Facial tics are characterized by impulsive, seemingly reflex muscle contractions of entire muscle groups in the face. These contractions are regularly recurring in nature, and appear to have no real purpose. Most tics are exaggerated eye blinking, squinting, nose wrinkling, facial grimacing or even vocalizations such as grunting or throat clearing. Tics often manifest themselves during childhood, and often 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 rate as a sufferer feels stress or discomfort. Victims who suffer from tics tell us that they are often aware of an impending tic. It's often described as an overwhelming feeling of tension and the compulsion 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 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 sufferer.

A tic can manifest itself as a simple tic, as in mouth twitches, grunting or facial grimaces or it 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 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 due to mocking from other students, or teachers who don't fully understand 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 for children. Children often do not establish the skills to recognize a starting tic as well as an adult.

Adults can also face serious problems in their lives when dealing with a facial tic. Social problems are quite common, and even when tics are generally controlled the adult can become quite tired 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 change that person's life. Self-confidence often improves, and social anxiety is no longer a force holding an individual back from experiencing a full life. In children, relieving a tic may permit the child to develop with less stress while he/sh has a happier childhood.

Over the years, many treatments for tics have been applied with varying degrees of success. Counseling or psychotherapy can help reveal the emotional causes of a tic, and may help a person understand better how to resist the urge to give in to their tic. Sedatives and other forms of medication sometimes do well in cases of simple tics. These meds often come saddled with unwanted side effects, so many people consider alternative treatments.

Hypnotherapy and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) methods have been created particularly 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 done by allowing the unconscious mind to stop 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 embarrassing life-affecting problem. Children and adults alike can suffer greatly from the occurence of a facial tic such as grunting, nose wrinkling, facial grimaces, mouth twitches, squinting or eye blinking. Eliminating a facial tic can prove very valuable to the sufferer on an emotional level.

Although lots of treatments have been created to combat facial tics, Hypnotherapy and NLP 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 help the tic behavior at all, or attempt to change the conscious feeling about tic behavior.

Hypnotherapy and NLP also do not experience the unwanted side effects of drugs. This beneficial method of treatment can also diminish stress and anxiety in the victim's life, thereby both reducing the impulse to form a tic and proving an advantage in everyday life. Due to these factors, Hypnotherapy and NLP are often the safest, most preferred methods of treatment for tic sufferers.