Up to 25 percent of all children cope with the emotional pain of facial tics. This condition can best be explained as a repeatedly occurring spasm that affects both facial and eye muscles. The exact etiology is frequently unclear, but research indicates a significant connection between stressful events and an increase in the evidence of symptoms.

Another explanation for the development of tics is deficiencies in essential vitamins or minerals, including magnesium. Some types of facial tics are symptomatic of nervous system disorders, including Tourette syndrome, a condition resulting from a dysfunction of the nervous system. This health condition is believed to have a genetic component as well. 

A few examples of a facial tic are rapid eye movements or eye blinking, squinting, mouth or nose wrinkling, twitching, grunting, mouth twitches, facial grimacing, facial twitches, and throat clearing. This problem often develops in childhood, and can last for only a few weeks or for several years. Sometimes, the disorder persists into adulthood.

Facial tics can perpetuate and potentiate anxiety levels in a child whose stress levels are already high as a result of the disorder itself. Young people can be very cruel, making fun of the child’s problem. Further, educators who fail to understand and fail to aid fellow classmates to understand and assist the child in managing his problem can have a devastating effect on a child’s self-esteem. 

The problem, however, is not relevant only to the suffering youth. Adults who are affected by a facial tic encounter significant challenges in managing this problem. These people frequently struggle with significant social difficulties. In some cases, a person can learn to identify the onset and supersede the impulse that causes the facial tic. Even this, however, can become emotionally and physiologically draining. Such individual often wrestle with self image problems as well.

Grownups who obtain relief from the agonizing effects of facial grimaces and other tics can experience social rebirth. Their perception of themselves is altered, and they no longer fear to experience life at its fullest. Young people who overcome the effects of this condition can be freed from the agonizing stress that hinders their social lives, and experience childhood with joy instead of psychic pain.

Sometimes, medications, such as mildly sedating drugs, are prescribed to this condition. Although the medications may lessen the incidence of these symptoms, the drugs themselves can often cause undesired side effects. Because of this, many people have turned to alternative treatments to assist them in treating their condition. 

Two alternative therapies that have demonstrated exciting potential in assisting persons to overcome facial tics are hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). These therapies take advantages of the strength of the individual’s subconscious to assist them rechannel the spasm. Because these treatments identify and treat the source of the difficulty by intervening in the unconscious where the problem originates, they offer significantly more hope for success than traditional therapy approaches that only attempt to control eye blinking, mouth twitches, squinting, facial grimacing, facial twitches, grunting, or other types of impulsive behavior. 

Hypnotherapy helps the person being treated to enter a restful trancelike state and receive suggestions that allow them to release anxiety. Because tics are a result of built-up anxiety within a person’s body, release of the tension allows them to successfully manage the spasm. After several sessions, the client ought to be capable of demonstrate the ability to handle tension successfully.

Those therapists who use NLP assist the client to focus his or her conscious will to utilize stressful stimuli as triggers for thoughts that will relax them. In addition, the person is taught to use an unrelated body part, such as a toe, to express the anxiety that would otherwise be expressed by the facial tic. Through the use of this technique allows individuals to manage tension without resorting to the humiliating behavior.

Another advantage of both these is that the client does not experience adverse effects from medication type therapies. For this reason, both hypnosis and NLP are frequently considered to be the ideal treatment for individuals who suffer from tics, such as nose wrinkling, or throat clearing, because these therapies do not have unwanted side effects. This relieves considerable pain and distress for the affected person.

Summary: Facial tics are often socially destructive and can result in extreme consequences. Boys are more likely to exhibit this difficulty, which can last into adult life; however female children may also have difficulties with this. Although several treatment methods are available, hypnosis and NLP seem to be the safest treatments, because they do not result in undesirable side effects and are very efficacious.

Alan B. Densky, CH offers facial tic hypnotherapy MP3s as well as a wide array of popular titles for all anxiety related symptoms. For enjoyment and learning visit his Free hypnotherapy library at his Best Hypnosis Downloads hypnotherapy website. 

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