Monica Nguyen has made it her life mission to raise awareness about Tourette Syndrome through her TikTok account, @meowmonz.
Listen to the latest episode of Tourette’s Talk.
Nguyen was diagnosed with Tourette’s at the age of seven after initially being misdiagnosed with a cough.
Her condition peaked during Years 11 and 12 and she has since lived with coprolalia—the involuntary utterance of obscene words, socially inappropriate remarks, or taboo phrases—which has lead to confrontation in public.
Speaking with Youth Jam’s Isaac Mulcrone, Nguyen shared that she has had to defend herself her entire life.
“My whole life I’ve had to defend myself, in public spaces or with bullies. In high school I had to advocate for myself, so my best advice is just having your own back and trusting your gut feeling,” she told Tourette’s Talk listeners.
The 23-year-old now dedicates her time to educating social media users about Tourette’s. She posts videos demonstrating how she completes daily tasks while managing tics, as well as highlighting the abuse individuals with the condition often endure in public.
In a recent video, she revealed that she experiences bilingual tics, explaining how they manifest and what triggers them for her.
“I moved from Australia to Vietnam and ever since living in Vietnam I’ve had bilingual tics. Bilingual tics are basically tics in different languages.
“Tics can be multilingual, say you have an Italian background and Tourette’s, some people might have Italian and English tics. I have tics according to the country I’m in,” she said.
Nguyen explained that when traveling abroad, she intentionally avoids learning swear words in other languages to mitigate against ticking them.
She added that the sense of relief following a tic does not always occur unless she tics in the primary language of the country she is currently in.
“With the Corpolalia, if you’re swearing English in a Vietnamese country, it’s not as much relief so you have to swear in Vietnamese.”
