Since the age of eight, Ho Lee Ching has been living with Tourette Syndrome (TS) â a neurological disorder that causes repetitive involuntary movements (motor tics) and sounds (vocal tics) to occur. On top of that, she also has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Anxiety Disorder (AD).
But it was not until Ho participated in Joe Hashamâs Acting for Beginners workshop in 2018 that she actually started to see her condition in a new light.
She was able to momentarily escape from TS as she moved along with the music when performing on stage.
âI felt like I had control of my body and it was liberating,â she said.
âI think it is when Iâm able to mentally, physically and emotionally align myself, where my body and mind are moving towards one goal, my tics tend to disappear for a while. Not many things I do can get me to that aligned state, though. So far, only acting, dancing and painting have allowed me to tap into that space.â
It was also during the workshop that Ho first found the courage to speak up about her condition to a group of people, when everyone was seated in a circle to reflect and share about their progress.
âIt was a scary thing to do at the time, but I was really done trying to hide it. It was difficult for me to focus in class because all my energy went into trying to suppress my tics. It was so, so exhausting.
âEven with me trying to hide my tics, there were classmates who were shushing me the weeks before, thinking I was deliberately making noises to distract the class,â Ho added.
Ten years later and after many performances to her credit, Ho made her directorial debut titled OCD in 2018 about the struggles and the journey to overcome OCD while raising awareness about mental health.
In her following theatre piece In/Out (2019), she explored what it felt like to be different, while stuck in a perpetual state of being included and excluded in a group of people.
