No Nail Biting

To stop nail biting, I've listed 10 tips to help you start growing strong healthy nails.

1. Design your personal strategy to stop nail biting
Whether it's avoiding situations where you bite your nails, getting a support network or getting professional help, design a strategy to support your desire to stop nail biting.

Figure out your starting date and circle it in your calendar. Have all your support tools and techniques ready to go before your start date. Pre-planning leads to a stronger program and a more successful plan to stop nail biting.

2. Build Positive Reinforcement Into Your Strategy

A positive reinforcement plan gives you the pat on the back when things go well. Positive reinforcement also gives the omph to continue when things are a challenge.

Changing a habit is difficult. Without friends to support you your desire to stop nail biting, it can be even more difficult.

Tell your friends and the rest of your support network what you intend to do. The very act of telling reinforces in a public way your intent and make it easier to quit.

Find new things to do if your find yourself being triggered by certain activities. A new option for a different environment and or different activities is most important during the first critical days and weeks of your quit nail biting program.

3. Reward Yourself for Success
Every day reinforce the behavior change you want to start developing. This makes new behavior reaction patterns in your brain. Positive reinforcement makes it easier for you to stay on track with your new behaviors.

The reward does not have to be huge or elaborate. It can be as simple as buying yourself an ice cream cone, a new lipstick or even taking time to read a magazine.

For some it may mean buying a cd, a download from iTunes or some inexpensive thing to act as a reward.

Have a time that isn't successful? Start again and work on the next hour. Your nail biting habit didn't happen overnight. So be gentle with yourself and reward your successes.

4. Exchange Nail Biting For Something New
Find an activity to do with your hands. Crafts like needlework, crochet, or knitting can keep your fingers busy and out of your mouth.

Carry sugar-free hard candies or lollypops. That way when the urge to bite strikes you, you are prepared.

5. Join A Support Network On Or Offline
Having other people going through the same experience as you make for more support. In a group you will find people who can understand on those difficult or stressful days.

6. Quitting Is A Thing You Need To Do For Yourself
Changing a habit can be difficult. When you have made the decision to change the behavior yourself, it is easier to get through some of the tougher days.

When you are doing this only to please someone else your commitment may not be as strong.

7. Get Professional Help When Needed
Professionals can assist you in eliminating your nail biting habit through support devices such as behavior therapy, psychotherapy, medications and hypnotherapy.
It's not a sign of weakness to ask for and get additional assistance.

Remember this is not an exercise to see who can do the best on his/her own. The goal is to have you stop nail biting.

8. Design A Program That Helps Your Nails Grow
You may want to get a couple of pair of thin gloves or nail moisturizer gloves to wear during your times when the urge to bite strikes. (Many people find it difficult to wear nails at work.)

Eat a healthy diet with calcium rich foods. Calcium helps in building strong nails. Some people find pre-natal vitamins help in growing out their nails.

Buy a cuticle oil or softening cream to moisturize your nails. This minimizes hangnails and keeps dry nails from peeling as much.

Buy a multi-pack of small emery boards. Stash the boards all over your home and at your desk at work. This way when a rough edge or broken nail bugs you, you can file not bite it away.

9. Using Stress Relief Tips Can Help
For many of us, nail biting can be part of a self-comforting habit during times of stress or anxiety. Learning new ways of reducing our stress and comforting ourselves can help bring us closer to being an ex-nail biter.

10. It May Take More Than 21 Days to Stop Your Nail Biting
The popular saying of "It takes 21 days to change a habit," appear to have started in from the book "Psycho Cybernetics" by Dr Maxwell Maltz.

Not everyone can change his or her behavior totally in 21 days. Day 22 rolls around and we still feel like biting our nails. We ask ourselves "What's wrong with us?" In truth, nothing maybe wrong. Some behaviors are very firmly entrenched and make take longer to change.

So instead of beating yourself up, keep on your plan to quit nail biting. You can do it. You will soon have beautiful nails.

Hypnosis has a high rate of success with stopping the nail biting habit. Hypnosis allows the unconscious mind to develop a new behavior pattern to replace the old one of fingernail biting. By retraining the subconscious the habit can be eliminated.

Hypnotherapists use suggestion to have the person relax. With the relaxation the subconscious mind is able to listen to the possibility of new behaviors. Then and only then can the brain reprogram itself to stop nailbiting.

Having seen nightclub and television hypnotists ask people to act silly to provide entertainment has made some people reluctant to try hypnotherapy. Some people are afraid of what may happen to them while they are hypnotized.

