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Do You Bite Your Nails In Situations That Make You Nervous
If you find yourself chewing off your nails while youre taking a test, before giving a public speech, or after a tough conversation, you might bite your nails as a coping mechanism for nervousness!
In this case, the remedy is finding another channel to relieve your anxiety. I know this is easier said than done, and mental health is not something of which I have extensive knowledge. Always consult a physician with any questions or concerns.
However, if it is within your control, make it a practice to engage in calming actions that dont include the chomping down on your fingernail. We will discuss some quick and easy ways to do so in the following section, Find Suitable Alternatives Nervousness.
Try Habit Reversal Training
Another way to stop biting your nails is habit reversal training, which is the process of substituting an unhealthy habit with a different, healthier activity. Once your habit is broken, the new practice is no longer necessary to continue.
There are many habits, both short and long-term, that you can try to do instead of biting your nails. When you feel the urge to bite your nails, experts recommend doing one of the following things instead:
- Chew a piece of gum: “This will keep your mouth busy and prevent you from nibbling your fingers,” says Gan.
- Play with something in your hands, like a ring or a stress ball
- Snap a rubber band around your wrist
- Move if you can. “When you find yourself biting your nails, don’t be hard on yourself instead, get up and do something different to shift your attention,” says Paul Greene, PhD, a psychologist in Manhattan, New York.
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Mavala Stop Deterrent Nail Polish Treatment
A top-rated no-biting nail product for adults and children, the Mavala Stop Deterrent Nail Polish Treatment is designed to discourage you from putting your fingers in your mouth with its bitter-tasting formula. Not only does it help prevent biting and thumb sucking, but it also works as a nail conditioner so you can enjoy healthier and stronger nails and cuticles.
Why Am I In The Habit Of Biting My Nails
Nails are mainly formed from dead keratinized cells and have the most varied functions in humans. They are even used to play stringed musical instruments, as they produce a characteristic sound.
The habit of eating your nails, or onychophagia, can only start with putting your fingers in your mouth, so common among children.
Although it is not considered a disease itself, it is a pathology of a psychological nature that, if not controlled, may require specialized help. The causes for this problem are of two types:
- External: Anxiety or nervousness, caused by everyday problems, such as problems with couples, economics, at work or with college exams. In this case, the person can still control himself.
- Internal: nervous system changes or emotional maladjustments caused by family trauma, abuse, jealousy, humiliation, self-esteem problems, need for self-harm or self-punishment. The habit lasts for years or the person damages the nails in such a way that it is considered an aggression. You might think theres nothing wrong with a little nervousness, and then your nails will grow back. But be careful! Onychophagy has consequences you dont even imagine!
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To Stop Biting Your Nails Prepare Exciting Incentives
Sometimes a little reward can go a long way. In combination with the above tips to shift your nailbiting habit, set up a small system for positive reinforcement. Here are some fun ideas to get started:
Choose a reasonable period of time to not bite your nails, and, if you succeed, treat yourself to a manicure! Plus, once you have your nails done, you may be less inclined to bite them and ruin the polish! Added bonus!
Perhaps you can try setting up a splurge jar. For each day that you go without biting your nails, add fifty cents. However, if you bite your nails, you lose a dollar for that day! Save up to a splurge that you normally wouldnt have bought yourself, like that new Kylie Lip Kit!
Remember, failures are part of a journey, so try not to dwell on the setbacks move on and move forward!
11 Visualize Your Dream Nails
If you want to stop biting your nails, keeping an eye on the perfect fingertips may help ease the process along.
Put photos of beautiful hands and nails up on your bathroom mirror, in your car, or even as your phones wallpaper, said Julie Kandalec, aka , a celebrity nail stylist who has worked with clients like Viola Davis, Emma Roberts and Hailee Steinfeld. It acts as a constant visual reminder of what your nails and hands will look like if you stop.
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Tips To Break The Habit Not Your Teeth
Cut your nails short, so you wont have much to bite. File any ragged edges to decrease the temptation to chew on them.
