Tourette's syndrome: 'It's not just swearing and outbursts'

Depicting Tourette's as outbursts and swearing does not reflect the condition, a musician said.

Emir Enko said he had more confidence speaking about his Tourette's after singer Lewis Capaldi revealed he also had the condition.

The 33-year-old from Coventry said performing helps his condition, making him feel like a different person.

It is not known what causes Tourette's syndrome, however Mr Enko believes it may be linked to his childhood.

He moved to England from Bosnia as a child in 1993 after the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Before fleeing, he and his family had been put in a concentration camp. He was three years old.

Many thousands died in camps during the war in Bosnia during the 1990s, and millions of others displaced.

"My mum was in one with me and my sister, and the other one was for for men and boys older than 15," he said.

"I lost a lot of family but I can't remember them," he said. "My mum and dad prefer not to talk about it and relive that memory."

His family managed to escape, and were initially housed in a hostel in Rugby before moving to Coventry in 1993.

"We started from nothing basically," he said.

"I remember my parents sleeping on a rug on the floor, we had no heating or nothing."

He first noticed his tics when he was eight and starting school.

"I felt weird shrugs in my shoulder, it was twitching, I couldn't control it," he said.

He had taken medication since then to help keep the tics under control.

Tourette's syndrome is a condition that causes a person to make involuntary sounds and movements called tics.

It usually starts during childhood, but the tics and other symptoms usually improve after several years and sometimes go away completely.

There is no cure but treatment can help manage symptoms.

Source: NHS

Since finding his passion for music, Mr Enko said his condition has improved and now he wants to see a better understanding of living with Tourette's.

"Every movie, every TV series that has somebody with Tourette's, they have someone swearing, a random outburst," he said.

"That's not what it's about - I've lived with it for 20 years. What about the people who have just tics?"

But performing his music helps the condition disappear, he said.

"You can't notice it, I'm a completely different guy," he added, "the more I perform the more happy I feel."

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