Facial tics are characterized by impulsive, seemingly involuntary muscle contractions of entire muscle groups in the face. These contractions are habitually recurring in nature, and appear to have no valid point. Common tics are exaggerated eye blinking, squinting, nose wrinkling, facial grimacing or even vocalizations such as throat clearing or grunting. Tics often begin during childhood, and most of the time resolve as the child ages. This is not always the situation, though, and many people continue to suffer from tics as they enter adulthood.
Tics often increase in occurrence as a person feels stress or discomfort. People who suffer from tics tell us that they are able to sense a tic as it approaches. It's often described as an overwhelming feeling of tension and the wish to perform the tic to eliminate the tension; somewhat akin to the approaching urge to yawn or sneeze which relieves the victim. Trying to control a tic can cause stress, which can lead to the onset of another tic. Tics are often described as being unconscious but research and reports from victims indicates they are indeed voluntary motions that can be controlled by the victim.
A tic can manifest itself as a simple tic, as in
facial grimaces, mouth twitches or grunting or 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 triggers social problems or mental distress.
Children, in particular, can have a hard time living with a tic because of mocking from other children, or teachers who don't fully appreciate 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 identify a starting tic as well as an adult.
Adults can also face crucial trouble in their lives when
living with a facial tic. Social problems are very common, and even when tics are generally controlled the adult can become very worn out by the incessant need to identify the onset of and control the tic impulse. Adults and children alike may suffer from self-confidence issues due to their continuous suffering from a disease that often causes them to become social outcasts.
Relieving an individual from the pain of a facial tic can change that person's life.
Self-confidence generally improves, and social anxiety is no longer a power holding an individual back from experiencing a full 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 achievement. Psychotherapy or counseling can help uncover the emotional causes of a tic, and may help an individual better understand how to resist the urge to give in to their tic. Mild sedatives and other forms of medication are sometimes successful in cases of simple tics. These meds often come saddled with negative side effects, so many people search for alternative treatments.
Hypnotherapy and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) methods have been developed specifically for the purpose of overcoming tics. Since facial tics are not strictly unconscious 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 many cases this can be accomplished by allowing the unconscious mind to prevent the tic's onset. In some extreme cases, however, the sufferer'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 uncomfortable life-affecting problem. Children and adults alike can suffer greatly from the presence of a facial tic such as eye blinking, squinting, mouth twitches, facial grimaces, nose wrinkling, or grunting. Eliminating a facial tic can prove very beneficial to the victim on an emotional level.
Although many treatments have been developed to combat facial tics, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy 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 help the tic behavior at all, or attempt to modify the conscious feeling about tic behavior.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy also do not suffer from the unwanted side effects of drugs. This beneficial method of treatment can also cut tension and worry in the sufferer's life, thereby both reducing the impulse to form a tic and proving an advantage in everyday life. Due to these factors, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy are often the safest, most preferred methods of treatment for tic sufferers.
