Tourette Syndrome

Landon Barker is opening up about his experience with Tourette Syndrome.
The rocker took to TikTok this week to reveal that he has a “very, very minor” case of the neurological disorder that causes a person to have involuntary physical or verbal tics. “I’ve had it for as long as I can remember, like pre-school,” he recalled. “I remember exactly because the teacher used to accuse me of rolling my eyes at her because one of my ticks was [moves eyes around] that. It was, like, a weird thing I do with my eyes.”

He added that nowadays, his tics manifest in movement of heck or jaw. “It really just acts up in nervous situations or nerve wracking environments for me,” he shared.

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Barker joins a slew of celebrities who have opened up about having Tourette Syndrome, which affects about one in every 162 children, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Billie Eilish has shared her experience with the disorder throughout her career, telling David Letterman on his popular in-depth interview series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction that she was diagnosed when she was 11 years old. “I never don’t tic at all, because the main tics that I do are constantly, like, I wiggle my ear back and forth and raise my eyebrow and click my jaw and flex this arm here and this arm there,” she says. “These are things you would never notice if you’re having a conversation with me, but for me, they’re very exhausting.”

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While Eilish admitted that she use to “damn” her symptoms, she now feel like they are “part” of her. “I have made friends with it, so now I’m pretty confident in it,” she explains.

Lewis Capaldi revealed last year that his experience with Tourette Syndrome has an affect on his performing. “My tic is getting quite bad on stage now,” Capaldi said in an interview with The Times. “I’m trying to get on top of that. If I can’t, I’m f–ked. It’s easier when I play guitar, but I hate playing guitar. I know, I’m a walking contradiction.”

He also previously spoke about his struggles with Tourette’s in an Instagram Live. “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,” he said at the time. “It happens all the time.”