Note : The following article is only meant as a reference material to the intended recipients and advices should be sought from the medical experts to establish the authenticity of its contents. For your information, I get this sickness while living abroad indirectly from depression (Schizophrenia) through subsequent allergy and overdosage of the related-medications (Risperdal) and I hope that the information given below will be useful to the intended readers.

Eyelid twitching, which is lately referred to as Blepharospasm or Myokymia is actually a symptom of involuntary and uncontrollable movements in the muscles around a person's eyes which in turn make them appear like 'blinking non-stop' to other people.

Generally, the movements of one's muscle is controlled by the nerves around them that in turn receive signals from the brains which ultimately dictate the variety of 'ways' in which such movements are to be conducted based on a person's will.

The causes of such eyelid-twitching symptom in most common cases may just due to short-term stress, over-tiredness, over-straining of one's eyes, occasional anxiety, temporary panic fits and nervousness which in turn can be easily relieved and recover naturally by a good rest, more relaxation and trying to calm oneself down to stop getting anxious, panic and worried and stressful over certain things. In this regard, such phenomena tend to be quite common among certain students and other professionals.

However, in the cases of a persistent uncontrollable twitchings of the eyelids which only get aggravated rather than improved over time and last for months and even years, it may just probably imply that the nerves around the eyes organ are simply not 'properly functionable' enough to bring about the desired movements of the muscles based on the mental instructions from the brains of a person.

Except for any brain and other eye muscle damages/eye muscle disorders caused by permanent lack of certain nutrients and minerals etc or other irritations to that organ like dry eyes, sore eyes, bacteria infections etc, such a chronic eyelid-twitching sickness may likely be caused by certain disturbances and disorders that affect or weaken the functionality of the nerves around the eyes to bring about the desired movements of this organ based on the person's will.

In this regard, the possible reasons of such chronic eyelid-twitching sickness may probably due to the causes as mentioned above which is experienced by a person over a considerably long period of time rather than just temporarily. Apart from that, other likely causes maybe be certain traumas, especially the emotional ones, allergy to or overdosage of certain medications that carry such side effects as muscle spasms, particularly photophobia in the case of eyelid-twitching symptom.

In fact, I myself have also been suffering from such a sickness due to allergy and overdosage to such medications like Risperdal and other similar drugs. As such, I would very much like to share my own genuine personal experience with you over the course of my treatment of such a sickness and I hope that it will somehow be helpful to a certain extent especially to those who have been having the similar experience as mine and I would to emphasize that it again only is meant as a reference material to anyone reading it.

For your information, I have been suffering from this sickness in the past few years whereby my eyelids also tend to twitch both continuously and uncontrollably without me being able to do anything to control the twitchings at all. As a result, my eyes would seem like blinking all the while to anyone who looks at me and I totally could not drive, look directly and persistently at the pc or tv screens and most of the times, I simply can’t read any books or newspaper properly.

And I have sought lots of medical treatments and advices as well as apply various kinds of eye drops, taking various types of vitamins, mineral pills as well as many types of anti-muscle spasm medications from lots of eye specialists, neurosurgeons and psychiatrists (who explain the medical theories mentioned above to me), ENT specialists and other general practitioners, and even have the MRI examinations taken to get my eyes cured , but these efforts turn out to be in vain as they fail to yield any positive results and my eyes still keep on blinking non-stop.

Luckily, just about a year after I suffer from such a sickness, I come across an acupuncture expert who studied and observed closely about my problems and then administer a therapy needle on the part of the flesh at the back of the palm which is about 1.5 cm vertically from the point of intersection between my thumb and my forefinger of my right hand ( as per illustration in http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/387431 & the follow-up description reply below) to strengthen the weakened and sensitive nerves around my eyes. After that, he just ask me to press (using just mild force) that acupuncture point using such objects like toothpick /normal writing pen (which is the out-of-ink ones of course) or anything with a blunt-pointed end for at least 2 hours a day and then consistently for about 2 months. Having done that persistently based on his order, my eyelid-twitching that makes my eyes blinking all the while just totally recover in time and I can drive, work with the pc screens, watch tv, movies and read as well as work like any other normal persons.

