Facial tics are short, repetitive, sporadic twitches of the muscles of the face. They can be very diverse, but the most usual ones are eye blinking, facial grimacing, nose wrinkling, mouth twitches, squinting as well as throat clearing and grunting. Those tics are often symptomatic of neurological disorders such as Tourette syndrome. They commonly occur during childhood and may fade away within a few weeks, but some can last indefinitely.

The causing factors of facial tics are still not fully understood, but a few things are thought to trigger or worsen the symptoms. Tics can result from some nutritional deficiencies such as a lack of magnesium, but they are also very often symptoms of other conditions 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 provoke and significantly increase the tics' frequency.

Facial tics can be tough to live with especially for children. Teachers, schoolmates and even sometimes parents, might not be able to understand how difficult it is to hold back tics, especially for an extended time period such as for example a class. People will most often ask the child to "quit it", or might even mock him or her for having tics.

From facial grimaces to eye blinking, tics almost always feel embarrassing and inappropriate for children and adults alike. It is also fatiguing to have to try to control them constantly. This obsession could cause you to become excessively self-critical and you could thus start to lose self-confidence 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 considerably diminish, and even sometimes completely cure, facial ticks, in order to regain your peace of mind and enjoy a completely normal life. You might never have to worry again about facial grimaces or controlling any of those annoying twitches.

Facial tics are rarely treated or, in some severe cases or if the tics are proven to be caused by Tourette syndrome, patients might be given neuroleptics which are also used to treat conditions such as schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder or obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Those drugs were not developed to cure facial tics particularly and might not always be efficient.

Furthermore, they are well known for their many negative side effects both on the short and long term. Insomnia, depression, sexual dysfunction, weight gain and anxiety are only a few of the numerous negative side 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 dealing with facial tics which are totally natural and free of negative side effects.

Methods which utilize hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) have been developed especially for the purpose of treating facial tics. They can help you reduce them over time. In order to understand how those methods work it is useful to know that tics are not a totally physiological disease and are not entirely involuntary either. They are an answer to an unconscious impulse to do the movement of the tic. This urge unpleasantly increases as you try to hold back from performing the movement. These impulses also grow in both intensity and frequency when the patient feels stress or anxiety or when he is placed in certain situations.

Facial tics are a way to diminish pressure when you are feeling anxiety or are facing a stressful environment. This unconscious association could be cured using NLP and hypnosis as they make it possible to modify the sort of behavior your unconscious triggers when you are placed in certain situations. In severe cases, the therapist will suppress the facial tic by suggesting the unconscious have you move your toe instead. When you twitch your toe it is not apparent or visible to other people. Hypnosis also allows you to become much more relaxed in general, so it is an appeasing experience. It will help you get rid of both the anxiety and stress which make facial tics worse.

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 very strong emotional factors too. Stress and anxiety are doubtlessly the most considerable of those factors. Tics have their roots in the unconscious mind as an answer to states of stress or anxiety; using NLP and self-hypnosis you will be able to change this association. Stress and anxiety may also be effectively fought on the long term with the stress relieving and relaxing techniques of hypnotherapy, which will greatly decrease the occurrence of facial tics.