Facial tics are repetitive, brief, sporadic spasms of the face's muscles. They are very different, but the most usually seen are facial grimacing, eye blinking, mouth twitches, nose wrinkling, squinting along with grunting and throat clearing. Those tics are often symptomatic of nervous conditions such as Tourette syndrome. They most often happen during childhood and can disappear within some weeks, even if some can last indefinitely.



The causes of facial tics are still not very well understood, but some things are thought to trigger or worsen the symptoms. Tics may be caused by some nutritional deficiencies such as a magnesium insufficiency, but they are also very often symptoms of other disorders such as Tourette syndrome, whose causes are most likely neurological, and, to a certain degree, genetically inherited. Stress and anxiety have also been shown to trigger and notably aggravate the tics' frequency.

Facial tics can be tough to deal with everyday particularly for a child. Teachers, schoolmates and even sometimes parents, might not understand how tough it is to try to hold back tics, particularly for an extended period of time such as for instance a class. People will most often tell the child to "quit it", or might even make fun of him or her for having tics.

From facial grimaces to eye blinking, tics almost always feel embarrassing and inappropriate for both children and adults. It is also tiring 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 confidence in yourself or to develop some kind of social anxiety.

It is however possible to eliminate this embarrassment and to avoid other people's uncomfortable looks. There are ways to significantly reduce, and even sometimes completely cure, facial twitches, in order to find your peace of mind and enjoy a completely regular life. You may never have to be concerned anymore about facial grimaces or holding back any irritating twitches.

Facial tics are rarely treated or, in some acute cases or when the tics are related to Tourette syndrome, patients may be prescribed neuroleptics which are also prescribed to treat disorders such as schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorders. These drugs were not developed to treat facial tics particularly and might not always work.

Moreover, they are well known for their several adverse effects both in the short and long run. Depression, insomnia, weight gain, sexual dysfunction and anxiety are only some of the several adverse effects which are associated with these drugs. Some of them can even worsen tics in the long run! But there are however other ways of treating facial tics that are entirely natural and free of adverse effects.

Methods that utilize hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) have been developed particularly in order to treat facial tics. They can help you reduce them over time. To understand why those methods work it is useful to remember that tics are not a purely physical condition and are not entirely involuntary either. They are a response to an unconscious impulse to perform the movement of the tic. This impulse disagreeably builds up as you try to hold back from performing the movement. Such urges also increase in both intensity and frequency when the patient feels stress or anxiety or when he is placed in a particular situation.

Facial tics are a way to relieve pressure when you are feeling anxious or are in a stressful environment. This unconscious association may be treated using NLP and hypnosis as they make it possible to alter the type of behavior your unconscious provokes when you are placed in certain situations. In severe cases, the therapist will eliminate the facial tic by suggesting the unconscious make you twitch your toe instead. When the toe moves it is not visible or apparent to people around you. Hypnosis also makes you become a lot more relaxed overall, so it is a stress relieving experience. It will help you get rid of both the stress and anxiety that aggravate facial tics.

There are all types of facial tics: nose wrinkling, eye blinking, mouth twitches, squinting, facial grimacing, grunting or throat clearing. Although tics have physiological causes, there are also as we have seen, very strong emotional factors. Stress and anxiety are doubtlessly the most considerable of those factors. Tics have their roots in the unconscious mind as a response to states of stress or anxiety; using self-hypnosis and NLP you will be able to change this association. Stress and anxiety can also be efficiently fought in the long run with the stress relieving and soothing methods of hypnotherapy, which will greatly reduce the occurrence of facial tics.