Billie Eilish Discussed Tourette’s Syndrome in David Letterman’s My Next Guest Show

Photo: BBC

Billie Eilish, an award-winning singer who lives with Tourette’s Syndrome (TS), said that living life as a person diagnosed can be “very exhausting.” When talking during David Letterman’s My Next Guest show episode, she experienced an on-camera tic. 

“If you film me for long enough, you’re going to see lots of tics,” she stated. 

TS is a prevalent condition that affects more than 300,000 people in the UK. The tics and other symptoms can be difficult at times but often improve with time; this process sometimes happens completely without warning or indication of what’s coming next. 

It can start during childhood and may sometimes disappear as a person gets older. However, it depends on each case. 

Billie has said that she doesn’t experience tics while performing, but some particular ones still happen frequently.

“These are things you would never notice if you’re just having a conversation with me,” she states, further saying, “but for me, they’re very exhausting.” 

Billie stated that she “really loves” conversations about her encounters with TS but said she is “incredibly confused by it.” However, the singer also acknowledges that people often react positively when she undergoes 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 stated. 

Terrina Bibb, a 29-year-old woman, can also relate to that reaction. She began experiencing signs of tics when she was 21 and, following several visits with neurologists, had finally been diagnosed at 24, which is actually later than usual. 

She recounts that the previous year, someone stared at her nonstop in a restaurant during a “really bad tic attack.” 

“It’s just rude, and it frustrates me. People ask, ‘why do you have to swear so much?’ I wish I didn’t have to, but it’s something I can’t control,” she states. 

Bibb hopes for people to treat her, as well as others living with TS, ordinarily, further saying that she doesn’t “mind educating people on it, but I just don’t think people should be rude.”