Photo: Getty Images
Billie Eilish is opening up about navigating her Tourette syndrome diagnosis.
During a recent appearance on Amy Poehler's Good Hang podcast, the HIT ME HARD AND SOFT musician shared what her everyday life looks like managing the necessities of her career with the tics, or repetitive, involuntary behaviors, that arise from her Tourette's, per People.
"When I'm in an interview, I'm doing everything in my power to suppress all of my tics, constantly," she said. "And as soon as I leave the room, I have to let them all out."
Eilish, who described tics as "intrusive thoughts, but your mouth has to say them out loud," explained that she can keep most of her vocal tics "pretty quiet" but will have to put in extra effort to hold them back in interviews when a certain word becomes a tic. Additionally, she noted that tics in her hands, knees and elbows often go unnoticed. However, she hit back at the "troubling" misconception that her tics bother her when they are part of her "normal."
"If I start having a tic attack or whatever, like a lot of tics in a row... people are like, 'Are you okay?' You know, this is very much normal," she said.
The "Birds of a Feather" singer, 24, added that it can be "frustrating" when people don't understand Tourette syndrome, especially those who question her own lived experience with it and who don't realize that not everyone can hold back their tics.
"I'm doing everything I can to suppress every single tic that's visible, from the top of my head to about right here," she said, gesturing to her torso. "And that's, like, how we as people with Tourette's pretty much spend our days."
She continued, "And some people don't even have the privilege of getting to suppress them, at all, in any way."
Eilish first opened up about her Tourette syndrome in 2018, years after she was diagnosed when she was 11 years old, per E! News. She spoke at the time about how she "taught myself ways of suppressing my tics" but how that "only makes it worse when the moment is over."
She opened up about her experience with the disorder in 2022 while chatting with David Letterman on his Netflix show My Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, from being "incredibly offended" when people think her tics are just her "trying to be funny" to why she is "pretty confident" in her diagnosis.