Julian Fellowes opens up about living with a tremor
Downton Abbey and Belgravia creator Julian Fellowes has spoken publicly for first time about living with a tremor, revealing on Lorraine that his condition is incurable.
“Nobody talks about it, but also nobody’s ever heard of it. It’s called an essential tremor and as you can see my hands are shaking," he explained.
“It gets better and worse, worse in the morning... actually it’s better when you’ve had a drink which is an interesting detail," he added.
Julian wants to raise awareness of the condition which - he says - can be mistaken by some people as Parkinson's.
“What I’m anxious to do is get it out there. So when people have a shake that is unexplained to them and they’re possibly panicking that it’s Parkinson’s, I would just say to them please go to the doctor. The truth is you are eight times more likely to be suffering from an essential tremor than Parkinson’s.
“It doesn’t kill you. It doesn’t hurt. It’s a nuisance. It’s tiresome. But there are plenty of things that are worse in the world that people have to put up with," he said.
Explaining how he's attempted to raise awareness in the past, the Downton writer said:
"That’s why on Downton in the last episode of the final series we gave Carson an essential tremor, so he couldn’t pour the wine. Even then the newspapers referred to it as Parkinson’s because they didn’t know it was a tremor.”
Unfortunately, the medication that can be used to alleviate the condition doesn't work for Julian.
While he kept the information of his illness to himself initially, he now tells people he meets and explains the reason for his shaking.
"First of all, I was completely in denial. ‘Oh I must have not slept enough last night, too much coffee…’ then I went to a specialist. He gratifyingly to me said, ‘No this is what you’ve got, it’s incurable, you’ll probably never get rid of it’, which I much prefer, then you know what you’re dealing with," he said.
“But then nobody ever mentioned it. I thought nobody noticed. Finally, my wife Emma said, ‘You must say at the beginning because everyone is looking at you thinking either he’s drunk or terrified. Whereas if you say right at the start you’ve got this tremor then they don’t care anymore.’ Now I do that, I don’t mistake silence for not noticing.”
If you're concerned you might have an essential tremor, visit the NHS' website for more information and consult your GP.
Lorraine airs weekdays at 8.30am on ITV.
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