Facial tics are characterized by rapid, seemingly unintentional muscle contractions of muscle groups in the face and neck region. These contractions are habitually repetitive in nature, and appear to have no actual point. Most of the tics are exaggerated eye blinking, squinting, nose wrinkling, facial grimacing or even vocalizations such as throat clearing or grunting. Tics often show themselves during childhood, and most of the time resolve as the child ages. This is not always the case, though, and many people continue to exhibit tics as they enter adulthood.
Tics often increase in occurrence as a sufferer feels stress or discomfort. Victims who suffer from tics report they are able to feel a tic approach. It's often described as an overwhelming feeling of tension and the urge to engage the tic to break the tension; somewhat akin to the approaching urge to yawn or sneeze which relieves the person. Controlling a tic can trigger stress, which can lead to the beginning of another tic. Tics are often described as being automatic but research and reports from sufferers indicates they are indeed voluntary motions that can be controlled by the sufferer.
A tic can manifest as a simple tic, as in mouth twitches, grunting or facial grimaces or can be more complex such as is seen very often in Tourette syndrome. Simple tics are more common than complex tics, but can be just as disturbing to the individual; while a facial tic does not cause physical pain to the sufferer, it can often cause social problems or mental distress.
Children, in particular, can have a hard time dealing with a tic because of mocking from other kids, or teachers who don't fully recognize the hard situation the child is in. While tics are often described as not being totally involuntary, control of a tic is difficult to establish, especially for children. Children often do not establish the skills to identify a tic onset as well as an adult.
Adults often face serious problems in their lives when dealing with a facial tic. Social problems are very common, and even when tics are generally controlled the adult can become quite fatigued by the incessant need to identify the onset of and control the tic impulse. Adults and children alike may suffer from self-worth or self-esteem issues due to their continual suffering from a disease that often causes them to become social outcasts.
Relieving an individual from the pain of a facial tic can be a life-changing experience. Self-worth usually improves, and social anxiety is no longer an issue holding an individual back from experiencing a meaningful life. In children, relieving a tic may let the child develop with less tension while he/she has a happier childhood.
Over the years, many treatments for tics have been applied with varying degrees of achievement. Counseling or psychotherapy can help uncover the emotional causes of a tic, and may help an individual better understand how to resist the urge to perform their tic. Mild sedatives and other forms of medication sometimes do well in cases of simple tics. These medications often come saddled with unwanted side effects, so many people look for alternative treatments.
Hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) methods have been created expressly for the purpose of overcoming facial 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 throat clearing or facial grimacing. In many cases this can be accomplished by allowing the unconscious mind to abort the onset of the tic. 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 woe. Children and adults alike can suffer greatly from the presence 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 sufferer on an emotional level.
Although lots of treatments have been created to combat facial tics, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy aim to utilize natural unconscious methods of redirecting the tic response. This type of therapy has great benefit over other methods such as counseling, which may not treat the tic behavior at all, or attempt to modify the conscious reaction to tic behavior.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy also do not experience the unwanted side effects of drugs. This beneficial method of treatment can also diminish stress and concern in the sufferer's life, thereby both reducing the impulse to form a tic and proving a benefit in everyday life. Due to these factors, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy are often the safest, most preferred methods of treatment for tic sufferers.
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