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I'd like you to imagine
what it would feel like

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if, for two whole minutes,
your left arm was continuously flapping,

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your eyes were constantly rolling,

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your jaw was clenching so hard

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that it felt like your teeth
were about to break,

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and every ten seconds,

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you were forced to let out
a loud, high-pitched screech.

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(Tic)

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This is how I lived
at the young age of six,

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every waking moment, seven days a week.

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(Tic)

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And these were only some of my symptoms.

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When these symptoms surfaced,
my life literally changed overnight.

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I could no longer go to school,
see my friends or even eat out,

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because my tics would attract
the attention of everyone in the room.

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In search for a cure, we flew to New York

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to meet with the best pediatric
neuropsychologist my parents could find.

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(Tic)

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But the doctor did not give us
the easy remedy we had hoped for.

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Instead, she diagnosed me
with an incurable neurological disorder,

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Tourette's syndrome.

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Oftentimes, medication can be
an essential and valuable part

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of many treatment processes.

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But in my case, the drugs
only made things worse.

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One drug put me in a wheelchair,

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because my legs had gotten so numb
that I couldn't move them.

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Another one caused me to hallucinate.

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I would see green people running after me,

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threatening to boil me in a pot
and drink me as soup.

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And it was really scary.

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We tried drug after drug

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to find something that would bring me
some sort of relief.

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But every single attempt
just ended up making things worse.

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It is estimated that in 2013
in the United States alone,

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the prescription drug expenditure

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to treat neurological conditions
and mental illness

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was about 89 billion dollars annually.

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But imagine if there were a way
to treat these conditions

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without a price or without side effects.

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Imagine if your doctor prescribed you
a daily dose of music.

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I'm here today to share with you
my personal experience with music

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and the effect that it had
on my neurological disorder.

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(Tic)

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Tourette's syndrome
is essentially a series

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of involuntary movements and sounds,

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known as tics.

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The best way for me to really describe
what it's like to have Tourette's syndrome

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is something I'm sure
you're all very familiar with --

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the hiccups.

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You can try to stop yourself from the act.

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You can hold your breath and count to 10,
or drink water upside down,

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but there is just nothing
you can do about it

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until the sensation passes
and the hiccups have taken their course.

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I often lay on my bedroom floor
after an attack of tics,

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feeling exhausted and in despair.

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(Tic)

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My equally desperate mother
would attempt to soothe me and herself

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by putting on some music.

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She would play peaceful music
to soothe our aching hearts.

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And we'd lie together on the floor

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and allow the beat
of the drums to uplift us.

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And as the rhythms and the tunes unfolded,

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our spirits would rise,
our moods would be lighter,

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and we would be rejuvenated.

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(Tic)

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Very soon, and rather unknowingly,
I became an addict of this newfound drug.

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When I found myself slipping
into my bouts of sadness and self-pity,

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I would rush to the 88 keys of my piano,

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knowing in my heart that the tones
and rhythms from each one of those keys

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would soon set me free.

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At the time, I didn't realize
how much music was helping me.

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It was just something I did by default.

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When I wrote my songs,
it wasn't to impress anybody.

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It was just a release.

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But the more I played,
the less my symptoms surfaced,

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and the intensity of my attacks reduced.

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So I became curious as to how
these songs were soothing my symptoms.

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And I wondered if there were
any other cases of medicinal music.

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So I began to search.

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I found that there was
a highly successful US congresswoman,

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Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head.

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She lost her ability to speak.

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Because the ability to speak
and the ability to sing

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lay in two separate parts of the brain,

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her doctors brought in
music therapists to work with her.

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The therapists encouraged her
to sing her thoughts,

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since she was incapable of speaking them.

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And through this technique,

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the congresswoman was finally able
to regain her speech.

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Music helped heal Gabby Giffords.

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Scientists have found that music causes
our brains to release a natural painkiller

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known as oxytocin

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and a feel-good chemical, dopamine.

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Dopamine is essential
for a healthy nervous system

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and strongly impacts emotional health.

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Music also affects our heart rate,
breathing and pulse rate,

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as it stimulates blood flow.

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In addition, it lowers
our cortisol levels,

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thus reducing anxiety,

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which is a common stimulant
for neurological symptoms.

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In our lifetimes, we are all going to know
someone with a neurological disorder.

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If it's not a family member --

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(Tic)

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it could be a friend or a coworker.

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Please help me spread this message:

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music has the ability to uplift our lives
and heal us from within.

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I still have Tourette's syndrome.

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I deal with it every day, every hour.

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I'm going to deal with it
for the rest of my life.

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And that means that I have to frequently
excuse myself from my classroom,

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because my verbal tics
can be extremely distracting.

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That means that sometimes
when I wink my eyes involuntarily,

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the guy sitting opposite from me
thinks I'm flirting with him,

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when I'm really not.

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(Laughter)

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And I have to tell him,
"Sorry -- I wasn't trying to flirt."

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But the most amazing thing is

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that when I sing, play music
and even just listen to music,

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I don't tic.

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I've been onstage numerous times
in highly stressful situations,

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with thousands of people watching me.

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And while I do tic
before my performance --

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(Tic)

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when the music starts,
the tics take a back seat.

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So I may have written my own lyrics
and composed my own music,

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but in reality, I realized
it was the music that composed me.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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(Tic)

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(Music)

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(Singing) I think I took
my mask off too soon

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'cause you were there
and then you were not

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I think I pushed it all onto you

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I should have dragged it out
dragged it out

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I think that maybe each time
I lose a bit of myself I put it back on

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just to fake it till I break
my own heart in two

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And oh I wanted you
to know the real me

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and take it seriously

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But now

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I'm not loving you
I'm not loving you

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I'm not loving you

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I thought I could trust you

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but you're running away
from me and my mask

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I'm not loving you
I'm not loving you

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I'm not loving you

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right now

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I think I took my mask off too soon

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because you screamed when I pulled it off

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You told me you were unprepared

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and like that
just like that

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I think that maybe this time
it hurt more than it ever has before

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I think maybe this blow I took
was a little more

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a little more

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And oh I wanted you
to know the real me

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and take it seriously

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But now

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I’m not loving you
I'm not loving you

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I'm not loving you

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I thought I could trust you

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but you're running away
from me and my mask

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I'm not loving you
I'm not loving you

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I'm not loving you

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right now

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(Applause)