Whether violent, blasphemous, extremely problematic or just downright weird, we’ve all experienced intrusive thoughts. Most of the time, we don’t give them the light of day.
However, one group of people is sometimes accused of letting those inner thoughts loose: those with Tourette syndrome.
That accusation was frequently repeated in the wake of the 2026 BAFTA film awards, during which Tourette’s activist John Davidson shouted a racial slur while actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were onstage.
In response, some viewers blamed Davidson for his racist language, arguing that the slur wasn’t “just” a tic but a glimpse into his true beliefs – as though the outburst had exposed thoughts he was secretly harbouring.
The discussion soon moved beyond the BAFTAs. US comedy show Saturday Night Live recently featured a sketch about Tourette syndrome, in which controversial celebrities blame their behaviour on the condition.
Emma McNally, the CEO of charity Tourettes Action, said the sketch was “designed to ridicule Tourette’s and reduce our community to a punchline.”
This was at a time, she continued, when the Tourette’s community faced “an unprecedented wave of online trolling, misinformation, and targeted mockery,” following the BAFTAs.
According to neuroscientists who study the condition, much of the backlash reflects a persistent misunderstanding of how Tourette’s – and intrusive thoughts more broadly – actually work.
“It’s just the most horrific situation,” says Prof Eileen Joyce, neurologist at University College London (UCL).
“There’s John with this insulting tic that he can’t control, and there are the people on the stage bearing the brunt of it.
"It must have been terrible for them – but John does not deserve the blame.”
To understand why responsibility is not straightforward here, it helps to disentangle a few key questions...
What's the difference between a thought and a tic?
Intrusive thoughts are a universal human experience. However, people with Tourette’s are more likely to report them frequently and struggle to let them pass.
This is partly because Tourette’s often overlaps with conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which involves persistent, unwanted thoughts that feel difficult to control.
“Some of the underlying brain mechanisms for Tourette’s are shared with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD and OCD,” says Prof Stephen Jackson, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Nottingham.
“That’s why they’re so commonly co-occurring. About 60 per cent of people who have Tourette’s have OCD as well.”
Scientists still don’t fully understand the exact biology behind Tourette’s. But most evidence points to disruptions in the brain systems that help us choose certain actions – and hold others back.
When those control systems work less precisely, the brain’s internal filtering system allows unwanted behaviours to slip through.
The result? Jackson says: “In a sense, instead of this smooth, efficient system – which is selecting one action and suppressing others – you’ve got a noisy system where there are competing actions breaking through as tics.”
The same brain systems are also involved in noticing decisions we make again and again, and running them on autopilot – like brushing your teeth or driving to work.
“Tics are like habits,” says Jackson. “They happen automatically, without any great deal of thought, as a result of external triggers.”
But while you may brush your teeth without having to make a conscious effort, Tourette’s tics go one step further than this. They’re completely involuntary.
Intrusive thoughts are too – and, as Jackson explains, the two can end up feeding into one another.
“Imagine you’ve got Tourette’s,” he says. “You know that you have these vocal outbursts, which can be stressful for you. You say obscene words or shout out racial slurs – you know this is a possibility.
“You may be thinking, ‘I must not do this’. We think what happens with Tourette’s is that these internal thoughts – that you must not do something – trigger you automatically doing those things.”
In other words, the very effort to suppress a feared outburst can make it more likely. So, far from these tics reflecting what an individual believes, they may be indicative of the exact opposite: what someone deeply does not want to say.
“This is a bit like saying to yourself, I mustn't think about X or Y,” continues Jackson. “As soon as you start thinking ‘I mustn't’, you're already thinking about it.”
And, adds Jackson, both intrusive thoughts and tics can get worse when someone is under pressure.
“Tics are exacerbated by stress, by anxiety, by being in particularly difficult situations, where you're likely to tic,” he says.
“That's going to make you more anxious, and that's going to make your tics worse. It's a bit of a vicious cycle.”
Read more:
- Scientists may have figured out how to control intrusive thoughts
- Online self-diagnosis culture is subtly failing your mental health. Here’s how to break free
Can tics be controlled?
Tics are not only involuntary and unrelated to a person’s beliefs, but they are usually entirely separate from that person’s inner monologue.
In fact, the majority of tics are innocuous movements and sounds, such as shrugging, blinking, coughing, sniffing, or non-swear words.
Only a small proportion of people with Tourette’s – around 10–20 per cent – experience coprolalia, meaning their tics include offensive language.
Even when a tic involves words, it can erupt in an instant, closer to a muscle spasm than a spoken thought.
“The important thing to stress here is that this is an involuntary action,” Jackson says.
“Many people with vocal tics say they know they're about to tic, but they don't know what they're going to say until they hear themselves saying it.”
For the individuals who do know they’re about to tic, they can try to suppress it. But when they do this, they experience what’s called a ‘premonitory urge’.
“This can be described as an uncomfortable bodily sensation that builds up, like a tension or pressure, until the tic explodes out,” explains Jackson.
It’s like when you have a cold but don’t want to make a noise. The urge to cough, sneeze or sniff might build up the longer you try to restrain yourself.
But not everyone experiences this pulmonary urge. Davidson has said he has almost no ability to suppress his tics. They just burst out.
“Many people with tics are not even aware they’re about to tic until they find themselves ticking,” says Jackson.
“I’ve had people say, ‘I used to have Tourette’s, but I don’t anymore’ – and they’re ticking while they’re telling me this.”
Jackson says it’s a reminder that much of what the brain does happens outside of our control.
“This recent discussion about John Davidson at the BAFTAs has thrown up the question of how much of our behaviour is triggered automatically by unconscious processes in the brain,” he says.
“Not all of our behaviour is controlled consciously. We simply find ourselves behaving in that way.”
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