For your further information, I have also come across quite a couple of people in my real life annoyed by such an eyelid-twitching problem of different causes and degrees of severity, and accordingly, I just recommend the method as mentioned above to them and within weeks, they just experience significant improvements to their conditions after applying this therapy, and after a few months , they just recover totally from this sickness. . And I hope that by contributing this piece of article to you, it will somehow help you to in at least getting a clue about this sickness.

Lastly, I sincerely wish that the ones troubled by such an annoying eyelid-twitching sickness can recover finally from their illness. Thank you.

advertising for acupuncture ah?!

Advertising for acupuncture ? What a total misconception. This article is meant as a suggestion for the ones who suffer persistently from the eyelid-twitching sickness like me to try self-therapy (as a last resort after seeking repeated treatments from other medical experts) to get the sickness totally healed, such as the ones getting cured effectively from this sickness after I recommended the same thing to them.

kidding la. haha
my left eyelid was twitching also few wks ago.
but somehow it stopped.
maybe i didnt slp enuff.

Just a few weeks ago and the twitchings just stop now ? Well, that would simply mean that the article is just not wholly meant for you. Anyway, I hope that you can still draw some references from it.

It is worthy to take note that in terms of the eyelid-twitching sickness, if the cause of it is clearly identifified as being induced to an individual by overdosage of or allergy to certain types of medications, especially the ones that have strong neurological effects and carry the side effects of muscle spasms such as certain drugs that are meant to cure depression, psychotic sicknesses and other neurological-related complications like epilepsy etc, it is thus necessary to at best stop taking such medications and replace them with something else if possible in order to at least stop such eyelid-twitching problem from getting further worsened as well as to prevent a relapse of such sickness after a person gets cured from it.

Note : The following is only intended as a follow-up of my previous article and the information given are meant to serve only as reference materials to the intended readers. Relevant medical advices should be sought to establish the authenticity of the contents below.

About my personal experience of getting totally healed from this eyelid-twitching sickness, well, in fact initially I was instructed by a psychiatrist to take Rispderdal in the first place for the treatment of my Schizophrenia sickness. And having taken this medication for about one year based on his prescribed dosage, my eyelids started to twitch, quite unnoticeable by me at first, but when more and more people began to ask me the reason why I kept on blinking my eyes to anyone who looked at me, I started to sense this particular, eyelid-twitching symptom but without being aware of its underlying causes at all.

It was only when my eyelids began to twitch non-stop and violently day after day without me being able to do anything to deal with it, I then just referred this problem to my psychiatrist who subsequently told me that he couldn't do anything about it and referred me instead to a the eye doctors, ENT Specialists and neurosurgeons. Having examined my conditions, medical history as well as my diet and the existing medications that I was taking by that time, they all unanimously arrived at the diagnosis that the eyelid-twitching was definitely and undoubtedly caused by the prolonged intake of Risperdal which actually carried such side effects of muscle spasms especially the ones inflicted on the upper part of the face of a person who took it for a certain period of time.

In fact, by that time, I just accordingly followed the advice of the new psychiatrist and replaced this Risperdal with an alternative medication called Seroquel,which was actually a second-generation drug that didn't cause that much muscle-spasms side effects. However, even after I had quit taking Risperdal for more than 6 months, the violent non-stop twtichings still persisted. And actually before I decided to seek acupuncture treatment (as recommended by my friends) to deal with this sickness, I did accept the suggestion of a neurosurgeon to take Botox injections to deal with the problematic eyelid-muscles that caused all the twitchings. Next, the Botox injections, in fact did give positive results in the first place whereby my eyelids just didn't twitch that violently after being given the injections.

However, upon knowing from the neurosurgeon that Botox injections was actually not an effective cure for this eyelid-twitching sickness, for the very reason that the medications would just serve to sort of 'half-paralyse' the eyelid muscles without being able to do anything curative to the problematic nerves around the twitching eye muscles, coupled with the fact that such Botox medications would tend to get immunized by the human body, thus, it would just mean that larger and larger dosages of such medications would be required for each subsequent injection therapy (which last for 3-6 months each) in order to achieve the similar healing effect of the previous ones.

Besides, it was also actually a very expensive therapy as it would cost me about 5,000 dollars for each injection therapy session and hence, to keep on spending such huge sums of money to stop my eyelids from twitching would just be very unreasonable.

