I’m confused about my diagnosis
I'm 18 and l've had tics basically all my life, but in december 2025 they started to get like really noticeable and annoying, so I went to the doctors and the first time I went my doctor told me to "try not to tic" and to try message therapy. But like I'm not really looking for therapy, I just want to get a diagnosis because I really want to know what the heck is causing my tics, and I'm pretty sure it might be Tourette's because I have all the diagnostic criteria and I even have adhd and autism which are co morbid. Anyways, I went to the doctors a second time and this time I was asking about tourette's and about getting a referral to a neurologist and he told me that neurologists don't treat tics and that Tourette's is what high functioning autism used to be called. Which is wrong, I'm 99% sure??? Anyways so after that, my tics started to get a bit better, but then they recently started to get annoying again, so I went to the doctors again and this time he told me I could do like therapy for tics and on the paper he gave me it says my diagnosis is just tic disorder, which I don't know if that's a valid diagnosis. One, because he's a general practitioner, two because he's never like actually assessed me, and three because I don't think just "tic disorder" is even a real thing..
I'm basically wondering if a diagnosis is even worth it at this point because my tics aren't THAT noticeable around other people (they still are really annoying). I do really want to know though what is causing them. And I'm like really sure that it is tourette's but I don't want to self diagnose, and I just want to make sure it isn't anything else serious. And also my mom doesn't understand why I want a diagnosis so bad, but I've tried telling her that I just want to have confirmation on what I have and she's like "well just tell people you have Tourette's"... I don't know what to do lol... sorry if that was a lot!
Also I live in a small city in Ontario so it’s kind of hard to get a new doctor lol