Facial tics are short, repetitive, sporadic twitches of facial muscles. They can be very different, but the most usually seen are eye blinking, facial grimacing, nose wrinkling, mouth twitches, squinting as well as grunting and throat clearing. Such tics are usually symptomatic of neurological conditions such as Tourette syndrome. They usually occur during childhood and can disappear within some weeks, even though some may last much longer.

The causes of facial tics still are poorly 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 thought to be neurological, and, to a certain degree, genetically inherited. Stress and anxiety have also been shown to provoke and greatly increase the frequency of facial tics.

Facial tics are hard to live with especially for children. Schoolmates, teachers and even sometimes parents, may not be able to understand how hard it is to try to hold back the tics, especially for a long period of time such as for example a class. People will very often ask the child to "quit it", or may even mock him or her for having tics. 

From eye blinking to facial grimaces, tics almost always feel embarrassing and inappropriate for both children and adults. It is also tiring when one must try to control them constantly. This obsession may make you excessively self-critical and you may thus start to lose self-confidence and to develop some sort of social anxiety.

It is although possible to eliminate this uneasiness and to avoid people's uncomfortable stares. There are ways to considerably diminish, and even sometimes totally cure, facial tics, in order to restore your peace of mind and enjoy a fully regular life. You may never have to be concerned anymore about facial grimaces or handling any of those annoying twitches.

Facial tics are rarely treated or, in some severe cases or when the tics are proven to be caused by Tourette syndrome, patients may be prescribed antipsychotics which are also prescribed to treat disorders such as attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia or obsessive-compulsive disorders. Those drugs were not developed to treat facial tics specifically and can not be efficient all the time.

Moreover, they are well known for their several adverse effects both in the short and long run. Depression, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, weight gain and anxiety are only some of the several adverse effects which can be caused by those drugs. Some of them can even aggravate tics in the long run! But there are however other ways of treating facial tics that are fully natural and void of adverse effects.

Methods that use hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) have been developed especially in order to treat facial tics. They can help you reduce them over time. In order to understand how these methods work it is useful to know that tics are not an entirely physical condition and are not fully involuntary either. They are an answer to an unconscious urge to do the movement of the tic. This impulse uncomfortably increases as you try to hold back from performing the movement. These urges also grow in intensity and frequency alike when the patient is stressed or anxious or when placed in a particular situation.

Facial tics are a way to relieve pressure when you are feeling anxiety or are in a stressful environment. This unconscious association can be treated with NLP and hypnosis as they are able to modify the kind of behavior your unconscious provokes when facing certain situations. If acute, the therapist will get rid of the facial tic by suggesting the unconscious make you move your toe instead. When you move your toe it is not visible or apparent to the people around you. Hypnosis also allows you to become much more relaxed in general, so it is a soothing experience. It will help you eliminate both the anxiety and stress that make facial tics worse.

There are many different sorts of facial tics: nose wrinkling, eye blinking, mouth twitches, squinting, grunting, facial grimacing or throat clearing. Even though tics have physical causes, there are very strong emotional factors too. Stress and anxiety are certainly the most important of these factors. Tics have their roots in the unconscious mind as an answer to states of anxiety and stress; with NLP and self-hypnosis you are able to modify this association. Stress and anxiety might also be efficaciously fought in the long run with the soothing, stress relieving techniques of hypnotherapy, which will considerably reduce the occurrence of facial tics.

Alan B. Densky, CH offers facial tic hypnotherapy MP3's as well as a large assortment of popular titles for all stress related symptoms. For delight and education visit his Free hypnotherapy video library at his Best Hypnosis Downloads NLP website.

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