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Media entrepreneur and storyteller Chude Jideonwo has opened up about a deeply personal chapter of his life in his memoir, How Depression Saved My Life, revealing for the first time the long and often confusing journey that led to his diagnosis with Tourette’s Syndrome.
For years, Jideonwo struggled with unexplained twitching, vocal tics and compulsive behaviours that doctors repeatedly dismissed as psychological. It was only after a neurologist carefully evaluated his symptoms that he finally got clarity. “What I had was Tourette’s Syndrome,” he said.
The diagnosis — a neurological condition characterised by involuntary movements and vocal tics, often linked with conditions such as ADHD, OCD, anxiety and depression — gave him language for experiences he had lived with since childhood.
“It started when I was a child and I began to show symptoms that frightened my mother… A friend had mentioned it might be Tourette’s, but though the symptoms fit, I didn’t take it seriously. It sounded too ‘foreign’,” he recalled.
In the book, Jideonwo reflects on the relief that came with understanding what he was facing. The diagnosis helped him realise that many of the behaviours he had battled privately — involuntary twitching, sudden sounds or words, obsessive repetitions and intense anxiety — were not personal failings but symptoms of a neurological condition.
Although medication initially proved difficult due to severe side effects, the knowledge itself became a turning point. Understanding the condition reduced the emotional burden and allowed him to begin managing it through therapy, self-awareness and self-compassion.
Jideonwo says the experience has shaped his lifelong commitment to empathy, mental health awareness and creating safe spaces for honest conversations. By sharing his story, he hopes to challenge the stigma surrounding neurological and mental health conditions and remind people that differences should never be a source of shame.
“Normal is a loaded word,” he writes. “Instead of shaming those who are different, we should create a world where difference is accepted with the same ease as sameness.”
Through his memoir, he continues to use storytelling as a tool for healing, understanding and connection.
