grandmother twitched her brains out and they thought she was nervous. And I had a friend at high sch at high school named Jeff Steinberg and he barked

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 16:54

yeah.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 16:55

and everybody just. His father actually went on to start the Tourette Society, whether you bark, whether you twitch, whether you got bad behavior, whether you've got a DD, nobody wanted to talk about it. Even if they just didn't wanna talk about it.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 17:13

no, it's true. Or

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 17:14

Just,

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 17:14

quick to, to medicate. Using pharmaceuticals and things like that and not find other ways to deal with it. So yeah. Just talking about it and knowing there was someone else out there that had this is issue was super helpful. Yeah, it's I would like to think

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 17:27

So I had.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 17:28

I'm hoping that kids listening maybe thinking they might have Tourettes right now, and knowing that there's other people out there hopefully that's helpful to them because it's, when you just think something's wrong with you and it's just in your head and you're making it up, that's a terrible feeling.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 17:44

I don't think it's so much the kids listening. I think it's the parents listening and saying, oh my God, we've really been dismissive of this. And maybe this is something to look up to. When I had, when I was 22, I'm 70 now. There was no Google, there was no doctor Google. There was nothing. You couldn't look up this stuff. So yeah, I had a DD. And I had to be sent to a free school because I was just too wild.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 18:12

Wow. You sound like you might've been wilder than me, but I think I, I did have certainly had wilder days as I got a bit older. But not necessarily for different reasons. We'll just say that. But yeah, those were some of the things that I dealt with. And then as I get older and got older, and once I figured out that there was something going on, I did a little bit of research and it wasn't actually necessarily to deal with my tourette twitches, but more anxiety. I, I discovered the power of exercise.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 18:39

Right.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 18:40

When you go work out whatever your thing is playing a team sport or going for a run or whatever, when you exert yourself and you get that endorphin release. found that hugely beneficial. And then I started becoming a little bit more of an outdoorsman. First summer after high school, I went out west as a kids camp counselor in Canas, Alberta. And I discovered the Rocky Mountains and I fell in love with nature. And so when you start combining exercise in nature and natural places. just found that it was this real powerful medication that really could calm yourself, whether it was the anxiety the stress, the twitches, whatever the best tool you can have, in my opinion, for mental health and healing.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 19:29

We had a previous guest who's a comedian and his. Anxiety didn't happen until he had a child and then all of a sudden he was worried. So I'll go first. I had a child, I was nervous, anxious, I had catastrophic thinking. So I started running and I ran 10 minutes, then I ran 20 minutes, then I ran 30 minutes. I was just to run in a straight line and then I'd run an hour and eventually I ran the New York marathon. So people gotta understand that. To get rid of this energy. You gotta go to Canas, you gotta run the marathon. It's a tremendous amount of energy and yes, I had terrible anxiety. And what about OCD? Yeah, no, I, yep. I had the OCD as well, Wait,

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 20:20

part of my OCD.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 20:23

My OCD is, I have to take pictures of the stove when I leave. Because when I leave, I go, I don't think I turned it off. I've driven as far as Orangeville and had to drive all the way back just'cause I didn't think it was off. So I've had to develop strategies. So now here we go. These are some of the strategies that I've developed. And here you are now the executive director of this big organization. There's Tourettes. Help you or harm you with regards to the tasks that you have to do.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 20:58

I would say that Tourette's is a part of I, I feel very proud of what I've achieved in my career. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna call that success. And I think that my success in life started when I got more confident about myself and I got more confident in my mid-teen years when I just, and I think a lot of young people can relate to this, but I just stopped trying to be somebody else. I just embraced who I was, that I was a bit quirky. I wasn't the smartest, I wasn't the most athletic, I wasn't the best looking, but that I had some unique characteristics about me. And I had a pretty good sense of humor and I was goofy. And I started embracing those things. And I can remember sometimes using Tourette's as part of my humor and sometimes self-deprecating humor, making fun of my twitches and things like that. That helped me. Start to develop social confidence and that social confidence later helped me become good at relationship building and connecting with people, and that those two skills, connecting, relationship building, put me on the path. To where I am today to have the confidence to lead an organization. And what I do a lot with the Suburban Corridor Alliance is I do public speaking and I do a lot of fundraising and a lot of that fundraising is relationship based. And so while I'm not necessarily, I may be twitching or not twitching when I'm maybe talking with a donor or doing a presentation to a community group. But I attribute the confidence to just be myself, not try and be anything robotic or perfection. Just embrace who you are. Those little quirky parts of you. And that's been the, my superpower. No one, what does Dr. Seuss say? One of his favorites