Find other ways to keep busy with your hands and mouth. Try squeezing a stress ball, making a fist or chewing on some sugar-free gum with xylitol.
Coat your nails with an over-the-counter product that has a bitter taste meant to stop nail biting.
Get a fun manicure. You wont want to ruin how good your nails look!
Check with your dentist for additional ways to break the habit.
How To Stop Nail Biting
Nail biting is an oral compulsive habit that is very common in children and adults. Medically, it is known as onychophagia. Many people are not even aware of the fact that they are biting their nails. From a mild habit, nail biting can become a more serious problem.
Stress, boredom, frustration, anxiety and loneliness are some of the common reasons behind nail biting. It can also be a symptom of psychological conditions, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder , oppositional defiant disorder , attention deficit hyperactivity disorder , separation anxiety disorder or bed-wetting.
Nail biting has both physical and emotional consequences. Excessive nail biting can cause severe damage to the nail, cuticles as well as the surrounding skin, which can become red and sore and may even bleed and get infected. Nail biting can also harm your teeth.
As the appearance of bitten-down fingernails can be embarrassing, this can add to your anxiety and stress. Plus, the act of biting your nails is socially unacceptable and gives a negative impression to others.
Nail biting is an extremely hard habit to break, but not an impossible task. You can do it with a little motivation and strong will power. There are also many natural aids that can help you stop biting your nails.
Here are the top 10 natural aids to stop nail biting.
Contents
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Orly No Bite Nail Bite Deterrent
Thanks to its bitter-tasting and long-lasting formula, the Orly No Bite Nail Bite Deterrent polish works as an effective nail-biting solution for those looking to break the habit. Additionally, it also works as a polish-protecting topcoat when worn on top of your favorite nail color.
You Could Develop Swollen Gums
Not only can the added bacteria in your mouth affect your gums, but repeatedly putting something thats half chewed and shredded against your gums can cause them to get irritated and swollen. Dr. Charlene B. Krejci reportedly had a patient with fingernail fragments under a tooth, causing gingival injury.
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Be Tender On Your Nails
Mundane, daily activities can unsuspectingly undermine your efforts to strengthen your nails. As you go through your day, pay attention to exactly how tough you are on your hands!
Washing dishes? Use a sponge or steel-wool pad instead of picking at tough grime with your nails. Trying to unstick an adhesive price tag? Dont trash your nails use these great sticker-removal tips instead!
Try to do everyday tasks a little more deliberately, as opposed to just throwing your hands to and fro. Concentrate just a bit on where your fingers land to avoid catching nails with some new length on sharp or rough surfaces.
Basically, the less stress put upon your nails, fewer breaks/cracks/tears will occur.
How To Stop Biting Your Nails Step By Step
1-Commitment
If it has taken you many years to try for this bad habit it is probably because you have not compromised enough.
You have to seriously commit to stop biting them. Some tips: Write down a post-it commitment and leave it in a visible place.
Tell people nearby. This usually works very well if you communicate to other people that you want to leave that habit, your commitment will grow.
2-Leverage
I call leverage to reflect and be aware of the consequences that will have to continue with that habit. Will you still have ugly nails? What negative consequences will you continue to bite your nails?
This step is important because it will act as motivations for the critical moments in which you enter you want to bring your fingers to the mouth.
3-Identify the moments of Alert
With moments of alert I mean those in which you are more likely to start biting your nails and make it more difficult to stop.
Normally they are:
- Stressful situations.
- Situations of boredom.
Then think about what situations you are most likely to start doing. For example: when you sit down to watch TV, when you argue, when you get nervous
4-Focus on the Present Moment
It is necessary that you realize that you are in a moment of alert, because it is possible that you happen through one, you bite the nails and not even you realize it.
In this regard, I recommend mindfulness, psychological ability with innumerable benefits and that will also help you in this task.
Others are:
5-Reward yourself
- Clay
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How Your Doctor Can Help
If you have tried all these at-home methods with no luck, you may want to make an appointment with your doctor. For some people, nail biting may be a sign of a more serious psychological or emotional issue. Behavior therapy is another option that can help you. At your appointment, you can discuss your nail-biting habit with your doctor and ask for a referral to a therapist.