Whilst the neurosurgeon mentioned to me also about a surgical treatment to effectively cure the eyelid-twitching, the operation, apart from being very costly, was also actually a very risky one as its failure may very well bring blindness to the persons being operated. At the same time, even such surgery were to turn out to be successful, it would also be unable to achieve 100% complete healing to anyone being operated in the sense that the eyelid-twitching conditions can never 'look perfectly normal' like the ones who were totally not troubled by such a sickness at all. So, I just eventually gave up the idea of getting a surgery to treat the sickness.

Being terribly desperate, I just came to the decision of referring my eyelid-twitching sickness to an acupuncture expert which was recommended to me previously by my friends. Frankly speaking, I didn't actually have any faith in such a needle-based therapy and I hardly believed that these needles alone would be able to get my eyelid-twiching healed. Next, having received such therapy, my eyelids still twitched violently like before without any improvements.

However, after taking a good sleep at night that particular day after the acupuncture treatment, I just woke up and found that there were lots of dried mucus that stuck around my eyes, and surprisingly, after rubbing away these dried mucus to open up my eyes, my eyelids just don't twitch so violently anymore and immediately I was able to do the simple readings and watch tv as well as work with the PC screen without getting any discomfort. And based on the acupuncturist who dealt with my sickness, that acupuncture point as mentioned in that main article was actually directly interconnected with the bundle of nerves around the eye muslces, and so by administering treatment to it, that will sort of applying some kind of 'reflexology stimulus' to the nerves around the eye-muscles to improve the blood circulation around that area as well as to strengthen these specific nerves and to enable any unwanted metabolism wastes, blockages and toxins accumulated around that eye areas to be effective purged out of a person's body (through mucus around one's eyes) And having applied that therapy on my own as instructed by the acupuncturist, my eyelid-twitching condition just got better and better day after day and within 2 months, the sickness was totally gone whereby my I just appeared to be perfectly normal to anyone who talked to, look and stared at me.

Though the therapy mechanism mentioned above could hardly be scientifially verified and proven by the modern medical science, however, as far as a patient suffering from this sickness is concerned, it is more the very effective cure for such sickness itself rather than all other medical and scientific reasonings and theories that would eventually matter the most to the patients. As such, this is the main reason why I would seek acupuncture treatment as a last resort to deal with my eyelid-twitching sickness.

And being subsequently encouraged by the dozens of successful cases of those other people in my real life who had been troubled persistently by such non-stop eyelid-twitching sickness and who then eventually got effectively and totally healed in time through the acupuncture technique that I recommended to them, I was thus greatly inspired to post such article about my very own genuine personal experience of getting totally cured from such a sickness to at least give a clue and some guidelines to the ones who are still being troubled by it so that the similar wonderful thing will happen to them too.

My Subsequent Experience With Seroquel Drug
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Note: The following is only meant as reference materials to the intended readers. Advices from medical experts should be sought to establish the authenticity of the information below.

When I switched from Risperdal to Seroquel for the treatment of my Schizophrenia sickness, apart from enabling me to avoid a relapse of the eyelid-twitching sickness after I get totally cured from it through acupuncture treatment, it helped me also to a very great extent to enable me to have a very good sleep at night. But when I was at work and hence had to refrain myself from taking such medicine so as not to let its drowsiness effect affect my work performance, I just became quite irritable without any known causes or reasons. And over time, I simply needed such medication to help me sleep at night, and to stop becoming irritable or get angry/frustrated very easily without any reasons.

About one and a half years ago, I was advised by a pyschiatrist that it was possible for a person to quit Seroquel and then lead a very normal life just like other persons. However, it would take a very strong determination and a great deal of emotional as well as counselling /communication support from the other people to achieve that goal.

For the sleeping issue, one would need to cut down the dosage of the Seroquel drug progressively over a reasonable stretch of time, such as starting from 200mg to 100 mg , and then 2-3 weeks later from 100 mg to 50 mg and finally to physically break up the tablet into separate parts to achieve a much lower dosage to finally reduce and then totally quit the intake of such medication for the particular person. However, since a progressively lower intake of Seroquel dosage would definitely cause difficulties of sleeping to the particular persons, he/she would then need to put in certain extra efforts on their own, such as doing some exercise a few hours ago to get oneself tired before sleeping, reading some really boring novels /watching some really boring TV programmes or even listening to some sentimental/ sleep-inducing musics before getting to sleep.

