TikTok star Dixie D'Amelio addressed rumors that she 'fakes seizures for attention' and opened up about her struggles with anxiety and a rare condition (2024)

"One day kids were making TikToks towards the end of class, then somebody brought up Charli, he had no idea who she was, then someone brought up Dixie and he remembered her easily," the source wrote in a DM to internet commentary channel Def Noodles (Dennis Feitosa) that he tweeted out.

"He said he had her as a student and that she used to pretend to have seizures during his class and that it got annoying after a while."

—Def Noodles (@defnoodles) August 17, 2020

In a livestream, D'Amelio said she experienced seizures in high school because of a condition caused by anxiety

Later that day, D'Amelio livestreamed her own explanation, which she said was "very, very personal" that she "would never want on the internet." After the livestream ended, D'Amelio gave popular TikTok drama account "@tiktokroom" permission to post a clip of her saying: "It's just so dumb, the things people say, so they can take other people down."

*permission by dixie to post this* #dixiedamelio talks about people from her school spreading her personal issues

A post shared by The Tiktok Shaderoom (@tiktokroom) on Aug 17, 2020 at 9:33am PDTAug 17, 2020 at 9:33am PDT

In a longer recording of the stream, D'Amelio explains that she experienced severe anxiety during her sophom*ore year of high school, leading to Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures (PNES), which are attacks that may look like epileptic seizures but are caused by psychological factors.

D'Amelio said on her livestream that in April of her sophom*ore year, she began to feel shaky during the school day and asked a friend to help her walk to her mom's car that was waiting outside.

"I fall to the ground and have a seizure," D'Amelio said. "Then I'm taken to the hospital and I'm there for two days while they are constantly monitoring me and I have over 400 of these compulsions over the next few days."

D'Amelio then said that she left school after being hospitalized and was on bed rest for about five months, at which point she transferred schools and began attending a new one for her junior year. In addition to the rumors that she was "faking" seizures, D'Amelio said there are rumors about why she switched schools, and that her PNES was the real reason why.

D'Amelio also said that because of PNES, she developed a stutter and would shake any time she experienced anxiety.

"I wanted to address this right away, because that's something I don't like talking about at all but I'm not going to let anyone think of me any other way," D'Amelio said.

"I was a person when I was at my old school who I did not like. I was not myself, because I had so much anxiety and everything going through my brain at the time where I couldn't even have a proper conversation with anyone. I'm so thankful for who I am now and what I am and all that. "

—dixie (@dixiedamelio) August 17, 2020

After her livestream ended, D'Amelio tweeted that she was "done with the internet today."

—dixie (@dixiedamelio) August 17, 2020

A few hours later, she wrote "imma use this opportunity to help spread awareness about some of the things ive been through because even though i dont do it offten i think it's important to talk about mental health."

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