Nail Biting Remedies

The condition called nail biting (or Onychophagia) 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.

Biting your nails 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. You may find yourself biting your nails and not even realise it you may be watching t.v., on the phone or event at work.

In stressful situations the hand goes automatically up to the mouth, and an individual feels relieved and perhaps even satisfied after biting them down - until the painful stinging feeling sets in.

One way to cease biting your nails is hypnotherapy: Through deep relaxation and easy access to the unconscious mind that governs our habits, one can painlessly stop any habit.

The condition called nail biting, is often considered to be a common reaction to stress. This is often used as a coping mechanism by both adults and children to relieve buried emotions or anxiety. When it comes to nail biting it can be a reasonable subsitution for one thing for another or it also can be used for a tension reliever.

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. The condition called nail biting may run in the family thus indicating a genetic factor, it can be due to many things.

The condition called nail biting 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. Nail biting can also lead to gum infections or other dental issues.

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! A special Matt Strengthener is available for men as well. If you take time to take care of your nails, you will want to keep them looking good and this will encourage you to stop the nail biting habit.