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 22:45

Yeah,

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 22:45

is you than you. Just be And that gives me that power to get out there and connect with people. Share my gifts so that, yeah, that, that's how I tap into it in my business.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 22:56

I've seen you. I've seen you speak. You're public speaking. You're very motivating. It's interesting'cause a lot of people say, Bob, I can't believe you can stand up and be a comedian. That's when I'm most relaxed. I am most relaxed when I'm out in front of people because I focus my energy. On what my task at hand is. The most un relaxing thing for me is to relax because I've just, I'm seven years old. I've had this thing most of my life. And the idea of expending energy because that's just what I do. And. It's crazy because, one of the things they say in mental health that I've learned, because I've been doing this so many years, and I, this is my fifth season with podcast, is, make your anxiety, make your OCD, make your a DD your friend. You only have so much energy. Don't spend all your time trying to get rid of it. Embrace it and let it tell you who it was, who it is now. I told you, I'm gonna tell you that my Tourettes made it very difficult for me to be married. It's hard to be married to a person that has Tourettes and, but they and my last girlfriend too they just don't understand it, they just think it's bad behavior.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 24:24

Interesting. Okay.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 24:26

It's hard to have a relationship, a long-term relationship with somebody that's got Tourettes because my Tourette's is like a cycle. Like I can tell you when it, what, during a 30 or 60 day period when it's getting bad, and that's when I have to be kind to myself.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 24:45

In Interesting.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 24:46

familiar to you?

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 24:47

don't know if I have cycles now. Are we talking full Moon here, Bob? When it's at its peak or. Does your

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 24:52

No, I don't know. It could, no, I don't. I just know that it's a cycle. I've been in the cycle for so long that now I know that it, I'm getting tar ready, I call it, and I just be kind to myself and I just just accept it.'cause I know it's gonna go away.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 25:12

I, that's a really good question, so I'm gonna have to figure out a way to do some self-observation and tracking of that. 100% stress, anxiety brings on I guess you could say, I guess a cycle, but having a bad day, I would just say of being really twitchy where I, and when it's, when I'm twitching, it's exhausting as, it's'cause you're physically exerting a lot of extra energy and things like that. Especially when you're trying to,

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 25:37

Or trying to.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 25:38

Bottle it up, it gets even worse.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 25:40

Yeah, bottle it up.'cause the energy go, goes somewhere else.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 25:43

go. It's interesting though, with the relationship piece. I can't SI don't know, I'd have to ask one of my former partners if it was a an issue for them. But what I can say is that I'm single like you also divorced. So yeah. Geez. You're making me wonder here. I hope it's I'm sure it is

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 25:59

Huh?

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 25:59

Did you say Seth Rogan is married and he's got Tourettes some,

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 26:03

I don't know if he's, I don't know if he's married, but maybe we don't wanna wait. We seem to be doing just fine. You just came back from kicking horse skiing and we seem to be doing pretty good. So I think I'm gonna go with that. Tourette's is a superpower.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 26:20

with that. Yeah, let's stick with that.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 26:22

And I think that's the positive way of looking at it. And like you said, if somebody's listening to this, not so much a kid because they don't really listen to podcasts like this, but adults, if we can help one person who's sitting there going, you know what my, in my family, there was twitches. My kid does some twitching and instead of me like your father chastising you or saying, look, focus, look at me. Let's try to control this thing. Just let the person do what they have to do. It's not gonna be forever. And but I had an amazing support team. I call it my bass, Bob's amazing support team because I was a connector. Friendships require nourishing. Actually, it's interesting. My oldest friend is Dr. Jack Langer. Jack Langer, and at the intro of our podcast, he's now a musician. He's a retired pediatric surgeon, but somehow he attracted tours. He went to the University of Waterloo and his roommate had Tourettes. Then he went to St. Louis where he did operated on babies in the womb. He had a friend whose son had Tourettes, and I have Tourettes, so I think he's a Tourette magnet and I'm gonna introduce him to you. And now he's gonna have a fourth Tourette or,

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 27:49

I would like that. And that's interesting. University of Waterloo, that's where I also went and where I discovered that lecture, small world.

