Alan B. Densky, CH asked:




Facial tics are repetitive, brief, irregular twitches of the facial muscles. They are very varied, but the most usual ones are facial grimacing, eye blinking, nose wrinkling, mouth twitches, squinting along with grunting and throat clearing. Those tics are usually symptomatic of nervous disorders such as Tourette syndrome. They usually occur during childhood and often disappear within some weeks, even though some can last much longer.

The causing factors of facial tics are still poorly understood, but some things are suspected of triggering or worsening the symptoms. Tics can result from some nutritional deficiencies such as a lack of magnesium, but they can also very often be symptoms of other disorders such as Tourette syndrome, whose causes are thought to be neurological, and, to a certain extent, genetically inherited. Stress and anxiety have also been shown to provoke and greatly aggravate the frequency of facial tics.

Facial tics are hard to live with particularly for children. Teachers, schoolmates and even sometimes parents, may not be able to understand how tough it is to try to hold back the tics, particularly for an extended time period such as for instance a class. People will very often tell the child to “stop it”, or may even make fun of him or her for having tics.

From facial grimaces to eye blinking, tics always feel embarrassing and inappropriate for children and adults alike. It is also exhausting when one must try to control them constantly. This obsession might make you overly self-critical and you might in turn start to lose confidence in yourself and to develop some kind of social anxiety.

It is nonetheless possible to eliminate this uneasiness and to avoid people’s awkward stares. There are ways to significantly reduce, and even sometimes completely cure, facial twitches, in order to regain your peace of mind and have a completely normal life. You may never have to be concerned anymore about facial grimaces or controlling any of those annoying twitches.

Facial tics are traditionally left untreated or, in some acute cases or if the tics are related to Tourette syndrome, patients may be given neuroleptics which are also prescribed to treat disorders such as schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder or obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Such drugs were not designed to cure facial tics particularly and may not always be efficient.

Furthermore, they are well known for their several adverse effects both on the short and long term. Insomnia, depression, weight gain, sexual dysfunction and anxiety are only some of the numerous adverse effects which can be caused by these drugs. Some of them can even worsen tics over time! But there are however other ways of treating facial tics that are entirely natural and free of adverse effects.

Methods that work with hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) have been designed specifically in order to treat facial tics. They can help you reduce them over time. In order to understand how those methods work it is useful to remember that tics are not a totally physiological condition and are not fully involuntary either. They are a response to an unconscious urge to perform the movement of the tic. This impulse disagreeably increases as you try to avoid performing the movement. Those impulses also increase in intensity and frequency alike 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 anxious or are coping with stressful conditions. This unconscious association may be treated using hypnosis and NLP, since they are able to change the kind of behavior your unconscious provokes when you are placed in certain situations. If acute, the therapist will eliminate the facial tic by suggesting the unconscious have you move your toe instead. When you move your toe it is not visible or apparent to the people around you. Hypnosis also allows you to become a lot more relaxed in general, so it is an appeasing experience. It will help you suppress both the stress and anxiety that make facial tics worse.

Facial tics come in many different forms: eye blinking, nose wrinkling, mouth twitches, squinting, facial grimacing, grunting or throat clearing. Although 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 those factors. Tics have their roots in the unconscious mind as a response to states of stress or anxiety; using NLP and self-hypnosis you are able to change this association. Stress and anxiety may also be effectively fought in the long run with the soothing, stress relieving techniques of hypnotherapy, which will considerably decrease the occurrence of facial tics.



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