Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, 25, has opened up about his Tourette’s diagnosis for the first time.
The Before You Go hitmaker explained that he has gone public with his recent diagnosis because he didn’t want his tics to be misinterpreted for drug use.
Tourette’s syndrome is a neurological condition that causes a person to make involuntary sounds and movements called tics.
The BRIT award winner said he is being treated with Botox injections to freeze his muscles to try to control his tics which are triggered by extreme emotions such as excitement or stress.
“I have been diagnosed with Tourette’s,” he stated.
“I wanted to speak about it because I didn’t want people to think I was taking cocaine or something.
He told The Sun: “My shoulder twitches when I am excited, happy, nervous or stressed. It is something I am living with. It is not as bad as it looks.”
Capaldi also discussed the condition with his fans on an Instagram Live, candidly sharing that living with it can be “painful” sometimes.
“It’s a new thing,” he said “I haven’t really learnt much about it. I got Botox in my shoulder to stop it moving but I’m learning new ways to cope all the time.
“Some days it’s more painful than others, sometimes it’s quite uncomfortable but I guess that’s it.
“When they told me, ‘We think you’ve got Tourette’s’, I was like, ‘Do you know what, that makes so much sense’. When I look back at my interviews from 2018 I can see that I’m doing it.
“It comes and goes. Sometimes I can go months without doing it. I thought I had some horrible degenerative disease so I’ll take Tourette’s.”
Capaldi isn’t the only famous musician who has publicly discussed their Tourette’s with Billie Eilish previously opening up about her diagnosis during a Netflix interview with David Letterman earlier this year.
In the UK, more than 300,000 children and adults live with Tourette’s, according to charity Tourette’s Action.
News of the Glaswegian’s Tourette’s diagnosis comes after the singer confirmed he will finally be releasing new music, three years after his debut album Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, which spent 10 weeks at the top of the UK charts.
His new single, Forget Me, is out on Friday, September 9.
