Facial tics are characterized by rapid, seemingly uncontrolled muscle contractions of entire muscle groups in the face. These contractions are frequently recurring in nature, and appear to have no real point. Most tics are overstated eye blinking, squinting, nose wrinkling, facial grimacing or even vocalizations such as grunting or throat clearing. Tics often show themselves during childhood, and often resolve as the child ages. This is not always the situation, though, and many people continue to experience tics as they enter adulthood.
Tics often increase in rate of recurrence as an individual feels stress or discomfort. People who suffer from tics report they are able to sense a tic as it approaches. It's often described as an overwhelming feeling of tension and the desire to perform the tic to eliminate the tension; somewhat akin to the approaching urge to yawn or sneeze which relieves the sufferer. Controlling a tic can cause stress, which can lead to the trigger of another tic. Tics are often described as being automatic but research and reports from victims indicates they are indeed voluntary motions that can be controlled by the sufferer.
A tic can be seen as a simple tic, as in grunting, mouth twitches or facial grimaces or it can be more complex such as is often seen in Tourette syndrome. Simple tics are more usual than complex tics, but they can be just as disturbing to the sufferer; while a facial tic does not cause physical pain to the sufferer, it often triggers social problems or mental distress.
Especially children, can have a difficult time dealing with a tic because of mocking from other children, or teachers who don't fully know the thorny situation the child is in. While tics are often described as not being totally involuntary, control of a tic can be quite difficult to establish, especially in children. Children often do not establish the skills to identify a starting tic as well as an adult.
Adults often face vital difficulty 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 worn out by the constant need to identify the onset of and control the tic impulse. Adults and children alike may suffer from self-esteem or self-worth issues due to their constant suffering from a disease that often causes them to become social outcasts.
Relieving a person of the anxiety of a facial tic can change that person's life. Self-esteem usually improves, and social anxiety is no longer a power holding a person back from experiencing a full life. In children, relieving a tic may let the child develop with less anxiety while he/she has a happier childhood.
Over the years, many treatments for tics have been used with varying degrees of achievement. Counseling or psychotherapy can help reveal the emotional causes of a tic, and may help someone better understand how to thwart the urge to do their tic. Mild sedatives and other forms of medication are sometimes successful in cases of simple tics. These meds often come saddled with unwanted side effects, so many people seek alternative treatments.
Self-hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) methods have been developed specifically for the purpose of overcoming tics. Since facial tics are not strictly involuntary 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 most cases this can be done 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 embarrassing life-affecting malady. Children and adults alike can suffer a lot from the incidence of a facial tic such as squinting, eye blinking, facial grimaces, mouth twitches, grunting or nose wrinkling. Eliminating a facial tic can prove very advantageous to the sufferer 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 treat the tic behavior at all, or attempt to modify the conscious response to 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 stress and concern 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.
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