This also applies to onygophagy. These 3 real stories of those who managed to get rid of the habit of biting their nails are further proof of this. “I also bit my nails for many years, now I have beautiful, well-groomed hands, I overcame myself, But: I developed the habit of biting the inside of my cheeks and biting my lips. that is, habits replace themselves, apparently you need to look for inner peace, then the habits themselves will disappear.”

“I’ve been gnawing since childhood, for many years... and I didn’t just gnab, but simply ate... this is such a habit... I forced myself to grow it several times, but I could hold out for a month at most... I developed the habit of clenching my hands into fists and hiding my fingers ..and nothing helped either..then I once saw a girl on the subway with the same hands and was horrified..in the end I forced myself not to put my fingers to my mouth and started taking care of my nails (it’s nice when my hands are well-groomed) , paint with bright varnish, gradually regained my shape and forced myself not to hide my fingers... and I finally stopped this habit) so the main thing is to get over it for the first few months, just honestly get over it) and then you won’t even want to…” Svetlana Grishchenko, office manager.

“I am 16 years old, and the habit of biting my nails began at the age of 6, when my parents divorced (stress), I bit my nails for 5 years!!! I want to say that bitter varnish is nonsense... I judge by myself... when I got older (9-10 years old) I was ashamed, but I couldn’t do anything. I stopped biting at the age of 12. Once I saw a woman’s nails and asked my mother, “What’s wrong with them?” Mom replied, “The woman also bit her nails and this is the result!” and I thought! In general, until the child himself understands that biting his nails is terribly ugly, it is useless to wean him!!! I stopped biting my nails in time, because the shape of my nails is constantly deformed, now I have very good and beautiful nails, and this habit no longer exists!” Tatyana Oborina, student.

Useful video

What happens if you bite your nails:

Why you really shouldn't bite your nails:

How to stop biting your nails

To forget about the problem and stop biting your nails, follow these simple tips:

• avoid stress or change your attitude towards problems;
• make sure that your fingers are well-groomed and beautiful, so that it would be a pity to spoil them;
• you need to stop every attempt at onychophobia on your own;
• Carry scissors and a nail file with you. If a hangnail appears or a nail breaks, it will be easy to fix without gnawing;

As a last resort, use bitter varnish, garlic or another method described in our article. The main thing is not to give up, try, try and try again and remember that it will take some time. Good luck!

The bad habit of biting your nails is an automatic reaction to external stimuli. Occurs most often either as an expression of stress and anxiety, or as a replacement behavior (for example, punishing oneself).

Nail biting and tooth damage

The habit of biting your nails is one of the so-called "nervous habits" that can be caused by anxiety or boredom. About half of all children between the ages of 10 and 18 bite their nails at one time or another. Experts say that about 30 percent of children and 15 percent of adults have bitten nails. However, most people stop biting their nails by the time they reach 30.

Here are four dental reasons to break the bad habit of nail biting:

1. It's unhygienic. Your nails have bacteria and germs and are almost twice as dirty as your fingers. Moreover, swallowing dirty nails can lead to stomach problems.
2. This habit wears down your teeth. Biting your nails puts extra pressure on your teeth and can lead to crooked teeth.
3. This may complicate orthodontic treatment. For those who wear braces, nail biting puts extra pressure on the teeth and weakens the roots.
4. This could cost you a lot of money. It has been estimated that the damage done to teeth from chronic nail biting can amount to up to $4,000 over a lifetime.

How to reduce the influence of a habit:

• Keep your nails trimmed short, you will be less likely to bite them.
• Wet your nails with bitters or nail polish.
• Wear a mouth guard to help prevent nail biting.
• Place a rubber band around your wrist and tie it whenever you feel the urge to bite your nails.

It may seem like nail biting is just bad parenting, but there are serious mental factors underlying this habit. First, let's look at the childhood habit of biting nails.

Nail biting in children

If a child does not express his emotions (resentment, anxiety, fear, guilt), he will restrain himself, this creates nervous tension. Then he will need to throw out excess energy. If parents forbid a child to express himself, then he will begin to express himself in other areas. This can be expressed by hyperactivity, such as repetitive actions (for example, swinging a leg), pulling out hair, picking your nose. After all, if a person has emotions, then they must lead to some actions.

Resentment, for example, motivates us to restore justice to ourselves. we are motivated to bring justice to others. Aggression motivates us to defend ourselves. Fear tells us to go to a safe place. Behind every feeling lies some action. If a child experiences a feeling, but does nothing (because his parents forbade him to do so), then his unconscious will find alternative ways to express itself. Like, for example, the bad habit of biting nails.

As a child learns to express himself and becomes more mature, he can allow himself to express a greater range of feelings. Then this habit can go away. But all this takes place if the child does not have a mental trauma that would prohibit him from expressing himself.

I would not recommend that parents use restrictive parenting methods, including prohibiting him from biting his nails. It is better to teach your child to express his emotions and allow him to do so. Perhaps it will be noisy, perhaps it will be loud, but this way the child can let off steam. A strong emotion must come out - by screaming, stamping feet, or other actions.

