what are anxiety tics

Anxiety tics are involuntary movements or sounds that occur in sudden bursts when someone experiences involuntary twitching or tension during times of heightened stress or anxiety. These tics can include twitching of the legs, eyes, arms, or a spasm in the throat muscle. Tics fall into two broad categories: motor and vocal. Motor tics comprise sudden involuntary movements, while vocal tics consist of uttered sounds. Examples of motor tics include eye blinking, muscle twitches, head jerking, shoulder-shrugging, and sniffing. Vocal tics include grunting and other repetitive sounds. Tics are to be distinguished from nervous habits, such as biting your fingernails, which can be a response to anxiety. Tics can happen randomly and they may be associated with something such as stress, anxiety, tiredness, excitement, or happiness. Tics often start with an unpleasant sensation that builds up in the body until relieved by the tic – known as an urge – although they can sometimes be partly suppressed. While tics can often look very similar to anxiety twitches, they have different causes. However, tics can happen to people with anxiety disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) if they have a co-occurring tic disorder.