You should also contact your doctor if you notice any signs of infection on your fingers or nails. A dermatologist can help you heal your nails and fight any infection with medication or topical treatments.
Discover What Triggers Your Nail Biting
There are many reasons why people bite their nails, but people arent always conscious about why they do it.
One of the most important steps in overcoming this habit is to identify what triggers you to bite your nails.
Is it when youre feeling anxious? When youre bored? Or maybe you start nibbling when you want to forget a certain feeling e.g. anger?
A good way to do this is to keep a journal a notes app on your phone is ok too! Just try to jot down when you bite your nails and how youre feeling / what youre doing.
This will help you to identify any patterns so that you can try and change your reaction to any nail-biting triggers, e.g. filing your nails into a nice shape when youre worried instead of biting them all off.
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Create New Positive Habits
In the same study mentioned above, the results revealed that creating new habits to replace the negative one is the most effective way to prevent nail biting. Learning the triggers to habitual behavior is often referred to as awareness training, and most peoples habits have lasted for so long that they dont pay attention to the causal factors.
It is also important to identify the reward that you receive from biting your nails. This might be a sense of completeness, or any kind of physical sensation that you start to crave. The ultimate goal here is to have the cues and rewards remain the same, but the habit change. Once you are aware of how your habit worksthe cues and rewards you are getting from ityou have already made a lot of progress toward changing it.
Some new positive habits that you can consider taking up include:
Cleaning your house: Not only will this result in a cleaner house, but it will also help you feel happier and less stressed when you are at home, which are common triggers for nail biting.
Knitting: Learning to knit can help you create beautiful scarves, blankets, and clothing that you can gift to other people. This will also keep your hands busy.
Running and/or walking: When you exercise, you release endorphins, which will help calm your nerves. Having a calmer mindset will be more helpful if you are the type of person who bites their nails when they feel tense.
Psychology Of Nail Biting
Many people bite their nails at some point, especially as children. Its a type of body-focused repetitive behavior that goes by the clinical name of onychophagia.
Theres a spectrum of nail biting. It can range from an occasional benign behavior to a deeply ingrained self-mutilative behavior.
Many people who begin biting their nails as children eventually outgrow the habit. For others, it becomes a lifelong habit that can be extremely difficult to quit.
Lets take a closer look at why people bite their nails, how to change the behavior, and when its time to see a doctor.
Nail biting typically begins in childhood and may accelerate during adolescence. Its not always clear why someone develops this particular habit, but once it starts, it can be difficult to manage.
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Using A Nibble Inhibitor
If You Or Anyone You Know Needs Help:
- Lifeline on 13 11 14
- ReachOut Australia
Compulsive nail biting is categorised as an obsessive-compulsive and related disorder, alongside other behaviours like cheek chewing and hair pulling. But Dr Rehm says the fact you bite your nails doesn’t necessarily mean you have OCD or any other underlying mental health condition.
For many people, biting your nails is an intentional way of “self soothing”.
“Some nail biters say that everything else they’re worried about in life falls away as they focus on the physical sensations,” says Dr Rehm. “What they’re seeing, tasting, feeling it’s a focused experience.”
And, in other cases, people have no awareness they’re biting their nails at all. This often happens to long-term biters, Dr Rehm says, and usually in very particular situations.
You might bite your nails while watching TV alone, as a way to stimulate yourself. Or you might do it when you’re stressed at work, as a distraction.
“It’s really critical to gain an understanding of what your common situations are,” Dr Rehm says.
“If you monitor yourself for seven days or so it’ll give you clues.”
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Ella+mila No More Biting
Doubling as a base coat and topcoat for nail polish, the Ella+Mila No More Biting polish helps curb nail biting and thumb sucking with its foul-tasting formula, which is 7-free and excludes formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate , formaldehyde resin, camphor, TPHP and xylene. It also fills ridges in the nails and smoothes imperfections to prevent stimulating the urge to bite or pick.
