YouTuber Caspar Lee reveals what it’s like to grow up with Tourette’s syndrome
'For me it feels like having an itch that you can’t scratch, and it just gets worse and worse until you scratch it'
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Your support makes all the difference.YouTuber Caspar Lee has released a new video to help people understand what it’s like to grow up with Tourette’s syndrome.
The 24-year-old vlogger has been open about his own experiences with Tourette’s before, but in the new video he is seen talking to other young people who have the syndrome.
Lee, who lives in London, says he was six years old when he first discovered he had Tourette’s, and according to the NHS, it’s between the ages of five and nine that tics - the involuntary sounds and movements someone feels compelled to make - usually begin.
One young woman in the video explains that she was shocked when she was diagnosed and “like everybody else” just thought it meant swearing.
But as the interviewees reveal, this isn’t the case.
They explained that tics can come in various forms, from making “pig snort” noises to flicking your head.
“For me it feels like having an itch that you can’t scratch, and it just gets worse and worse until you scratch it,” Lee explained.
And a young boy compared it to trying to keep your eyes open and not blink.
In a previous video, Lee had explained that his Tourette’s got particularly bad during puberty and it was hard to deal with - at school, he was made to sit outside the exam hall by himself to take tests.
As a teenager, he was worried about what people thought which made it harder to deal with.
“At the start of secondary school, people made fun of me,” one young man explained in the video. “I just tried to blank it out and went to another group of friends who understand it more.”
Another boy in the video said he always explains that he has Tourette’s to people and that way doesn’t get bullied.
“It’s so much easier to tic around people if they’re understanding of it, if they’re accepting of it,” one young woman explained. “You don’t feel like you need to hold anything back, you don’t feel like you need to suppress anything.”
Lee is donating all money made from the video to Tourette’s Action.
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