Billie Eilish has spoken candidly about the daily reality of living with Tourette’s syndrome, describing the exhausting effort it takes to manage her tics on camera, and the frustration of being misunderstood.
Speaking on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast on 5 May, the singer explained that while she has grown comfortable with her condition, the lack of awareness from others remains difficult.
“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 described her experience of Tourette’s in a way that captures both its complexity and its often invisible nature.
“Intrusive thoughts, but your mouth has to say them out loud,” she said. Her vocal tics are mostly small sounds she can keep “pretty quiet,” though certain words can become tics too, requiring her to actively hold them back during interviews.
She also addressed one of the most common misconceptions she encounters, the assumption that when she has a tic attack, something must be wrong.
“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 also deals with people doubting her diagnosis entirely, because her tics aren’t always visible or don’t match the stereotypes most people associate with the condition.
Her tics in her knees, elbows and hands are constant, she said, but they go largely unnoticed.
The energy required to manage her condition while in public is considerable.
“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 ribcage.
“And that’s, like, how we as people with Tourette’s pretty much spend our days.”
She added that not everyone has that option.
“Some people don’t even have the privilege of getting to suppress them, at all, in any way,” she said, and the fact that many people don’t understand that is, in her word, “frustrating.”
Eilish’s new concert film, Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), opens in cinemas on Friday, 8 May.
