Billie Eilish provides insight into his experience with Tourette’s syndrome.
Talking to Amy Poehler on his “Good Hang” podcast on Tuesday, May 5, the singer, 24, opened up about the “worrying” situation that often arises.
“I have Tourette’s and I have a voice but, luckily for me and everyone else, it’s usually just noises and I can keep them quiet,” explained Eilish. “I go through periods of tics and tics, but there’s something called depression, if you’ve ever heard of it.”
He added, “When I’m on an interview, I do my best to suppress all my tics all the time. And as soon as I leave the room, I have to let them all out.”
The “Bad Guy” singer described the situation as a compulsion to mouth all your “disturbing thoughts” out loud.
Eilish went on to comment that the lack of understanding surrounding tics and Tourette’s in general can be difficult to deal with.
“I think what’s troubling is the way people don’t really understand what Tourette’s is, when I start having a tic attack, like multiple tics in a row, people are like, ‘Are you okay?'” she said. “This is very normal. It’s like, if you didn’t see me being anointed today, you’re not looking at my knees, they’re always creaking under this table, and my elbows are like … I brace my arms all the time.”
Billie Eilish.
(Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)He continued: “Some people don’t even have the right to oppress them in any way. ‘Not understanding’ that is really troubling, as someone with Tourette’s.”
Eilish was diagnosed with the disease at a young age and told David Letterman when he appeared in 2022 on his late-night talk show that he rarely discusses, in part because of other people’s reactions to his tics.
Billie Eilish and Miley Cyrus have more Grammys than most people, but their conversation at the awards show should be relatable to anyone who has ever spoken in public. Eilish, 22, and Cyrus, 31, were photographed chatting backstage at the Sunday, February 4, awards show, which was held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los. […]
“It’s really weird, I’ve never talked about it,” he said at the time. “The most common way people react is to laugh because they think I’m trying to make them laugh, they think I’m funny. [ticcing] as a funny move. And then they go, ‘Ha,’ and I’m always very annoyed by that. Or they say ‘What?’ and I go, ‘I have Tourette’s.’”
The “When the Party’s Over” singer also briefly touched on her experience with Tourette’s while performing Ellen in April 2019.
“It’s something I’ve lived my whole life,” he told the host Ellen DeGeneres. “I never said anything about it because I didn’t want that to define who I was. I didn’t want to be a ‘Tourette’s singer.’
