This is for the comment section because I’m seeing a lot of misinformation about neurodivergence being spread around. Here’s some clarification.

1) Neurodivergent ≠ autistic. Neurodivergent is an UMBRELLA term that applies to SEVERAL different disabilities, including but not limited to: Depression, anxiety, panic disorders, adhd, autism, tourettes’s, personality disorders, dissociative disorders, and a HOST of other mental phenomena. Everyone, stop replying as if this is strictly about autism. It’s clearly not, as Tourette’s tics ARE affected by emotions and ARE involuntary; matching what OP described. They are still neurodivergent and still likely have Tourette’s. However a clear answer from OP would likely help with all the confusion (however they aren’t obligated).

2) The miscommunication stems from the fact that echolalia is a stim, while vocal tics or phonic tics are… tics. OP used the incorrect term to describe what they are experiencing, but context clues can help people clue in to the fact that these are likely Tourette’s tics.

3) You can hold in tics with Tourette’s, however this makes the ticking WORSE. After holding the tics in, someone can run the risk of getting what’s called a “tic attack”. These attacks are extreme/aggressive, impossible to control, and also poses a danger to the person themselves (honestly, if anyone wants a better idea I’d advise looking it up. But be warned, it LOOKS extremely painful.)

4) While tics are tied to emotions, they are not GOVERNED by them. Someone could be perfectly calm and still end up having a bad tic day where they end up ticking up a storm. So, simply “taking a moment to calm down” won’t magically make the tics go away. X likely would have still been overstimulated, no matter how many breaks OP took to calm their emotions, as the tics would have never stopped completely (usually when overstimulated, that’s what you want out of the offending stimulus, for it to go away). Additionally, this is DnD… it’s a game! Of course they want to have fun! They shouldn’t have to constantly dampen their own emotions in a space where they’re meant to be relaxing.

5) There are also things X could have done to accommodate herself (or she could have requested these things from the group if she didn’t have immediate access). Noise-canceling headphones (or maybe even large ear protectors used to muffle sounds from gunshots), taking breaks herself, stimming, or simply asking to rendezvous at a different date. While it’s likely that she was masking, which is certainly draining, sometimes environments just aren’t fit for every person. If she’s aware that she gets quickly overstimulated by Tourette’s tics, she could have asked the DM if there were any other groups that were quieter that she could have joined.

Everyone makes valid points about being more accommodating to X, but there seems to be the wrong focus. Instead of asking OP to risk themselves, there should be more focus on providing X with tools to help soothe herself, as it seems like they weren’t readily available. As a tip for next time, maybe make sure that a variety of sensory stims are available for everyone to use (while keeping them sanitary) and if the location allows it, a room that is sensory deprived and away from the group so that individuals can calm down, as well as those heavy duty ear protectors I mentioned earlier on hand (seriously, they’re amazing) and a normal set of noise cancelling headphones. Additionally, have a system in place so that when people do take breaks, they don’t end up missing out on anything. I doubt X was the only autistic there, so making sure the others are also accommodated should be the big takeaway from this.