Lewis Capaldi tells fans about Tourette's diagnosis

2 years ago 67
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Lewis Capaldi on stageImage source, Getty Images

Lewis Capaldi has told fans he has Tourette's Syndrome (TS).

The 25-year-old spoke about his diagnosis, and its day-to-day effects, in an Instagram Live video.

TS is a condition that "causes a person to make involuntary sounds and movements called tics", the NHS says.

"I have Tourette's, I've always had it, apparently," the Scottish singer said, after a fan asked him if he could speak about it.

TS usually starts during childhood, but the tics and other symptoms usually improve after several years and sometimes go away completely.

The singer recently mentioned on stage that he has the condition, explaining why his shoulders sometimes twitch.

"I do the shoulder twitch quite a lot. And you see underneath every TikTok and stuff, people are like, 'why is he twitching?', which is fine. Curiosity is fine."

He told his followers that, due to his tics, some people mistakenly think he's taken drugs before concerts.

He clarified this isn't the case.

"Do you think before performing [in front of] 20,000 people, as an anxious person, I'm going to take a big line of cocaine? Never going to happen."

Media caption,

Tourette's: 'We get called freaks but we're just normal people'

He also spoke about how he has had Botox in his shoulder to try to limit the twitching.

"It's a new thing, I haven't really learned much about it - I'm learning. I had Botox on my shoulder to stop it moving. It worked for a bit."

He told fans that he didn't think it was much of a big deal, but that when he got the diagnosis, it made a lot of sense to him.

More than 300,000 children and adults are living with TS in the UK, according to the Tourette's Action charity.

Earlier this year, Billie Eilish spoke about having the condition, telling American host David Letterman that the condition can be "exhausting".

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