Related Articles

Facial tics are brief, repetitive, irregular twitches of the face's muscles. They are extremely varied, but the most usual ones are eye blinking, facial grimacing, mouth twitches, nose wrinkling, squinting along with grunting and throat clearing. Such tics are usually symptomatic of nervous conditions such as Tourette syndrome. They traditionally occur during childhood and may disappear within some weeks, but some can last much longer.

The causing factors of facial tics are still not fully understood, but some things are suspected of triggering or worsening the symptoms. Tics may be caused by some nutritional deficiencies such as a lack of magnesium, but they may also very often be symptoms of other diseases such as Tourette syndrome, whose causes are thought to be neurological, and, to a certain extent, genetically inherited. Stress and anxiety have also been proven to trigger and greatly aggravate the frequency of facial tics.

Facial tics can be tough to deal with everyday especially for children. Teachers, schoolmates and sometimes even parents, may not be able to understand how tough it is to try to hold back the tics, especially for a long time period such as for example a class. People will most often tell the child to "quit it", or may even mock him or her because of the tics.

From eye blinking to facial grimaces, tics usually feel inappropriate and embarrassing for both children and adults. It is also toilsome when one must try to control them all the time. This obsession can make you overly self-critical and you can thus start to lose self-confidence and to develop some kind of social anxiety.

It is however possible to get rid of this embarrassment and to avoid other people's uncomfortable looks. There are ways to significantly reduce, and even sometimes completely cure, facial tics, in order to restore your peace of mind and have a fully normal life. You would never have to worry again about facial grimaces or controlling any irritating twitches.

Facial tics are traditionally not treated or, in some acute cases or when the tics are related to Tourette syndrome, patients may be given neuroleptics which are also prescribed to treat diseases such as attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia or obsessive-compulsive behaviors. These drugs were not developed to cure facial tics particularly and may not work all the time.

Moreover, they are known to have numerous adverse effects both in the short and long run. Depression, insomnia, weight gain, sexual dysfunction and anxiety are only some of the many adverse effects which can be caused by such drugs. Some of them can even worsen tics in the long run! But there are however other ways of dealing with facial tics which are entirely natural and free of adverse effects.

Methods which work with (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and hypnosis have been developed specifically for the purpose of treating facial tics. They can help you reduce them over time. In order to understand how those methods work it is important to remember that tics are not a totally physiological condition and are not entirely involuntary either. They are a response to an unconscious impulse to perform the movement of the tic. This desire unpleasantly builds up as you try to avoid performing the movement. Those impulses also grow in both frequency and intensity if the patient feels stress or anxiety or if he is placed in certain situations.

Facial tics are a way to relieve pressure when you are feeling anxiety or are in a stressful environment. This unconscious association may be treated using NLP and hypnosis because they are able to alter the type of behavior your unconscious provokes when you are placed in certain situations. If acute, the therapist will get rid of the facial tic by suggesting the unconscious have you twitch your toe instead. When you move your toe it is not apparent or visible to people around you. Hypnosis also allows you to become a lot more relaxed in general, so it is a soothing experience. It will help you suppress both the anxiety and stress which worsen facial tics.

Facial tics come in a lot of different forms: eye blinking, nose wrinkling, mouth twitches, squinting, grunting, facial grimacing or throat clearing. If tics have physical causes, there are also as we have seen, very strong psychological factors. Stress and anxiety are without a doubt the most important of these factors. Tics have their roots in the unconscious mind as a response to states of stress or anxiety; using NLP and self-hypnosis you can alter this association. Stress and anxiety may also be effectively fought in the long run with the stress relieving and soothing methods of hypnotherapy, which will considerably decrease the occurrence of facial tics.

Alan B. Densky, CH offers facial tick hypnotherapy programs as well as a broad range of popular titles for all anxiety related symptoms. For delight and education visit his Free hypnotherapy video library at his Neuro-VISION hypnosis website.