Next, since Seroquel is meant for the treatment of such sicknesses as bipolar disorders, Schizophrenia symptoms etc, it certainly has its own medicational values as an anti-psychotic drug. Hence, to effectively reduce and eventually quit the intake of Seroquel in order to enable a person to stop becoming irritable to it due it its addiction whilst at the same time to prevent the mental sicknesses mentioned above from getting worsened due to decreased intake or eventual quiting of such medication, one would need to reach out more to and have more communications and interactions with the other people around them, especially the close kin to seek more emotional support, increased fellowships and in some cases, get involved in more social/ religious gatherings /indoor/outdoor activities, engage oneself in a hobby/ meaningful activities for each one has deep interest in such as drawing, doing other sports etc, and obtain more conselling advices from the trained counsellors in order to improve the sanity /state of mental condition of the patient.

As far as my own experience is concerned a cheerful and contented attitude to life as well as a balanced approach of living a healthy life are conducive to developing a greater sanity and sounder state of mind for any patients troubled with any mental sickness. And I hope that my suggestions will be useful to you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: The following is only meant as reference materials to the intended readers.

This is meant as a follow-up to give you some additional details about the acupuncture technique I have mentioned to you before. Well, regarding the acupuncture point I have mentioned in my article for the suggested cure for eyelid-twitching, its exact location is at the back of the palm of one's right hand, which is 1.5 cm measured vertically from the point of intersection (that would appear visibly when the fingers are closed loosely together) between the thumb and the forefinger. (Kindly take note that this point is located at a much 'fleshy' instead of a much 'boney' area - perhaps you would need to briefly explore that part of your right hand at the same time to locate that point, and I hope you will understand that the hand structures of each person differ from one another).

When the acupuncture point is identified and marked accordingly, you can then re-open your hand , and then what you all can do is to sit down, and at the same time press that point (using just mild force) with any long blunt-pointed object such as toothpick, a normal writing pen (which is out of ink of course) etc against your chin (suggested for convenience purpose) for a continuous 2 hours, and it's preferably to do that when you are about to go to sleep at night (so that you have more free time to do it). However , if you are eager to find out the very exact location of that particular acupuncture point to further verify the information given above, I would suggest you to seek consultancy from a licensed acupuncturist.

Please be reminded that a good sleep at night throughout the therapy period is essential for the healing to be effectively done. And a person shouldn't associate oneself again with the underlying causes such as over-straining of the eyes, excessive cafeine intake, allergy/overdosage of certain medication (with muscle spasms side effects) that causes this eyelid-twitching to the particular person in the first place to avoid a relapse of that sickness, especially after getting cured from it.

Please refer to the weblink : http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/387431
for a pictorial illustration of that acupuncture point. Thank you.

thank you  eow_c for sharing!

Summary :

Tardive Dyskinesia actually falls under the EPS (extrapyramidal symptoms) syndrome which may well include dystonia, parkinsonism  etc.

Such EPS syndrome (especially physical movement disorders, including Hemifacial Spasms triggered by bodily chemical imbalances) in turn is caused by disturbances to the dopamine receptors (one of the main neurotransmitters) of the nervous system which is normally induced  by most of the AAP's (atypical antipsychotics).

Follow-up :

http://www.webportal.com.my/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4437

Further Medical Details About The Information Given Above :

Extrapyramidal Symptoms  

prochlorperazine

Compazine

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A New Version For The Self-administered Acupuncture Cure For Non-stop Persistent Eyelid-twitching



Thanks for taking an interest in my posts made in this website. At the same time, I also have received lots of positive feedbacks from my email inbox from other persons (troubled by such annoying non-stop eyelid twitching sickness) giving thanks to me for the curative benefits they experience upon exercising the suggested alternative instrument-aided self-administered acupuncture method.



In response to the additional enquiries about the suggested self-administered acupuncture method that these persons have made to me so far through the emails, I thus would like to provide to the intended readers a new version about this acupuncture therapy which contains other extra and more in-depth details as follows : -



Well, regarding the 'He Gu' acupuncture point I have mentioned in my prior articles for the suggested cure for non-stop eyelid-twitching, its exact location is at the back of the palm of one's right hand, which is 1.5 cm (applicable to the average grown adults only) measured vertically from the point of intersection (that would appear visibly when the fingers are closed loosely together) between the thumb and the forefinger. (Kindly take note that this point is located at a much 'fleshy' instead of a much 'boney' area - perhaps you would need to briefly explore that part of your right hand at the same time to locate that point, and I hope you will understand that the hand structures of each person differ from one another).



