Facial tics are repetitive, short, sporadic twitches of the facial muscles. They can be extremely different, but the most commonly seen are eye blinking, facial grimacing, nose wrinkling, mouth twitches, squinting as well as grunting and throat clearing. Such tics are usually symptomatic of neurological disorders like Tourette syndrome. They most often occur during childhood and can disappear within some weeks, but some can last indefinitely.
The causing factors of facial tics still are not fully understood, but a few things are thought to trigger or worsen the symptoms. Tics may result from some nutritional deficiencies like a magnesium insufficiency, but they are also very often symptoms of other conditions such as Tourette syndrome, whose causes are most likely neurological, and, to a certain extent, genetically inherited. Anxiety and stress have also been shown to provoke and significantly increase the frequency of facial tics.
facial tics in children
Facial tics are difficult to live with particularly for a child. Teachers, schoolmates and even sometimes parents, may not be able to understand how hard it is to try to hold back tics, particularly for an extended period of time such as for example a class. People will most often ask the child to “stop it”, or may even make fun of him or her because of the tics.
From eye blinking to facial grimaces, tics always feel embarrassing and inappropriate for adults and children alike. It is also exhausting when one must try to control them perpetually. This obsession could cause you to become excessively self-critical and you could consequently start to lose self-confidence and to develop some sort of social anxiety.
It is nonetheless possible to get rid of this uneasiness and to avoid other people’s uncomfortable stares. There are ways to considerably reduce, and even sometimes completely cure, facial tics, in order to regain your peace of mind and have a fully regular life. You might never have to worry again about facial grimaces or holding back any annoying twitches.
Facial tics are traditionally not treated or, in some acute cases or when the tics are symptoms of Tourette syndrome, patients may be given neuroleptics which are also used to treat conditions like schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorders. Such drugs were not developed to treat facial tics particularly and can not work all the time.
Furthermore, they are known to have many adverse effects both on the short and long term. Depression, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, weight gain and anxiety are only some of the several adverse effects which are associated with those drugs. Some of them can even worsen tics over time! But there are however other ways of treating facial tics which are totally natural and free of adverse effects.
Methods which work with hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) have been developed particularly for the purpose of treating facial tics. They can help you reduce them over time. To understand how such methods work it is useful to remember that tics are not an entirely physiological condition and are not totally involuntary either. They are an answer to an unconscious urge to perform the movement of the tic. This impulse disagreeably increases as you try to hold back from performing the movement. Such urges also increase in both frequency and intensity when the patient is stressed or anxious or when he is placed in certain situations.
Facial tics are a way to relieve pressure when you are feeling anxious or are coping with a stressful environment. Such an unconscious association can be treated using hypnosis and NLP, since they make it possible to alter the type of behavior your unconscious triggers when facing certain situations. If acute, the therapist will suppress the facial tic by suggesting the unconscious make you move your toe instead. When you twitch your toe it is not visible or apparent to other people. Hypnosis also makes you become a lot more relaxed overall, so it is a stress relieving experience. It will help you suppress both the anxiety and stress which aggravate facial tics.
There are many different types of facial tics: nose wrinkling, eye blinking, mouth twitches, squinting, grunting, facial grimacing or throat clearing. Even though tics have physical causes, there are very strong psychological factors too. Anxiety and stress are certainly the most important of these factors. Tics have their roots in the unconscious mind as an answer to states of anxiety and stress; using self-hypnosis and NLP you are able to alter this association. Anxiety and stress can also be efficiently fought on the long term with the stress relieving and soothing methods of hypnotherapy, which will considerably reduce the occurrence of facial tics.
Alan B. Densky, CH offers facial twitches hypnotherapy CD’s as well as a large range of popular titles for all anxiety related symptoms. For enjoyment and instruction visit his Free hypnotherapy video library at his Neuro-VISION hypnosis website.
