Former Gogglebox star Scarlett Moffatt has been open about her experiences with ticks as a teenager and last night, Tuesday, July 19, fronted her own documentary on Channel 4, Britain's Tourette's Mystery: Scarlett Moffatt Investigates.
During the documentary, Moffatt interviewed a neurologist who blames social media for exacerbating the outbreak of Tourette's, explaining that drawing attention to tics is the exact opposite of medical advice. Scarlett's documentary throughout poses the question of how social media can affect and shape young minds.
The show gained mixed reactions from viewers on social media, with some questioning the programme's information and Moffatt's presenting. One user on Twitter said: "From someone who suffers with Tourette's, please believe me when I tell you, Tourette's syndrome isn't contagious. Please do not believe this documentary."
Another user said: "Scarlett Moffatt, Tourette's are[sic] not contagious ffs. Embarrassing 'journalism'."
Many on Twitter, however, questioned the reliability of Moffatt as a presenter: "Immediately turned off Britain's Tourette's Mystery when well-known scientist and health expert Scarlett Moffatt asked if it could be contagious in her opening monologue."
In Scarlett's opening monologue Scarlett said: "In the last 18 months there has been an explosion of ticks suddenly appearing amongst young people, but why has it happened now and why is it affecting so many young people?
"I'm on a mission to try and find out if this has been magnified by Covid and lockdown, if it's now become contagious and if social media is part of the problem."
However, another user jumped to Moffatt's defence from some of the comments on social media: "Some really insensitive tweets about Tourette's. I'm glad Scarlett Moffatt is raising awareness, especially with the seizures and tick attacks."
Another user took to Twitter to show their support for the documentary: "Britain's Tourette's Mystery with Scarlett Moffatt was fascinating. Just shows how much we are all being hypnotised by social media. Especially kids. Frightening."
Appearing on This Morning yesterday to speak about the programme, the ex-Gogglebox star said: "I actually had ticks when I was younger. So when I was 11 I didn't have verbal ticks, I had facial ones, especially with my eyes.
"Luckily mine went on their own, but I remember how lonely and scared I felt at the time because it's hard being a teenager anyway, never mind not being in control of your own body. During lockdown I kept being sent articles saying the rise of ticks in teenagers was just going crazy.
"Great Ormond Street for example would see four to five referrals a year from young girls, and then six months into the pandemic they were seeing four to five a week. So I was like why is no one talking about this?"
Describing how having a tick actually feels, Moffatt said: "It's like having the hiccups that's the only way I can describe it personally. You can suppress them which is what I found out I was actually doing when I was at school, so as soon as I'd come home all of them would come out all at once."
Scarlett said she hoped people would take away from the documentary that people need to start a conversation with their own children about how the pandemic has affected them, asking parents to "openly start a conversation to check that they're (their kids) alright".
You can catch up with Scarlett's documentary on All4, now.
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