Billie Eilish Opens Up About Her Tourette Syndrome, Says She Does 'Everything in My Power' to Suppress Tics While on Camera

The musician admitted it's often frustrating when others don't understand the realities of Tourette syndrome

NEED TO KNOW

• Billie Eilish said she does "everything in my power" to suppress her Tourette's syndrome tics while on camera

• "And as soon as I leave the room, I have to let them all out," she said

• Eilish admitted it's often frustrating when others don't understand the realities of Tourette's syndrome

Billie Eilish is getting candid about her experience with Tourette syndrome.

The musician shared the realities of her daily experience the disorder, which causes repetitive or unwanted behaviors that can't easily be controlled, during the May 5 episode of Amy Poehler's Good Hang podcast. Though she is fairly comfortable with her Tourette's, Eilish said it's often "frustrating" when others don't understand the syndrome.

Eilish has vocal tics, but for the most part, they're just small noises that she can keep "pretty quiet," she said. Sometimes certain words become tics, she added, and in interviews, she has to work to hold them back.

"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 Tourette syndrome as "intrusive thoughts, but your mouth has to say them out loud."

She added that the most "troubling" misconception people have about her Tourette's is that they'll assume her tics are bothersome to her. "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."

Additionally, sometimes people express doubt in her Tourette's because she's not actively displaying tics, or because her tics aren't the ones most recognizable to people without the disorder. She constantly has tics in her knees, elbows and hands, she said, but they often go unnoticed.

She expends a lot of energy to inhibit her tics, especially while she's on camera.

"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 rib cage. "And that's, like, how we as people with Tourette's pretty much spend our days ."

"And some people don't even have the privilege of getting to suppress them, at all, in any way," and the fact that many people don't understand that is "frustrating," Eilish said.

Eilish's new concert film, Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), hits theaters on Friday, May 8.