'Miracle' device easing teenager's Tourette symptoms

For 13-year-old Millie, living with Tourette syndrome has meant far more than occasional tics.

Over the past year, the condition has affected her independence, confidence and education, forcing her to spend months away from school.

However her family say a new watch-like device has been transformative.

"I just have a really big fear of being judged," says Millie, from Yarm in Stockton-on-Tees.

"I feel like that's got worse since I got my tics."

Millie, who also has autism, developed tics when she was about seven or eight years old. For several years they were largely facial and motor tics but, at the start of this year, her symptoms escalated dramatically.

"It just went insane," she says.

Her mother, Linzi, remembers the sudden change vividly.

"We were doing a TikTok video and the first swear word came out and we were just, like, oh my days, where did that come from," she says. "And then it just escalated from there."

What followed was a difficult period for the family as Millie's tics became increasingly severe and, at times, dangerous.

She experienced frequent attacks, often harming herself by repeatedly striking her arms, leaving extensive bruising. On one occasion, the family feared she had fractured her arm.

"My longest tic attack was five hours," Millie says. "I was just karate chopping my arm over and over again for about two hours and my whole arm was bruised."

At another stage she developed a compulsion to pull out her own hair.

"She was pulling her hair out from the root," Linzi says. "It was horrendous. As a family, it was just awful."

The severity of Millie's symptoms meant she was repeatedly admitted to hospital and eventually prescribed medication to help manage the condition. Beyond the physical effects, the emotional impact was equally difficult, she says.

"I couldn't really live my life," she says. "It was just always 'what if?'"

Everyday situations became a source of anxiety. Loud noises, crowds and overstimulating environments could trigger tic episodes. Family meals became challenging, trips to the cinema were "overwhelming" because of the noise.

Travelling in a car carried risks because of unpredictable movements. Millie would often grab hold of the steering wheel or try to open the car door while the vehicle was moving.

However, Millie and her family have recently experienced a "dramatic change" after she began using a wrist-worn device called Neupulse, which looks like a watch and is designed to reduce tics through stimulation of the median nerve.

As Millie prepares to put on the device she is experiencing coprolalia tics - she is swearing, quietly, but when the device is turned it on, this stops.

Millie is one of the first in the country to use the device, which cost £500 - a price Linzi says she would pay over and over if it helped her daughter live a life not dominated by tic attacks.

It also requires a monthly subscription which costs £20 per month, covering appupdates and gel pads to use with the device.

On bad days, Millie worried about shouting involuntary comments in public or accidentally touching strangers.

"If I was out in public and I swore, I would worry that something was going to happen," she says. "It's constant worrying about if someone's going to say something or do something."

Those fears were reinforced by negative experiences with members of the public.

"There was this one time at the park and these boys were saying I was faking," she says. "They were copying me and saying I looked like a chicken.

"I was mortified. I was embarrassed. I didn't know what to do."

Millie is particularly passionate about improving public understanding of Tourette syndrome.

"I want people to know that it's not something that we can help," she says. "If we're not ticking 24/7, that doesn't mean we're faking."

Millie says previously going to the cinema was too "overwhelming" and could trigger tic attacks but, using the device, she has been able to go with a friend and felt comfortable throughout the film, knowing a tic attack was far less likely.

The new device was developed following research led by Prof Stephen Jackson and his team at the University of Nottingham.

"About 15 years ago we talked to a lot of people with Tourette syndrome and tic disorders and we asked them what should be the priority for our research," he says.

"They said they wanted a non-drug treatment that was safe and effective and that they could use at home to give them control over their tics."

Researchers investigated whether stimulation of the median nerve in the wrist could send signals to areas of the brain involved in movement and help reduce tic activity. The device was trialled by singer Lewis Capaldi and featured in the film I Swear, based on the life of John Davidson, a Tourette syndrome activist.

"We did a UK-wide clinical trial," Jackson says. "That showed that this stimulation could be very effective in reducing tics and then we developed a device for people like Millie."

The effects have been profound for the 13-year-old, who says it made her feel safe.

Her mother believes it has been life-changing.

"She's sitting in the front of the car, we've been out for a family meal, she's doing things independently again," she says. "For a 13-year-old, she'd had her independence stripped away from her.

"It is literally a miracle."

Follow BBC Tees on X,Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram and listen to Radio Tees on BBC Sounds.