Cure For Nail Biting

Biting your nails (Onychophagia, which is a phobia) is a common habit that many children and adults develop in response to stress, but most will outgrow it by the time they reach 30 years of age.

In a 1995 report titled "Operant Learning Principles Applied to Nail Biting", Terry McClanahan wrote that approximately one-third of kids aged 7 - 10, as well as 44% of teens, 19 to 29% of young adults, and 5% of older people have the condition of nail biting.

Nail biting tends to be at its highest between the ages of ten and eighteen, and, although boys and girls appear equally inclined to bite their nails in their earlier years, after the age of 10, more boys than girls are nail biters.

You might resort to nail biting when your stressed, excited, or bored, or it might be a behaviour you picked up from someone close to you. It is possible to bite your nails without even realising that you are doing so, while you are watching television, on the phone, or feeling anxious at work.

When you are stressed your hand often goes up to your mouth ready to bite, because there is an increasing sense of tension, and a sense of relief and rush of pleasure, after you have bitten them to the quick - then there is probably a stinging sensation.

Hypnotherapy is a good way to help you stop biting your nails, it is a state of deep relaxation, and an easy way to help the unconscious mind, which governs our habits and behaviour, to stop that habit comfortably.

Nail biting is a nasty habit, is often considered to be a common reaction to stress. A child or adult uses this as a coping mechanism to relieve pent up emotions or anxiety. Naturally, if you bite your nails you are substituting one condition for another, and in many circumstances you are trying to relieve tension.

Nail biting may have underlying causes such as, disharmony among the family, problams at work or school, or perhaps emotional trauma, and sometimes it's just simply a bad habit. Nail biting may run in the family thus indicating a genetic factor, it can be due to many things.

Nail biting is a nasty habit includes biting the cuticle, and the soft skin surrounding the nail, as well as the nail itself, leaving your fingertips red and sore and your cuticles may bleed, increasing the risk of infections around your fingers and mouth. Dental problems and infections of the gums can also be caused by nail biting.

There are several treatments which will help you stop biting your nails:

- Hypnotherapy Plymouth has had a lot of success with helping nail biters - it is a relaxing way to change your behaviour, and stop biting your nails. Nail biting is done at an unconscious level, you do it without even noticing - by  using hypnosis  the urge to bite your nails disappears. It is a very safe and relaxing way to help you stop that habit.

- Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)

- Stimulus Control (SC) - to help you identify and then eliminate, avoid, or change the particular environmental factors, mood states, or circumstances that have become associated with that trigger, ‘picking’ or ‘biting’

You can trim your nails, keep them carefully manicured, and line them with a compound that keeps them strong. (OPI's Nail Envy) it is similar to a clear coat of nail lacquer, and of course, males may wear it also! There is a product, Matt Strengthener, for the men. Taking care of your nails can help reduce your nail biting habit and encourage you to keep your nails attractive.