A young mother woke up to discover she had Tourette’s syndrome, which has left her swearing at friends and family.
Hayleigh-Elizabeth Honey, 27, from Penryn, Cornwall, woke up one day in September and found herself shaking before she quickly developed muscle spasms and an inability to control her speech.
She had no underlying health problems but now regularly launches foul-mouth abuse at people.
The mother-of-two constantly calls her husband Matt a ‘c**t’ and tells her children, Luna five, and Zephyr, two, to ‘f**k off’.
She also sticks her middle finger up at everyone she sees and says ‘have one of these’.
Hayleigh-Elizabeth Honey, 27, from Penryn, Cornwall, woke up to discover she had Tourette’s syndrome, which has left her swearing at friends and family. She woke up one day in September and found herself shaking before she quickly developed muscle spasms and an inability to control her speech. Pictured right: The mother having an episode at her home
Hayleigh said: ‘This is completely new, I had no idea this was going to happen. I’ve never had anything like this before.
‘It all started in one day, I woke up with shakes that I thought nothing of because I hadn’t eaten yet but it didn’t ease off.
‘Around lunchtime I started having shoulder twitches, and when my husband got home at about 7pm I was hitting myself and shouting out random phrases.
‘The next morning it was so bad I could only speak with a stammer, I couldn’t talk properly, so I went straight to my doctor.’
Hayleigh’s doctor at first thought it could have been triggered by a viral infection, and told the mother to go home and wait for it to pass.
But a week later Hayleigh’s tics had got worse so she returned for more tests.
The mother-of-two constantly calls her husband Matt a ‘c**t’ and tells her children, Luna five, and Zephyr, two, to ‘f**k off’
She continued: ‘The doctor said he had never seen it before and sent me back out to the waiting room and phoned the neurologist before calling my back into the room.
‘He then said he thought it was a viral infection and that it would pass, but a week later it hadn’t so I went straight back.
‘I saw a different GP and was referred the same day medical assessment unit at Treliske Hospital, there I had a CT scan – they didn’t want to do an MRI because I would have to stay still for too long.
‘They took my fluids and they did tests, and it came back clear.’
Tourette’s Syndrome is a condition which affects the nervous system and causes people to have sudden twitches or movements known as ‘tics’.
It is only officially diagnosed after a person suffers with tics for a year or more, so Hayleigh is still waiting to see if the symptoms pass.
She also sticks her middle finger up at everyone she sees and says ‘have one of these’
Hayley had no underlying health problems but now regularly launches foul-mouth abuse at people. Pictured: The mother with Matt and Zephyr
She continued: ‘The only thing they could put it down too was genetics or chronic anxiety, I wasn’t stressed at the time but in the past I have suffered with mental health issues.
‘It’s hard to tell because at that time there was nothing stressful in my life, no more than any other mum.
‘Now I’m learning to live with it, I have to wait and see if it goes away on it’s own or if this is my life now.
‘My tics are changing every day, I get new ones depending on what songs I listen to or who I talk to.’
On one occasion, Hayleigh went to see her optometrist but soon found herself uncontrollably swearing at home.
She said: ‘I went in and explained and said I had a tic disorder, he said that was fine and then I told him to f*** off.
Hayley said her husband ignores all her tics, even though she said she calls him the c-word more than she tells him she loves him
‘He was fantastic, he laughed it off and said he played rugby last night so had been called worse.
‘Another one I’ve started is sticking my middle finger up at people and telling them to have one of these.
‘I’ve only done it to my sister, my husband, and my kids. My two year old hasn’t noticed, my daughter finds it funny mainly.
‘My husband ignores all my ticks, I never had to apologise to him. I call him the ‘c’ word more than I tell him I love him and it doesn’t bother him.’