TikTok Tics The worldwide medical mystery causing severe Tourette’s-like tics in teenage girls
But an explosion of severe tics and Tourette’s-syndrome-like behaviours in teenage girls is certainly one of the more bizarre.
60 Minutes investigated a rise in severe tics in teenage girls over the last two and a half years, which initially had doctors in Australia and around the world puzzled.
“Certainly the first couple of patients, I thought, ‘Oh, what is this?'” paediatric neurologist Professor Russell Dale told 60 Minutes reporter Sarah Abo.
“But then, when you saw a couple more patients, and I started speaking to a few people around the world, who were also seeing something similar, then the penny dropped.”
Dale was suddenly inundated with new patients — all teenage girls, all presenting with tics that appeared out of nowhere.
He and his colleagues looked to the dramatic disruption in our lives during the pandemic for answers.
The severe stress of social isolation is what they have identified as the key factor driving this new wave of tics.
“Often the young people had a history of some problems such as anxiety and depression. But then the stress of the pandemic plus other stress factors in life accumulated, and if you are chronically stressed, the body starts to fail and, and struggles to cope. And that’s what we think is going on,” he said.
“It is a perfect storm.”
Another factor arose in many cases Dale was seeing: social media.
‘I think it became almost like a contagion, or they started to mimic, to do these tics’
Comparing stories with medical colleagues around the world, they surmised that the increase in sudden onset tics in teenage girls could be being triggered by TikTok videos.
“Across the world, both in Australia and then America, [they] were using similar phrases. And it was that which made us think that social media was a link in what was going on,” he said.
Dale said tics and Tourette’s syndrome were not contagious and could not be “caught” but the nature of tics and tic-swapping in young people could mean many teenagers dealing with tics could mimic each other.
“I think it became almost like a contagion, or they started to mimic, to do these tics,” he said.
“There is something called suggestibility, so suggestibility is if you see something, you’re more likely to do it.”
It’s why so many ticking teenagers on apps like TikTok were saying the same words or phrases despite never speaking to one another in person.
‘She just couldn’t stop herself, it was really scary as to what was actually happening’
In the last few years, Tourette’s videos have gained a massive following online.
On TikTok alone they account for more than six billion views.
15-year-old Nicole Lynn from Hertfordshire, England, uses the platform to spread awareness about the perculiar condition after her tics were perpetuated by the anxiety of the COVID-19 lockdown.
“I was very lonely. I think everyone was. It was a period of time that I kinda didn’t know what to do with myself,” Nicole said.
What began as a series of neck and facial twitches at 13 soon escalated to an extraordinary array of physical and colourful vocal tics that have seen her hospitalised five times.
While her mother, Jodie, has learnt to handle her daughter’s attacks, she can’t help but be affected by Nicole’s debilitating and often scary tic episodes that can last for hours on end.
“Those tic attacks are horrific,” Jodie Lynn told 60 Minutes.
“She’s clawing her eyes out or smashing herself in the face or smashing her head on the wall or the floor. She just couldn’t stop herself, it was really scary as to what was actually happening.”
Nicole was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome and functional neurological disorder as her tics continued.
Two years into the pandemic, Dale and his colleagues are still unsure of how widespread this condition is, although the neurologist does estimate potentially hundreds of thousands of people have been affected around the world.
But in this bizarre epidemic sparked by a pandemic, the professor told Abo the spontaneous condition could “definitely” be managed and, for some, even overcome.
And while it might be a lifetime before we have a handle on the true impact of the pandemic on our kids, for the teenagers living with tics it’s a case of taking each unpredictable day at a time.
“I think I know my limit. I think I know when I’m getting too much and I kind of need to walk out and kind of sort myself out,” Nicole said.
“But I’m still trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t.”
