Facial Tics - Manifestation And Hypnotherapy Treatments

Facial tics are characterized by impulsive, apparently reflex muscle contractions of muscle groups in the face. These contractions are regularly recurring in nature, and appear to have no valid reason. Most of the tics are overstated eye blinking, squinting, nose wrinkling, facial grimacing or even vocalizations such as grunting or throat clearing. Tics often begin during childhood, and often resolve as a child ages. This is not always the case, though, and many people continue to experience tics as they enter adulthood.

Tics often increase in rate as a person feels anxiety or discomfort. People who suffer from tics tell us that they are often aware of a tic as it approaches. It's often described as an overwhelming feeling of tension and the urge to perform the tic to eliminate the tension; somewhat akin to the approaching urge to yawn or sneeze which relieves the person. Controlling a tic can cause anxiety, which can lead to the beginning of another tic. Tics are often described as being involuntary but research and reports from sufferers indicates they are indeed voluntary motions that can be controlled by the victim.

A tic can manifest as a simple tic, as in grunting, mouth twitches or facial grimaces or it can be more complex such as is seen a lot in Tourette syndrome. Simple tics are more common than complex tics, but can be just as upsetting to the individual; while a facial tic does not cause physical pain to the victim, it often causes mental distress or social problems.

Especially children, can have a hard time living with a tic because of mocking from other students, or teachers who don't fully know the difficult situation the child is in. While tics are often described as not being totally involuntary, control of a tic is difficult to establish, especially in children. Children often do not establish the skills to become aware of a starting tic as well as an adult.

Adults often face serious difficulty in their lives when living with a facial tic. Social problems are quite common, and even when tics are generally controlled the adult can become very tired by the recurrent 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 continuous suffering from a disease that often causes them to become social outcasts.

Relieving a victim of the anxiety of a facial tic can change that person's life. Self-esteem generally improves, and social anxiety is no longer a strength holding a person back from experiencing a meaningful life. In children, relieving a tic may allow the child to develop with less anxiety while he/she has a happier childhood.

Over the years, many treatments for tics have been applied with varying degrees of success. Counseling or psychotherapy can help uncover the emotional causes of a tic, and may help a person better understand how to thwart the urge to give in to their tic. Sedatives and other forms of medication sometimes do well in cases of simple tics. These medications often come saddled with negative side effects, so many people seek alternative treatments.

Hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) methods have been created expressly for the purpose of overcoming tics. Since facial tics are not firmly involuntary in nature, these treatments aim to change the sufferer's unconscious response to the onset of a tic episode such as facial grimacing or throat clearing. In most cases this can be accomplished by allowing the unconscious mind to avoid the onset of the tic. In some extreme cases, however, the victim'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 awkward life-affecting trouble. 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 useful to the victim on an emotional level.

Although many treatments have been created to fight against facial tics, Hypnosis and NLP aim to utilize natural unconscious methods of redirecting the tic response. This type of treatment has great benefit over other methods such as counseling, which may not treat the tic behavior at all, or attempt to change the conscious reaction to tic behavior.

Hypnosis and NLP also do not experience the unwanted side effects of drugs. This beneficial method of treatment can also reduce tension and concern in the victim'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.

By: Alan B. Densky, CH

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Alan B. Densky, CH offers facial twitches hypnosis programs as well as a large variety of popular titles for all stress related symptoms. For pleasure and learning visit his Free video hypnosis library at his Neuro-VISION self hypnosis website.