REAL TALK
Caspar Lee bravely speaks out about his battle with Tourette’s that compelled him to make animal noises…and how it nearly killed him once
YOUTUBE star Caspar Lee released a video to his seven million subscribers speaking out about his battle with Tourett's Syndrome.
In the honest YouTube post, the vlogger explained that he had struggled to control the things he said since he was a child.
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Tourette’s can manifest itself in a number of different ways, but Caspar explained that initially he would just make sounds that he couldn’t contain.
In the video uploaded to said: “The first time I ever discovered I had Tourette’s was when I was around six years old.
“I was watching TV with my sister and all of a sudden I had this urge to make this snorting noise with my nose.
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“I know it sounds ridiculous but I just couldn’t continue to concentrate on the TV show or anything else until I made this noise.
“It was like an itch that just wouldn’t go away.”
Although they initially didn’t understand, Caspar explained the compulsive feeling to his father who took him to see a doctor.
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It was at this point that the was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome, which he continued to struggle with throughout puberty.
Caspar described how he was disciplined in school by teachers who just thought he was being disobedient and that he was made to sit separately from his peers during exams.
The vlogger also explained that on one occasion, he and his family had been in a safari park and he was unable to stop himself from making loud animal noises.
He spoke about one incident when an elephant even came face to face with their jeep and began to square up to them but he couldn't help but make the antagonising monkey noises.
What is Tourette's Syndrome?
Tourette’s is far more common that most people realise – affecting around one in every 100 people.
Tourette's is a neurological condition which affects the brain and nervous system, and is characterised by involuntary movements and noises called tics.
Kids normally begin showing signs of Tourette's at between 10 and 11 years old, and the condition continues into adulthood.
The condition was named after the French doctor Georges Gilles de la Tourette, who first described the syndrome and its symptoms in the 19th century.
He said: “Can you imagine being my family there?
“They just want to be as quiet as possible so this elephant runs away or forgets about us but instead they’ve got this 11 year old kid who is screaming at the top of his lungs.
“I could have got my family killed.”
Fortunately for Caspar that situation didn’t end in disaster and turned out to be the worst his Tourette’s Syndrome got although other people can suffer much more severely.
He said: “Every day [people with Tourette’s] have urges to say things in public.
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“Some people with Tourette’s will just use words that you should never say to someone else, especially a stranger but they just can’t control it.
“I am really lucky, I’m on the spectrum where it was never that bad but I can’t imagine how bad it can be for some people.”
He now hopes that by speaking out he can encourage others people not to feel self-conscious about their issues.
He said: “Don’t worry about what other people think as much, everyone is worrying about their own thing.
“I just wanted to make this video to say that when you are experiencing something horrible or bad or uncomfortable it definitely feels like the only thing you’ll ever feel again.
“You forget that life is like constant waves of good or bad.”
It appears courageous honest runs in the Lee family as Caspar's sister Theodora recently opened up about life with attention deficit disorder.
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