Facial Tics – How To Reduce Them With Ericksonian Hypnosis and NLP

By: Alan B. Densky, CH

Facial tics are brief, repetitive, sporadic spasms of the muscles of the face. They can be very different, but the most commonly seen are facial grimacing, eye blinking, mouth twitches, nose wrinkling, squinting as well as grunting and throat clearing. Such tics are usually symptomatic of nervous disorders like Tourette syndrome. They traditionally happen during childhood and can disappear within some weeks, even though some can last much longer.

The causing factors of facial tics are still poorly understood, but a few things are suspected of triggering or worsening the symptoms. Tics can result from some nutritional deficiencies like a lack of magnesium, but they can also very often be symptoms of other conditions such as Tourette syndrome, whose causes are most likely neurological, and, to a certain extent, genetic. Anxiety and stress have also been shown to provoke and considerably increase the frequency of facial tics.

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

From facial grimaces to eye blinking, tics almost always feel inappropriate and embarrassing for both children and adults. It is also toilsome to have to try to control them all the time. This obsession might cause you to become overly self-critical and you might consequently start to lose confidence in yourself and to develop some sort of social anxiety.

It is nonetheless possible to eliminate this embarrassment and to avoid other people's uncomfortable stares. There are ways to considerably diminish, and even sometimes totally cure, facial tics, in order to find your peace of mind and enjoy a completely normal life. You might never have to be concerned anymore about facial grimaces or handling any of these annoying twitches.

Facial tics are rarely treated or, in some acute cases or if the tics are shown to be caused by Tourette syndrome, patients may be prescribed antipsychotics which are also prescribed to treat conditions like attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia or obsessive-compulsive disorders. Such drugs were not developed to treat facial tics in particular and may not always work.

Moreover, they are well known for their several undesirable side effects both on the short and long term. Depression, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, weight gain and anxiety are only some of the several undesirable side effects which are associated with such drugs. Some of them can even aggravate tics over time! But there are however other ways of treating facial tics that are entirely natural and free of undesirable side effects.

Methods that work with (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and hypnosis have been developed specifically for the purpose of treating facial tics. They will help you reduce them over time. To understand how such methods work it is important to know that tics are not a totally physical disorder and are not fully involuntary either. They are an answer to an unconscious impulse to perform the movement of the tic. This desire disagreeably builds up as you try to avoid performing the movement. Such urges also grow in intensity and frequency alike when the patient is stressed or anxious or when he is placed in certain situations.

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

There are all kinds of facial tics: eye blinking, nose wrinkling, mouth twitches, squinting, grunting, facial grimacing or throat clearing. Although tics have physical causes, there are also as we have seen, very strong emotional factors. Anxiety and stress are without a doubt the most considerable of those factors. Tics have their roots in the unconscious mind as an answer to states of anxiety and stress; using self-hypnosis and NLP you will be able to alter this association. Anxiety and stress might also be effectively fought on the long term with the relaxing, stress relieving methods of hypnotherapy, which will significantly decrease the occurrence of facial tics.

Article Source: http://appliedhealtharticles.com

Alan B. Densky, CH offers facial tics hypnotherapy programs as well as a broad range of popular titles for all stress related symptoms. For enjoyment and instruction visit his Free video hypnotherapy library at his Neuro-VISION hypnosis website.

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