Woman living with Tourette syndrome shares the physical feeling she has every time she 'gets the urge to tic'
Topics: Documentaries, Film and TV, Mental Health, Social Media
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: TLC
Topics: Documentaries, Film and TV, Mental Health, Social Media
An influencer living with Tourette Sydrome has landed her own TV show, and on it she's explained what it feels like holding in a tic.
Baylen Dupree boasts more than 10 million followers online across TikTok and Instagram, and now, at the age of 22, her own series Baylen Out Loud which aired on TLC last night (January 13).
But it hasn't been easy for the West Virginian, with her diagnosis coming shortly before her 18th birthday - despite having experienced tics for years prior.
Advert
Although she didn't think she was any different to any of her friends. Speaking to People, she said: "I felt like all the other kids were doing them. It was just normal."
But it was when she was around 15 years old that others began mentioning it to her.
"I would go to the doctor and I would be like, 'I don't know how to explain this feeling, but I can't stop,'" she told the publication. "That's the only thing and the only way that I would tell people, because I didn't understand it, and I didn't have information."
In early 2020, she received her diagnosis and has since been raising awareness of her condition through her social media accounts.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(764x560:766x562):format(webp)/baylen-dupree-tlc-011025-tout-b2e8241408de4089a0e9b392f2534633.jpg)
Now, on the first episode of her new show, Baylen went into detail of the physical feeling she gets every time she has an urge to tic.
"When I get the urge to tic, it feels like my skin is crawling and it's very, very, itchy. After I do the tic, or release the tic, the urge goes away," she explained, while donning pyjamas, to the TV crew.
"My tics can come from anything; anything I see, hear, smell, think about - making waffles, making waffles - like that because I'm thinking about that."
Baylen then goes on to explain how 'the most random things' can become a tic. Speaking about one of the camera men, she says 'I'm trying not to look at him', when the producer asks who, Baylen replies: 'Him! Because every time I see a bald person I have to tell them that they're bald, so... you're bald."
It isn't the first time Baylen has appeared on TV to help spread awareness of Tourette Syndrome, as she explains that people need to understand there is a spectrum which varies from mild to severe.
Last year, when she was 21, she was a guest on NewsNation's 'Cuomo' segment - hosted by broadcast journalist Chris Cuomo, when she began involuntarily cussing.
During the purposely uncensored interview, the social media star branded host Cuomo a 'fat a**', before telling him: "F**k off, f**k off, f**k off," and "F**k you, Chris!"
A usually straight-faced Cuomo seemingly couldn't contain his amusement, and began laughing.