For years, Jideonwo struggled with unexplained twitching, vocal tics and compulsive behaviours that doctors repeatedly dismissed as being “in his head.” It was only after a neurologist carefully examined his symptoms that he received clarity. “What I had was Tourette’s Syndrome.” Chude says.
The diagnosis, Tourette’s Syndrome, a neurological condition associated with movement and vocal tics and often linked with ADHD, OCD, anxiety and depression, finally gave language to experiences he had lived with since childhood. He reveals “It started when I was a child and I began to show symptoms that frightened my mother… A friend had apparently told me it could be Tourette a while before, but though the symptoms fit, I just didn’t take it seriously. It sounded too ‘foreign’.”
