Billie Eilish: Living with Tourette's

Living with Tourette's syndrome B2 - 20th June 2022

Billie Eilish, in a new interview has revealed that living with Tourette's syndrome (TS) can be "very exhausting".

The 20-year-old experienced an on-camera tic when speaking on David Letterman's ‘My Next Guest’ programme on Netflix. "If you film me for long enough, you're going to see lots of tics," she said.

Over 300,000 children and adults are living with TS in the UK, according to Tourette's Action. It affects up to one percent of the population globally. TS is a condition that causes a person to make involuntary sounds and movements called tics. It usually starts during childhood, but the tics and other symptoms usually improve after several years and sometimes go away completely.

During the interview, Billie said that she doesn't experience tics while performing and that some specific tics have gone away over time, but others still occur on a regular basis.

"These are things you would never notice if you're just having a conversation with me," she says, adding, "but for me, they're very exhausting." The singer said she "really loves" talking about her experience with TS, but acknowledged she is "incredibly confused by it". She also said that people don't always react in a good way when she experiences a tic. "The most common way that people react is they laugh because they think I'm trying to be funny. I'm always left incredibly offended by that," she said.

That reaction is something fellow TS patient Terrina Bibb can relate to. She wants people to treat her, and others with TS, normally, adding she doesn't "mind educating people on it, but I just don't think people should be rude". Terrina feels for someone with the following of Billie Eilish to share her experience is significant. "Hopefully, it'll make it a bit more normalised."