From isolation to advocacy

As a child, Jae-Leigh Lobban could often be seen shaking her legs, sometimes uncontrollably. It was a seemingly minor habit that she paid little attention to, often attributing the movements to anxiety, that was until she was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome last year. A few years prior, at 18 years old, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Now 22 years old, Lobban spends much of her time on social media educating Jamaicans about both conditions, using the platform not only as a therapeutic outlet, but also as a tool to raise awareness. Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental nervous system disorder that causes sudden, repetitive, and involuntary movements or sounds called tics. There are two main types of tics: motor and vocal.

Motor tics are fast physical movements such as blinking, shrugging shoulders, or jerking the head. Vocal tics are sounds such as throat clearing, shouting, grunting, or sniffing. Meanwhile, bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that causes shifts in a person’s mood, energy levels, and thoughts.

Lobban said both diagnoses were difficult to accept. “There were a lot of tears shed when I first found out about each of the diagnoses. I was hospitalised for both of them at some point in time, and then I just got to a point in my life where I just had to accept that this is who I am and there’s nothing I can do about it, so I might as well accept it and try to spread awareness about both of them,” Lobban told the Jamaica Observer.

She said that, looking back, the signs and symptoms were there for both conditions, but they were overlooked because of a lack of information and awareness, which led her to seek medical attention later. LOBBAN...I hope this article will help educate people so that I’m able to feel more comfortable leaving the house “As a child, my symptoms were very minuscule. For Tourette’s, I only had a leg-shaking tic, and I genuinely, as a child, just thought I was shaking my leg and couldn’t stop it.

As a child, you don’t know that there’s something wrong with you. For bipolar disorder, I think the signs were there as a kid, but I was also just such a well-mannered child that it kind of got overlooked. “As someone who is bipolar, you go through manic stages, and something you might do when you’re manic is rearrange your entire room.