Facial tics are brief, repetitive, sporadic spasms of the face's muscles. They can be extremely varied, but the most commonly seen are eye blinking, facial grimacing, mouth twitches, nose wrinkling, squinting along with grunting and throat clearing. Such tics are often symptomatic of neurological disorders such as Tourette syndrome. They traditionally happen during childhood and may disappear within a few weeks, but some may last much longer.

The causes of facial tics still are not fully understood, but some things are suspected of triggering or worsening the symptoms. Tics may result from some nutritional deficiencies such as a lack of magnesium, but they may also very often be symptoms of other disorders such as Tourette syndrome, whose causes are most likely neurological, and, to a certain extent, genetic. Stress and anxiety have also been proven to trigger and significantly aggravate the tics' frequency.

Facial tics are hard to live with particularly for a child. Teachers, schoolmates and even sometimes parents, may not understand how tough it is to try to hold back the tics, particularly for a long time period such as for instance a class. People will most 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 inappropriate and embarrassing for both children and adults. It is also tiring when one must try to control them perpetually. This obsession may make you too self-critical and you may in turn start to lose self-confidence or to develop some type of social anxiety.

It is although possible to eliminate this uneasiness and to avoid other people's awkward stares. There are ways to significantly diminish, and even sometimes definitely cure, facial ticks, in order to find your peace of mind and enjoy a fully normal life. You might never have to be concerned anymore about facial grimaces or holding back any of these annoying twitches.

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

Moreover, they are known to have several adverse effects both in the short and long run. Insomnia, depression, sexual dysfunction, weight gain and anxiety are only a few of the numerous adverse effects which can be caused by those drugs. Some of them can even worsen tics in the long run! But there are however other ways of dealing with facial tics that are totally natural and free of adverse effects.

Methods that work with (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and hypnosis have been developed specifically in order to treat facial tics. They will help you reduce them over time. In order to understand why such 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 urge to do the movement of the tic. This impulse unpleasantly increases as you try to avoid performing the movement. These 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 dealing with stressful conditions. This unconscious association may be treated with hypnosis and NLP, since they make it possible to alter the kind of behavior your unconscious provokes when you are placed in certain situations. In severe cases, the therapist will suppress the facial tic by suggesting the unconscious make you move your toe instead. When the toe twitches it is not apparent or visible to the people around you. Hypnosis also makes you become a lot more relaxed in general, so it is a soothing experience. It will help you eliminate both the anxiety and stress that worsen facial tics.

There are all kinds of facial tics: nose wrinkling, eye blinking, squinting, mouth twitches, grunting, facial grimacing or throat clearing. If 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 these factors. Tics have their roots in the unconscious mind as an answer to states of anxiety and stress; with self-hypnosis and NLP you are able to alter this association. Stress and anxiety may also be effectively fought in the long run with the appeasing, stress relieving methods of hypnotherapy, which will greatly reduce the occurrence of facial tics.