Aspiring Spirit

Facial tics are repetitive, brief, sporadic twitches of the muscles of the face. They are very varied, but the most usually seen are eye blinking, facial grimacing, nose wrinkling, mouth twitches, squinting as well as throat clearing and grunting. Such tics are usually symptomatic of nervous disorders such as Tourette syndrome. They traditionally occur during childhood and may fade away within some weeks, even though some may 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 can be caused by some nutritional deficiencies such as a magnesium insufficiency, but they can also very often be symptoms of other diseases such as Tourette syndrome, whose causes are most likely neurological, and, to a certain extent, genetically inherited. Stress and anxiety have also been shown to trigger and considerably increase the tics’ frequency.

Facial tics are difficult to live with especially for a child. Teachers, schoolmates and even sometimes parents, may not understand how tough it is to try to hold back tics, especially for a long time period such as for instance a class. People will very often tell the child to “stop it”, or may even mock him or her for having tics.

From eye blinking to facial grimaces, tics almost always feel embarrassing and inappropriate for both adults and children. It is also toilsome when one must try to control them perpetually. This obsession could make you excessively self-critical and you could in turn start to lose confidence in yourself and to develop some type of social anxiety.

It is however possible to eliminate this uneasiness and to avoid people’s uncomfortable stares. There are ways to significantly diminish, and sometimes totally cure, facial twitches, in order to find your peace of mind and enjoy a fully normal life. You would never have to worry again about facial grimaces or holding back any of these annoying twitches.

Facial tics are usually not treated or, in some severe cases or when the tics are symptoms of Tourette syndrome, patients might be given neuroleptics which are also used to treat diseases such as attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia or obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Those drugs were not developed to cure facial tics in particular and may not work all the time.

Furthermore, they are well known for their numerous adverse effects both in the short and long run. Depression, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, weight gain and anxiety are only some of the several adverse effects which are associated with such drugs. Some of them can even aggravate tics over time! But there are however other ways of dealing with 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 in order to treat facial tics. They will help you reduce them over time. In order to understand why such methods work it is important to know that tics are not a totally physical disorder and are not entirely involuntary either. They are an answer to an unconscious urge to perform the movement of the tic. This desire uncomfortably increases as you try to avoid performing the movement. Such urges also grow in intensity and frequency alike when the patient is stressed or anxious or when he is placed in a particular situation.

Facial tics are a way to relieve pressure when you are feeling anxiety or are coping with a stressful environment. This unconscious association could be treated using NLP and hypnosis as they make it possible to change the sort 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 move your toe it is not apparent or visible to people around you. Hypnosis also allows you to become a lot more relaxed overall, so it is an appeasing experience. It will help you suppress both the stress and anxiety which aggravate facial tics.

Facial tics come in a lot of different forms: nose wrinkling, eye blinking, squinting, mouth twitches, grunting, facial grimacing or throat clearing. Although tics have physiological causes, there are also as we have seen, very strong emotional factors. Stress and anxiety are unquestionably the most considerable of these factors. Tics have their roots in the unconscious mind as an answer to states of anxiety and stress; using NLP and self-hypnosis you are able to modify this association. Stress and anxiety can also be efficaciously fought in the long run with the appeasing, stress relieving methods of hypnotherapy, which will significantly decrease the occurrence of facial tics.

Alan B. Densky, CH offers facial tick hypnotherapy programs as well as a wide series of popular titles for all stress related symptoms. For delight and learning visit his Free hypnotherapy video library at his Neuro-VISION hypnotherapy website.

- Alan B. Densky, CH