Living with Tourette's syndrome B1+ - 20th June 2022

In a recent interview, pop star Billie Eilish announced that she's been living with Tourette's syndrome (TS). She talked about how exhausting it can be.

Whilst filming the interview, the pop star had a tic. She highlighted that "if you film me for long enough, you're going to see lots of tics."

According to Tourette's Action, more than 300,000 people in the UK, and one percent of the global population live with Tourette's syndrome. It causes people to make uncontrollable sounds and movements known as tics. TS generally starts in childhood and gets better over time, and sometimes it completely stops.

In the interview, Billie mentioned that while she's on stage, the tics don't happen. She stated that some tics have disappeared over time but some are still there and happen regularly.

"These are things you would never notice if you're just having a conversation with me, but for me, they're very exhausting," she said. Billie also stated that people often think she's trying to be funny whenever she has a tic. They usually laugh and she finds it very offensive.

Terrina Bibb also has TS and complains about the same things as Billie. She'd like to be treated like everyone else. She said that she's OK with teaching people about TS but she doesn't feel people should be rude. Terrina hopes that Billie's interview "will make it a bit more normalised."