Facial tics are characterized by rapid, apparently involuntary muscle contractions of entire muscle groups in the face and neck region. These contractions are often repetitive in nature, and appear to have no valid purpose. Common 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 usually resolve as a child ages. This is not always the situation, though, and many people continue to exhibit tics as they enter adulthood.

Tics often increase in frequency as a sufferer feels anxiety or discomfort. People 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 desire to perform the tic to break the tension; somewhat akin to the approaching urge to yawn or sneeze which relieves the victim. Controlling a tic can cause anxiety, which can lead to the beginning of another tic. Tics are often described as being uncontrolled but research and reports from sufferers 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 it can be more complex such as is seen a lot in Tourette syndrome. Simple tics are more commonly seen than complex tics, but can be just as devastating to the sufferer; 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 dealing with a tic because of mocking from other children, 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 can be quite difficult to establish, especially for children. Children often do not establish the skills to identify a starting tic as well as an adult.

Adults can also face grave problems in their lives when dealing with a facial tic. Social problems are commonly experienced, and even when tics are generally controlled the adult can become very tired by the persistent 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 a person of the distress of a facial tic can be a life-changing experience. Self-esteem usually improves, and social anxiety is no longer a force holding a person 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 used with varying degrees of success. Psychotherapy or counseling can help discover the emotional causes of a tic, and may help a person understand better how to fight the urge to give in to their tic. Sedatives and other forms of medication sometimes do well in cases of simple tics. These medications often come saddled with negative side effects, so many people search for alternative treatments.

Hypnotherapy and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) methods have been developed expressly for the purpose of dealing with facial tics. Since facial tics are not firmly 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 avoid the tic’s onset. In some extreme cases, however, the victim’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 trouble. Children and adults alike can suffer a lot from the occurence of a facial tic such as squinting, eye blinking, facial grimaces, mouth twitches, grunting or nose wrinkling. Eliminating a facial tic can prove very helpful to the victim on an emotional level.

Although several treatments have been developed to thwart facial tics, NLP and self-hypnosis aim to utilize natural unconscious methods of redirecting the tic response. This type of treatment has great benefit over other methods such as psychotherapy, which may not treat the tic behavior at all, or attempt to modify the conscious response to tic behavior.

NLP and self-hypnosis also do not suffer from the unwanted side effects of drugs. This beneficial method of treatment can also diminish tension and concern in the victim’s life, thereby both reducing the impulse to form a tic and proving a benefit in everyday life. Due to these factors, NLP and self-hypnosis are often the safest, most preferred methods of treatment for tic sufferers.