bobby_4_02-12-2026_201627 27:57

It's interesting that in our travels, what tools. What people affect us and tell us. But this was a guy that was up there talking. He was lecturing. So he obviously, had figured it out that it was good for him.

jarvis-stront_4_02-12-2026_201626 28:16

his superpower because he was up there barking and yiping in various phonic noise ticks. He was doing all the things. And it wasn't to put on a show, it was just, he explained this is what it is. And it was so powerful and I actually, I guess maybe I maybe tapped into that superpower because I spent outta university 10 years or so working at kids summer camps. Often with kids that were facing various barriers and challenges in their life, and I would often come across kids as a, in my early days, a camp counselor. In my cabin group that would have a DD or a few, I think probably did have Tourette's. And when I told them, Hey, I, I, I do that too. And I, I have this Twitch and we were able to talk about it, and I was able to make these bonds with these kids. And I would like to think that that it was helpful to them. Beyond just that week of camp that they maybe went home and thought, I met a pretty decent guy. He was my counselor, and he's had some of these issues. He was a little twitchy, hyperactive, whatever, and he seemed to turn out okay. So hopefully I was able to have a positive influence on some of those kids by opening up and sharing some of these labels that are out there.

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Listen, Jarvis, unfortunately, we've run out of time. But this has been super fantastic. I was looking so forward to it to be able to talk to somebody like yourself and have an honest discussion, and I know that we're going to affect somebody. So for now, this is Bobby Covin and saying thank you so much for listening to this episode of What's In Your Toolbox. So everybody. As you can see, I love this. When I was first supposed to talk to Jarvis, I woke up at five 30 in the morning and prepared myself. And then he had to unfortunately deal with work and work's more important than doing podcasts and I was disappointed. But he's come around and I think he's identified some tools that we both have. One is exercise. His was in Can Canas. Mine was running the New York Marathon. He's a great relationship person. I'm a great relationship person, and I can tell you knowing Jarvis, his energy, which manifests itself in mild Tourettes is his superpower. So at the end of these podcasts, I always pull something from a newspaper and on the 25th of January. There was a story about true companions and it talked about AI and is it going too far? Does it help us in a chat room? And they do have AI now for mental health. And instead of it just researching it, you can get into a chat room just like Jarvis and I are doing right now, and you can actually chat with a bot a little bit about your AI and it will accumulate all kinds of information. And I think that's a good thing for ai. So in conclusion. If you or someone you know, think they have Tourettes, they can contact me. My contact information is at the bottom. The Tourette Society will be at the bottom, and Jarvis and I are gonna continue to work together. He's gonna help me and figure out this whole charitable world and I'm gonna help him. I can tell you that we're gonna be putting these podcasts on YouTube and you'll see Jarvis and I, and you'll see that neither one of us are really twitching very much at all. That's'cause we're focused and we're having, and we're having a good time. There'll also be show notes connection to the ECA, which is the Escarpment Corridor Alliance of Jarvis is the executive director of doing great stuff up here in Gray County and in Simco, saving land allowing it. To be put back into I guess it's the the Nature Conservatory and Jarvis and I are a bit selfish'cause that's our medicine. We need to walk in nature. We need to have nature-based wellness. We need to have walks. We need to be able to run, and that is better than pumping. Ritalin down our system. So you'll be able to subscribe in the show notes and you'll be able to, be able to get in touch with me and I could get in touch with Jarvis if you wanted to. So my next guest, the episode's called Good Vibrations. I have 14 advisors for my charity that all have industry specific knowledge. And the next person, she, my osteopath. Please stay tuned, subscribe and look forward to the next episode called Good Vibrations. So for now, thank you so much for listening to this episode of What's in Your Toolbox.

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Thank you for listening to No Magic Bullet. What's in your toolbox? I am not a doctor, but have lived experience in dealing with. The many challenges of mental health. If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and share with others who will benefit from learning about tools they can use to deal with their own mental health challenges. If we can help just one person, all this effort to bring this podcast to you is worth it. Thank you for listening to No Magic Bullet. What's in your toolbox? I am not a doctor, but have lived experience in dealing with. The many challenges of mental health. If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and share with others who will benefit from learning about tools they can use to deal with their own mental health challenges. If we can help just one person, all this effort to bring this podcast to you is worth it.