'I thought Tourette's was about swearing'

Yasmin Bartle was 20 when she was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome. As part of Tourette's Awareness Month, she opened up about how a shopping trip led to a confrontation.

As a child, Ms Bartle said she had "a few little quirks" including involuntary arm movements and making whistling noises.

"There was a peak when I was probably around 10 or 11 and we were going through SATs [primary school exams]."

Ms Bartle said the symptoms became less frequent until she contracted meningitis in 2019, an infection that affects the brain and spinal cord, according to the NHS.

"We [the family] noticed these little things were becoming more frequent," she said.

On one occasion, she said she was queuing in a shop and suddenly threw a bottle across the store.

"I was so shocked because I didn't know where it had come from or what had just happened," she said.

"My arm was always flying out to the side and I had a lot of head and neck tics and a few little noises."

Ms Bartle was initially diagnosed with tics before being told she had Tourette Syndrome a year later.

The 25-year-old from Hull said she was confused and "in denial."

She said, like many people, she thought Tourette's was about swearing and she did not swear.

"I was embarrassed and I hardly left my house," she said.

On another occasion, Ms Bartle was in a grocery store and called out "alcoholic".

She said another customer thought she was referring to them because they had a bottle in their hand and it escalated into an argument.

She said: "I'm trying to say I have Tourette Syndrome. I'm really sorry and they didn't believe me."

Ms Bartle said things began to improve for her when she said she was taken to a group run by the TIC Yorkshire charity in Hull.

"I realised, actually, there are a lot more people here that are a lot more like me and going through what I'm going through," she said.

A year after being introduced to the charity, Ms Bartle became a volunteer. She said she wanted to challenge misconceptions about the condition.

She said, when the charity tells people their child may be experiencing tics or Tourette's, parents feel relieved their child does not swear.

Coprolalia, which, according to the NHS, is an involuntary use of obscene words or socially inappropriate remarks, is not the worst symptom, she added.

Ms Bartle, who has written a book about the condition, said it was the mental tics, the compulsions and pain that most people with Tourette's would rather take away.

She said it was important to research and understand the condition and urged those suffering to reach out for help.

Tourette's Awareness Month takes place between 15 May and 15 June. This year's theme is being misunderstood due to public perceptions often shaped by stigma, jokes, and misinformation.

According to the NHS, tics are fast, repetitive muscle movements that result in sudden and difficult to control body jolts or sounds.

Tourette's Syndrome is a term that is used when tics have lasted for more than a year.

According to the charity Tourette's Action, the condition affects one school child in every one hundred and is more common among boys. It says over 300,000 children and adults are living with the condition in the UK.

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