TOURETTE’S
IN THE HOUSE
BY BARBARA MILLER
Chris Crewther, is a successful Victorian politician -
who happens to have Tourettes
Y
ou can know MP Chris Crewther for a long time
without realising he lives with Tourette Syndrome.
Do not expect to see him jerking and swearing
uncontrollably in Question Time.
“I think there’s a bit of a lack of awareness out there of
what Tourette’s is and that’s sometimes I think because
of some of the media or Hollywood portrayal of being
only swearing,” Mr Crewther told the ABC’s Lateline.
“I can occasionally have eye-blinking, twitching of the
mouth, head shaking or sniffing or doing mouth noises
or occasionally [moving my] shoulders, but mine is on
the more mild end.
“It tends to come out more when I’m more stressed.”
Mr Crewther had grown up simply accepting that he had
a few strange “habits”.
At school that resulted in bullying.
“My symptoms began between grades one to three,” he
said.
“Unfortunately I wasn’t diagnosed until my early 20s.
This meant a lot of bullying at school.
“I used to get the sort of things, ‘Blinky Chris, his eyes
go like this’.”
Staff advised him to speak out publicly
He revealed his condition in a speech to Parliament late
last year, and the Member for Dunkley is now the patron
for the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia.
“In this role I felt I had a responsibility, particularly for
young kids out there who may have Tourette’s or may
not yet be diagnosed, to be an example for them and
also to raise awareness of the issue,” he said.
About one in 10 people with Tourette Syndrome (TS)
has a swearing tic, but the syndrome can take on many
other forms.
Mr Crewther’s office staff figured out their boss had TS
a while before he told them.
“The day that he told us that he had Tourette’s we both
sat there and we said, ‘Yeah we know’. He was a bit
shocked,” office manager Nathan Hersey said.
“He was like, ‘How did you know?’ And we were like, ‘Well
there’s a few giveaways’.”
Mr Hersey said they advised their boss he should go
public with his condition.
“We had thought what happens if something is stressing
him out or triggers a vocal tic,” he said.