Hypnosis to get rid of a tic disorder
Suddenly a friend of mine had a strange tic. Every time she thought she had done something right, like just tidying the room, she would clack her tongue. Since she thought she was doing good things all day, her friend got all crazy about the clacking sound she started making. This has been going on for a few weeks now. But, of course, you may have suffered from tics for some time, such as squinting your eyes or some other nervous movement or sudden movement.
To get rid of annoying but minor tics, in this article I discuss tics and give tips to reduce them.
Actually, I already gave it away a bit, tics and nervous movements can be due to nerves. In the Netherlands, there is also the word zenuwpees for people who clearly show by their body language that they are nervous. The most famous example is nervous twitching at the eyes. For example, I know a story of a teacher who would squeeze his eyes shut for a fraction of a second every few seconds while speaking, which looked quite different from a normal blink of the eyes.
Tics generally go away on their own, but sometimes you may suffer from a tic disorder that makes this more difficult.
Types of tics
As briefly touched upon, there are two different types of tics, namely:
- Vocal tics
- Motor tics
Vocal tics may involve the clacking sound made by the friend from the introduction. Motor tics may involve odd eye movements, moving the nose, head and shoulders. There are also more complex tics in which multiple movements occur in succession.
In addition, you can also get muscle contractions that really do happen completely on their own, i.e. without your influence. You cannot suppress these contractions either and they can keep repeating for a while. The most famous of these is the contraction of the muscles around the eye, just like that teacher had. In severe cases, the muscles around the eyebrows, mouth and neck also participate in these contractions.
In the case of the friend who clicks her tongue, it’s actually not that bad, because tics can occur in rapid succession. For example, you might keep blinking your eyes rapidly in quick succession instead of just once. An important distinction between a tic and obsessive-compulsive behavior ( OCD) is that the tic occurs unconsciously. With OCD, you can suppress the tic, but suppressing it actually makes the urge to do it even stronger. With a normal tic, this isn’t always the case.
Tic disorders
There are several types of tic disorders. A doctor determines whether a tic disorder is present based on the age at which the tic begins, the duration of the tic, the severity of the tic, and whether it is a vocal or physical tic; if so, the doctor identifies which disorder it is (1).
- Passive Tic Disorder
- Chronic motor or vocal tic disorder
- Gilles de la Tourette
Passive tic disorder involves tics that last longer than a month, but less than a year. This disorder is most common in school-age children. Of them, 5 to 25 percent are likely to suffer from it during their school life. Most often, this disorder involves motor tics. Children who suffer from this may experience different tics for different periods of time.
If you suffer from chronic tic disorder, you have suffered from a motor or vocal tic for more than a year, but not both. To be diagnosed with chronic tic disorder, symptoms must begin before age 18. Less than 1 in 100 children suffer from chronic tic disorder.
Gille de la Tourette is the most well-known tic disorder. This is also because it is the most severe. If you suffer from this syndrome, you suffer from vocal and motor tics. The symptoms of Gille de la Tourette often begin between the ages of5 and 18. The severity of tics in Gille de la Tourette can vary throughout life. People who suffer from it report that as they get older they have fewer tics than before.
When do you get tics?
Anyone can get tics, but generally children are more affected by them than adults. According to experts, 1 in 4 children suffer from tics at one time or another, and it is more common in boys than girls.
Contraction of the eyes is a complaint that occurs mostly in adults.
The causes of tics
The causes of tics are not always known. However, it is already clear that stress and lack of sleep influence the development of tics.
People with ADHD and OCD are more likely to develop tics. Abnormal functioning of the basal ganglia—a part of the brain located in the center of the head—is often considered the cause of tics and other movement disorders.
Contraction of the eyes in this regard can also develop from drinking too much coffee and being subjected to bright light. Dry eyes can also make it worse.
Experiences of hypnotists also show that motor tics can sometimes develop after emotional trauma.
Stopping tics with self-hypnosis
A study conducted in 2010 shows that self-hypnosis can help people with Tourette syndrome gain more control over their tics. Thirty-three people between the ages of 6 and 19 participated in this study. Nearly all participants primarily experienced motor tics; only three primarily experienced vocal tics.
Subjects were first shown a video of someone who also suffered from Gille de la Tourette before, during and after self-hypnosis. The video also functioned to show participants that they are not the only ones who suffer from Gille de la Tourette and to show that you can do something about it with hypnosis. This creates more motivation to tackle the program properly.
Then, in individual sessions with a hypnotherapist, they learned self-hypnosis techniques to be able to reduce tics.
Three times a day, subjects had to apply self-hypnosis. In doing so, they also had to answer questions that would make them more aware of their tics, as it usually happens almost unconsciously.
When the subjects put themselves under hypnosis, they had to imagine the feeling just before the tic and then to get up and put a stop sign in front of it. Or they had to imagine that there was some kind of tic switch that allowed them to turn the tics "on" or "off."
Almost all participants in this experiment had a significant decrease in tics. 12 Participants had fewer tics after only 2 self-hypnosis sessions than before. 13 Participants had enough with 3 hypnosis sessions and the rest needed 4 or more hypnosis sessions.
Stopping tics through relaxation
Relaxation is important for hypnosis, and relaxation exercises can also help with tics. In addition, relaxation can help reduce stress and improve your sleep. Since both of these factors can worsen tics, you’re actually killing three birds with one stone by doing relaxation exercises: fewer tics, less stress, and better sleep.
Breathing is important for proper relaxation. Inducing hypnosis also often begins with a relaxation exercise that involves paying attention to breathing and muscle relaxation.
Hypnosis can enhance relaxation through a visualization of a pleasant and relaxing place. This is different for each person, but you can identify for yourself the places where you are most relaxed. For example, sunbathing on the beach, or walking through the woods or maybe even just on your couch with a cup of tea. If you find it difficult to visualize something like this, a hypnotherapist can help you with a guided visualization.
Stopping tics with hypnotherapy
Experience from hypnotherapists also shows that removing emotional trauma can help stop tics. If your tics arose after an intense event that caused intense emotions, the hypnotherapist can use regression to help you process the trauma and thus give the emotions a place so they no longer bother you.
In addition, a hypnotherapist can also examine your motivation for wanting to stop your tics. If, for example, this is because you want to be “calm,” the hypnotherapist will explore your beliefs about what being calm means to you and use that insight to help your tics go away. An example shared by a hypnotherapist showed that this approach worked for her patient, but that the tics returned during stressful situations. That’s why self-hypnosis is important to use alongside regular hypnotherapy so you can reduce stress if it’s causing tic-related distress.
Would you like to learn more about what self-hypnosis and hypnosis can do for you and others? Then check out the seminars and training programs offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.
Sources:
http://www.webmd.com/brain/tic-disorders-and_twitches
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20100712/self-hypnosis-helps-tourette-syndrome
http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/22761269