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lewis capaldi reveals tourette's diagnosis
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scottish singer-songwriter lewis capaldi performs during the last day of the three-day music festival a campingflight to lowlands paradise. (photo by ferdy damman)
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just days after a sold-out run at london’s o2 arena, scottish singer lewis capaldi has revealed he has tourette syndrome.
“it’s a new thing, i haven’t really learned much about it — i’m learning,” he said on an instagram live this week, huffpost reported.
capaldi has dealt with shoulder twitches for a long time, he said, and noticed their severity when he was rewatching old interviews from 2018. he worried it was a symptom of “some horrible degenerative disease,” he said. his eventual tourette’s diagnosis “makes so much sense,” he added.
tourette syndrome involves making involuntary motions, or tics, which can include blinking, head jerking, shrugging shoulders, coughing and grunting. in some more severe cases, tics might involve hopping or repeating certain movements or phrases. people with the condition will often feel a tingling sensation that only goes away when the sound or movement is made. “you might be able to hold your tics back for a little while, but you probably can’t stop them from happening,” webmd explains.
people with tourette’s often get worsening tics when they’re tired, stressed or excited. symptoms can also change over time: some people who experience severe tics in childhood or adolescence find they ease up considerably as they get older, according to the mayo clinic.
capaldi said his tourette’s is a consistent part of his life.
“the worst thing about it is when i’m excited i get it, when i’m stressed i get it, when i’m happy i get it,” capaldi said, according to people. “it happens all the time. some days it’s more painful than others and some days it’s less painful. it looks a lot worse than it is … but it comes and goes.”
he decided to disclose his condition in part because of comments people made under his videos on social media.
“you see underneath every tiktok and stuff, people are like, ‘why is he twitching?’, which is fine. curiosity is fine. i get it,” he said. “i didn’t want people to think i was taking cocaine or something.”
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he’s been treating the condition with botox injections to his shoulders, he added.
advocates praise capaldi for speaking about his tourette’s diagnosis
advocates are glad such a public figure is comfortable speaking about having tourette’s.
“the more people who talk about tourette syndrome, the more people who share their stories, the better,” emma mcnally, ceo of tourettes action, told the guardian. “being diagnosed can be daunting. newly diagnosed children need to see successful adults sharing and talking about their diagnosis, it will give them hope for the future.
“tourette’s affects 1 in 100 school aged children, however the public perception is that it affects only a minority. lewis capaldi speaking out about his diagnosis will hopefully encourage others who are in the public eye to do the same.”
tourette’s usually starts in childhood and is more common in boys than girls: a 2016 canadian study found it affected about six out of 1000 boys, and 0.48 out of 1000 girls. but there’s no consensus on how many people in canada have the condition, according to tourette canada. estimates range between 0.1 and 3.8 per cent of the population. the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention found that about 174,000 american children between the ages of three and 17 have been diagnosed with tourette’s, and that about half of children with the condition haven’t been formally diagnosed.
there’s no known cause for tourette syndrome, which is thought to be the result of a combination of genetic and environmental factors. it can be treated with habit-reversal training therapy or medications like haloperidol that rebalance dopamine levels. but many people with tourette’s have only mild tics and don’t need medication.
earlier this year, singer billie eilish talked about her experience with tourette’s on david letterman’s netflix show “my next guest needs no introduction.”
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“it’s not like i like it, but i feel like it’s part of me,” she told the talk show host. “i have made friends with it. so now i’m pretty confident in it.”
maija kappler is a reporter and editor at healthing. you can reach her at mkappler@postmedia.com
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