When the acupuncture point is identified and marked accordingly, you can then re-open your hand , and then what you all can do is to sit down, and at the same time press onto the surface of that acupuncture point (using just mild force) with any long blunt-pointed object such as toothpick, a normal writing pen (which is out of ink of course) etc against your chin (suggested for convenience purpose) for a continuous 2 hours (during any time in a day), and it's preferably to do that when you are about to go to sleep at night (so that you have more free time to do it). However , if you are eager to find out the very exact location of that particular acupuncture point to further verify the information given above, I would suggest you to seek consultancy from a licensed acupuncturist.



In this regard, based on the acupuncturist, the blunt-pointed objects such as normal writing pen (which is out-of-ink of course) etc instructed to me for such self-administred therapy is actually intended as a substitute for the acupuncture needle to deal effectively with the particular acupuncture point.



Unlike the other method of acupressure which involves the use of fingers to press and massage the acupuncture points, the use of blunt-pointed object in such a case for the treatment of chronic eyelid-twtiching is actually meant as a 'leverage' to provide an adequately focused and hence a 'reflexology stimulus' that is strong enough to deal more precisely and effectively with that acupuncture point.



Whereas, if that acupuncture point is to be treated with fingers, the stimulus effect generated would be very much smaller due to the facts that such pressings and massagings would reasonably not last long enough to provide any reliefs for the chronic eyelid-twitching. Besides, given the larger suface area of the fingers as well as their rounded physical shape (compared to the blunt-pointed objects), a large part of the forces produced from such pressings and massagings would then be reasonably applied onto the related muscles rather than directly onto the intended nerves through the related acupuncture point to deal effectively with such sickness.



Please be reminded that a good sleep at night throughout the therapy period is essential for the healing to be effectively done. And a person shouldn't associate oneself again with the underlying causes such as over-straining of the eyes, excessive cafeine intake, allergy/overdosage of certain medication (with muscle spasms side effects) that causes this eyelid-twitching to the particular person in the first place to avoid a relapse of that sickness, especially after getting cured from it.



Please take note that one should continually apply that method in the case where it proves to be effective in dealing with the eyelid twitching problem (after trying it for about 3 days' time).



For your reference, I get my eyelid twitching stopped the next day after the acupuncture treatment. But when I stop the treatment for the next few days, the twitchings just come back again. Based on the acupuncturist, the explanation for the relapse is such that if one were to apply just one-off / short-term treatment, it would then only serve to disperse the dopamine-disturbing toxin / other 'contaminating agents' around one's eye nerves enabling the twitching to stop just temporarily (without totally purging such toxins / 'contaminating agents' out of the human body). So, it works just like doing a physiotherapy whereby one should complete the whole course of treatment (in this case, applying that self-administered technique persistently for weeks/ a few months) to get the eyelid-twitching sickness totally cured effectively once and for all in the end.



Next, the suggested duration of two-hour period/day (continuous non-stop healing process) for that self-administered treatment is just what I have recommended so far to other persons having the similar symptoms based on my very own healing experience from this eyelid-twitching sickness and the others who suffer from it (who eventually get it totally cured). All in all, it would acutally depend on one's healing progress for the eyelid twitching sickness upon applying that suggested self-administered acupuncture method.



Related References :

Diagram of The 'He Gu' Acupuncture Point :

Medical References For The 'He Gu' Acupuncture Point :



Acupuncture Point : LI4 • He Gu • Large Intestine 4

Further In-depth Explanations For My Suggested Acupuncture Cure For Blepharospasm (Chronic Non-stop Eyelid-twitching / Eye-blinking)

Please refer to the weblinks below for further in-depth explanations for my suggested acupuncture cure for Blepharospasm (Chronic Non-stop Eyelid-twitching / Eye-blinking) and I hope that the information provided will be useful to the intended readers. Thank you.

Primary Vs Secondary Blepharospasm  (an excerpt from my reply to other party)

Suggested Acupuncture Cure For Blepharospasm