Nail-biting (onychophagia) is a common stress-relieving habit. You may bite your nails in the times of stress or excitement, or in the times of boredom or inactivity. If you have a nail biting habit, you should stop biting your nails or take suitable measures to achieve that aim.
It has been estimated that around 33 percent of the children below eleven usually bite their fingernails. This nail biting habit which may also include chewing the cuticles (skin surrounding the nails), occurs more frequently than other habits like thumb sucking or leg shaking.
When you bite your nails, you may also be breaking the skin beneath them and may be inviting germs in those skin openings. In fact, some people while biting their nails and cuticles reach so far deep, that they begin to bleed. These openings then become susceptible to germs
In fact nail biting is the habit we all want to get rid of, and to achieve that we need a firm determination and will. Over several years many treatments have evolved including few products in the markets, with an effort towards putting an end to this nasty habit. Let's have a look at these:
Medications
When a doctor starts his treatment, he may prescribe anti-depressants to you. These may include fluoxetine, escitalopram, nefazodone, setraline...etc. A small dose of anti-psychotics may also be given to augment the anti-depressants: risperidone, olazapine, aripripazole, ziprasidone...etc. These cocktail of drugs are given to augment the power of patient and make him comfortable.
Behavioral Therapy
This is pure therapeutic treatment where the patient unlearns the bad behavior or habits. Few of patients have found this quite helpful as they have finally got over the habit of nail biting and replaced it with some more useful activity. This type of treatment is more helpful when combined with proper medications.
Nail Polishes and Topical Treatments
This is very simple yet effective method to overcome nail biting habit. It involves covering your nails with special formulations which will keep you away from biting them. These types of nail polishes or natural creams when applied leave a bitter taste in mouth, and thus repulses a person from biting his nails. This method has been successful with whole lots of people but it takes time, since this process makes you "unlearn" the habit of nail biting.
Sheer Will power
This method of treatment involves you mind and determination where you need to put your mind to more constructive activities than nail biting. The process of mastering your mind can be very rewarding in the long run. You need to just start with an aim of quitting a habit and once you get used to watching yourself and the times when you start biting nails, you can almost always stop biting at that point and divert to some other thing.
Hypnotherapy
Many persons have had a successful experience with hypnosis treatments. Most of the time this is subconscious activity, so it makes a valid sense to treat it with the subconscious point of view. Hypnotherapy helps you to overcome anxiety and can distress you to a great extent. You may though need several sessions to gain positive results but the results from such treatment are long lasting.
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