There is a big difference with hypnotherapy used for entertainment and the type used for treatment of habits such as nail biting. Hypnotherapy can be done in a therapist's office or by using cd's or tapes in the privacy of your own home. The advantage of using a cd or tape at home is that you can set the time to listen to the suggestions at your convenience.

Warning Note: Only listen to the tapes or cd's in the convenience of your home. It is dangerous to listen to hypnosis cd's or tapes in your vehicle. To suddenly go to sleep or be unaware of surroundings while driving can lead to serious accidents and loss of life.

No More Nail Biting offers a great hypnosis program designed to give you the power to change your nail biting. Within minutes you could start listening and begin to stop your nail biting without leaving home.

Onychophagia is the medical term for fingernail biting. Whether it's biting or chewing your finger or toenails, bottom line it is a habit.

Biting one's nails is seen in people in all age groups. Like other habits, it can be difficult to break.
But you're not alone, no matter your age group. According to a 1995 study published in "Psychological Reports" author Terry McClanahan estimates up to 33% of children between the ages of 7 and 10 are nail biters. McClanahan states an estimated 5% of all adults bite their nails.

Problems associated with fingernail biting include an increased risk of nail bed infection and problems associated with teeth and gums. Bacteria easily transferred by hands are more readily transmitted from hands to mouth in those who bite their nails.

But most people who want to stop fingernail biting do so because of the appearance of their nails. Bitten nails frequently look unattractive, bloody and messy. For most, the reaction of others seeing the bitten nails can often be a trigger for attempting to stop the fingernail biting habit.

Reasons People Bite Their Nails?

There are seven major reasons people bite their nails. People bite their nails when they are:
· · Stressed
· · Excited
· · Nervous
· · Bored
· · Inactive
· · Hungry
· · Or have anemia, vitamin or mineral deficiency (called pica)

Most biters are unaware when they are biting their nails. The repetitive behavior has become an unconscious habit. This is why increasing awareness is one of the first steps in stopping the nail biting habit.

Who Is The Nail Biter?
Nail biters tend to be of two types. The first group uses biting one's nails as a pacifier or comforter. Some psychologists think this is a continuation of the same process/mechanism used in childhood thumb sucking.

The second type of fingernail biter use biting to modify or distract from uncomfortable feelings the nail biter does not want to experience or deal with. The feelings can range from happiness to sadness. It could be anger, fear, loneliness, and guilt or stress that the nail biter has difficulties copying with. The biting is used as a distracter to release or bury the uncomfortable feelings.

Both comforter and distracter types of nail biting can be eliminated. The emotional biting of nails can take more time to change depending on the underlying trigger or mechanism of the fingernail biting.

If you are a nail biter you are not alone, and if you are ready to stop nail biting there is a plan that is right for you.

If you have been nail biting for a long time, chances are you have overgrown cuticles. With overgrown cuticles skin surrounding your nails is frequently hard and can split and lead to bleeding cuticles.

You have three steps to take.
1. Prevent your cuticles and nails from further damage
2. Treat existing cuticle damage
3. Showcase your nails and cuticles

Step one:
Nail biters need to choose protection for your nails and cuticles.
· Wear gloves for washing dishes or household chores.
· Use moisturizing hand soap for washing your hands.
· After washing your hands, gently push back the cuticle as you dry your fingers.
· Follow hand washing with a moisturizing hand lotion.
· Check with your health care practitioner taking biotin or other supplements

Step two:
Treating existing cuticle damage means following a systematic approach
· Clip hangnails don't pick or bite them
· Avoid prolonged contact with drying chemicals or water.
· Before bed every night, apply a generous amount of hand cream. Massaged into hands nails and cuticles. Wear a pair of thin stretch gloves to aid the absorption of the cream.
· Avoid the use of petroleum-based products such as petroleum jelly or a chapped lip moisturizer as a solo treatment. Petroleum-based products don't and moisture. But they can seal in moisture. So if you want the benefits of both, apply the moisturizer and then follow it with a damp of petroleum jelly to seal in the moisturizer
· Don't borrow share or loan your nail clippers, Emery boards or other manicure equipment. This will decrease your chances for infections
·
Step three:
Reward yourself by the decrease in nail biting by showcasing your nails and cuticles

· Treat yourself to a manicure every two weeks
· Find a hand lotion you particularly enjoy and buy a tube to keep by the sink and in your purse
Use a nail polish without formaldehyde. Formaldehyde dries out nails and can lead to hang nails.

Focus on using your hands to gesture demonstrate and show things. Your hands are looking good. Show them off!