Facial tics are characterized by abrupt, apparently unintentional muscle contractions of entire muscle groups in the face. These contractions are habitually repetitive in nature, and appear to have no actual point. Most of the tics are exaggerated eye blinking, squinting, nose wrinkling, facial grimacing or even vocalizations such as throat clearing or grunting. Tics often manifest themselves during childhood, and often resolve as a child ages. This is not always the situation, though, and many people continue to exhibit tics as they enter adulthood.
Tics often increase in rate of recurrence as an individual feels tension or discomfort. People who suffer from tics report they are able to sense a tic as it approaches. It’s often described as an overwhelming feeling of tension and the compulsion to engage the tic to break the tension; somewhat akin to the approaching urge to yawn or sneeze which relieves the sufferer. Trying to control a tic can trigger tension, which can lead to the beginning of another tic. Tics are often described as being uncontrolled but research and reports from victims indicates they are indeed voluntary motions that can be controlled by the victim.
A tic can manifest itself as a simple tic, as grunting, mouth twitches or facial grimaces or can be more complex such as is often seen in Tourette syndrome. Simple tics are more usual than complex tics, but they can be just as discomforting to the sufferer; while a facial tic does not cause physical pain to the victim, it often causes social problems or mental distress.
Children, in particular, can have a difficult time dealing with a tic due to mocking from other children, or teachers that don’t fully know the thorny situation the child is in. While tics are often described as not being totally involuntary, control of a tic is difficult to establish, especially for children. Children often do not establish the skills to identify a starting tic as well as an adult.
Adults can also face grave problems in their lives when dealing with a facial tic. Social problems are quite common, and even when tics are generally controlled the adult can become very tired by the frequent need to identify the onset of and control the tic impulse. Adults and children alike may suffer from self-esteem or self-worth issues due to their constant suffering from a disease that often causes them to become social outcasts.
Relieving a victim of the pain of a facial tic can change that person’s life. Self-worth usually improves, and social anxiety is no longer a force holding a person back from experiencing a full life. In children, relieving a tic may permit the child to develop with less anxiety while he/she has a happier childhood.
Over the years, many treatments for tics have been used with varying degrees of success. Psychotherapy or counseling can help uncover the emotional causes of a tic, and may help an individual understand better how to thwart the urge to perform their tic. Mild sedatives and other forms of medication sometimes do well in cases of simple tics. These meds often come saddled with unwanted side effects, so many people search for alternative treatments.
Self-hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) methods have been developed specifically for the purpose of dealing with tics. Since facial tics are not firmly unconscious in nature, these treatments aim to change the sufferer’s unconscious response to the onset of a tic episode such as throat clearing or facial grimacing. In most cases this can be done by allowing the unconscious mind to stop the onset of the tic. In some extreme cases, however, the sufferer’s response will be redirected to some innocuous portion of the body such as twitching a toe instead of facial muscles.
Facial tics can be an uncomfortable life-affecting woe. Children and adults alike can suffer a lot from the incidence of a facial tic such as grunting, nose wrinkling, facial grimaces, mouth twitches, squinting or eye blinking. Eliminating a facial tic can prove very beneficial to the victim on an emotional level.
Although several treatments have been developed to fight against facial tics, Hypnosis and NLP aim to utilize natural unconscious methods of redirecting the tic response. This type of therapy has great benefit over other methods such as counseling, which may not help the tic behavior at all, or attempt to change the conscious feeling about tic behavior.
Hypnosis and NLP also do not suffer from the unwanted side effects of drugs. This beneficial method of treatment can also reduce tension and concern in the sufferer’s life, thereby both reducing the impulse to form a tic and proving an advantage in everyday life. Due to these factors, Hypnosis and NLP are often the safest, most preferred methods of treatment for tic sufferers.
Alan B. Densky, CH offers facial tic hypnotherapy programs on CDs, as well as his hypnosis facial tics MP3 downloads in English, and Los Tics Nerviosos Faciales en Español.
He also offers a broad assortment of popular titles for all anxiety related symptoms. For enjoyment and instruction visit his Free video hypnotherapy library at his Neuro-VISION self-hypnosis website.
