Unfortunately, stress is a normalized experience in our culture. From the hustle-mentality many have adopted as a way of meeting their basic needs to the lasting effects of the pandemic, individuals have grappled with adapting to the stress in their daily life.
Unfortunately, stress doesn’t only impact one’s mental health—it can affect your physical health too. The results can be overwhelming, from spiked cholesterol and blood pressure to lackluster sleep. However, other physical indicators you’re experiencing may leave you wondering if stress is the culprit. Face twitching may be one of those things.
This article will explore if face twitching is a symptom of stress, how stress impacts our bodies, and ways to decrease stress levels.
Is Face Twitching a Symptom of Stress?
First, let’s explore face twitching as a sign of stress. These types of facial twitches are referred to as psychogenic hemifacial spasms, meaning these are facial spasms caused by a psychological concern.
Stress, fatigue, anxiety, and depression can all be factors causing these twitches. While some doctors may recommend botox injections as a form of treatment, treatment protocols will typically address the psychological issues first to resolve stress-induced twitching.1
Consider this scenario: You’re extremely overwhelmed due to intense work deadlines and discord in your family system around the holidays. You’re drinking more caffeine than usual and may skip meals or overeat.
You find that your sleep is less restful, and you’re generally more agitated than normal. You also notice that you’re experiencing facial twitches occasionally, sometimes in your eye. This experience is all too common and can be dialed down to the fact that face twitching can signify stress.2
When Is Face Twitching More Than Stress?
Sometimes face twitching is a sign of a neuromuscular disorder rather than a sign of feeling anxious.
It Could Be Spasms
This disorder is called hemifacial spasm and features involuntary twitching on one side of the face. It is commonly seen in middle-aged to older women and typically begins with an occasional eyelid twitching. The twitching is powerful enough to make the eyelid close completely. This twitching will progress until all muscles on one side of the face are involuntarily spasming.3
Hemifacial spasm isn’t necessarily caused by stress, but a doctor would be the one to determine the exact cause. Some culprits can be a blood vessel pushing on a nerve in the face or even a facial nerve injury.
Unlike psychogenic facial spasms, the recommended treatment for hemifacial spasms is botox injections into the impacted areas. Botox will relax the muscle, thus eradicating the spasms.3
How Does Stress Impact Our Bodies?
There’s no other way to put it: Stress is toxic. However, not all stress is the same. Acute stress, which occurs in response to a rare event, can trigger the body to develop a stronger resilience to stress.
Occasional events where acute stress may arise are when you’re involved in an accident or notice you lost your wallet. Your body will release stress hormones, your heart rate will increase, and you might notice you react to the issues at hand rather intuitively. This is your body’s way of naturally adapting to the issue at hand so you can safely resolve it.4
Chronic stress is prolonged and can cause many health ailments, including facial twitching. Chronic stress is the type of stress that is ongoing, like caregiving for someone with a terminal illness, working in a toxic environment, or living in poverty.5 This stress can lead to spiked cholesterol, triggering further health issues.6 It can also result in a smaller brain mass and diminished memory.7
It may feel overwhelming to hear how stress can begin to attack your physical health. But don’t lose hope—there are ways to decrease stress levels.
How to Decrease Your Stress Levels
It is ideal to be able to remove stressful situations from your life, but that isn’t realistic for most of us. However, there are still ways to avoid the physical effects of stress that aren’t expensive or time-consuming.
Deep Breathing
Deep breathing is an excellent option for stress reduction because it can be done anytime, anywhere. So next time you feel overwhelmed, take a moment to breathe. See if you can lengthen each inhale by one second and extend each exhale by two seconds. Doing so can help lower your cortisol levels and keep your blood pressure under control.8
Meditation
Meditation is another form of relaxation that is free and relatively quick. Similar to deep breathing, it can also lower cortisol and blood pressure. Plus, it can be practiced with the whole family. If you’re unsure where to start, check out this loving-kindness meditation.8
Yoga
Finally, consider starting a yoga practice. It is clinically proven to help with stress management, decrease anxiety, and help sustain a sense of general well-being. Don’t be intimidated by the idea of starting something new. Yoga with Adriene is a YouTube page with plenty of beginner-friendly videos of various lengths.