This may seem like unacceptable behavior to you, but if you have created an environment that causes your child to powerful emotions that you don’t want to see, then the problem is not with him but with you. First, you brought him out of emotional balance, and then you don’t want him to show his new emotional state. If you forbid him to bite his nails, then he will find another way to express the feelings overwhelming him.

It is necessary to correct the cause of the desire to bite nails, and not try to remove the symptom. But there are situations when a child bites his nails not because he is letting off steam in this way, but because there is mental trauma. What exactly I will reveal a little later.

Nail biting in adults

If an adult over 18 years of age bites his nails, then there is already mental trauma. Because people at this age already have the opportunity to express their emotions in the way they want. If a child is rigidly attached to his parents, then an adult can choose for himself where he should be, with whom, and, accordingly, how he should express himself. Therefore, if an adult develops the habit of biting his nails, this indicates mental trauma. Once upon a time in early childhood the child has made a decision to act in a similar way in certain situations.

Let me explain with an example. One of my clients had a bad habit of biting his nails. When he had stressful situations, or situations in which he believed that he might make a mistake or do something wrong, he had an irresistible urge to put his fingers in his mouth.

He successful man, holding the position of manager, but this habit haunted him. He himself did not notice how the moment came when his fingers were already bitten until they bled.

When we started working with him in hypnosis (to search for psychotrauma in childhood), we found next reason. In hypnosis, he remembered that when he was several years old, he did something and his mother scolded him. At that moment, he decided that when he was scolded, he was guilty and he needed to punish himself. Subsequently, this decision was generalized and generalized into: “if something does not go according to my plan, then I need to punish myself.” And he punished himself through harming himself, through his nails. Because after biting my nails, my fingers bled.

When we worked through this childhood decision, which was an unconscious reaction, he was able to completely free himself from the bad habit and his behavior became absolutely calm.

Hypnotherapy for breaking bad habits

For those who do not know what hypnotherapy is, I will explain. Hypnotherapy is a process in which the client, in a trance-like hypnotic state, edits traumatic experiences and automatic reactions. He recalls those situations in which he made an unconscious decision that went into automatic programs. When we correct these decisions in hypnotherapy, the automatic actions go away.

Many people say that hypnosis and hypnotherapy are something dangerous, because we work with the unconscious, many are afraid of harming themselves. But these are false fears. Because when a person is in a trance state, his awareness does not decrease, but increases by about 100 times. When a person relaxes his muscles, he is less distracted by the outside world and more focused on his goals. Therefore, he cannot harm himself. At the same time, the client remains fully aware, he understands everything, hears everything. And the trance state is no different from the ordinary conscious state. The client sometimes doesn’t even notice how relaxed he is. This strong muscle relaxation makes it possible to use the potential more effectively.

You can struggle for months and even years, trying to get rid of a bad habit with the help of a psychotherapist or psychologist, but if there is an unconscious automatic program that says that you need to bite your nails (or any other), then this habit will turn on every time the unconscious sees a stimulus that it considers it dangerous.

These unconscious programs, according to our brain, are designed to protect us from mortal danger. But what protected us at age 3 can hinder us as adults. Therefore, you need to get rid of these automatic programs. And the most quick way removing the erroneous unconscious program is hypnotherapy.

Relieving energy through physical activity

I also recommend that you pay attention to the fact that unrealized energy will always find a way out. When there is little energy, the body wastes away. When there is more energy than is consumed, then energy discharges occur through movements. Including biting your nails. To understand this mechanism look:

Be healthy, and know that the problem with your nails is not as difficult as you think. When you solve it, you will wonder how it took you so long to see the obvious solution.

There are people who have the bad habit of biting their nails as a way to calm down or distract themselves. Hands lose their aesthetics, problems arise with the nail plates.

Causes of occurrence

The habit of biting nails in adults does not appear spontaneously, but most often remains from childhood. Some people do this out of idleness or boredom, but sometimes it is a manifestation of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

OCD is a type of neurosis characterized by the presence obsessive thoughts and actions.

It manifests itself when a person’s psyche cannot cope with the level of anxiety and stress. Then an action such as biting your nails helps relieve discomfort. But this condition is pathological, because a person can no longer react differently to stress (even chronic).

Other reasons why a person starts biting his nails include the following.

1. Lack of self-confidence. Sometimes such behavior indicates that a person has some internal conflicts that do not allow him to live a normal life. This is misunderstanding on the part of loved ones, difficulties in communicating with relatives, stress at work, unfavorable relationships in the family. Often young children suffer because of the latter.
2. The desire to overcome conflicts. It occurs in children aged 10 to 18 years due to the desire to get rid of excessive parental care. They have no freedom of action.
3. Auto-aggression. Trying to get rid of stress or strong feelings, the child begins to bite his nails. Instead of calming the child down and talking to him, parents may yell, focus on the problem and only make the situation worse. The process reaches the point of bleeding, which entails a lot of negative consequences.
4. Low self-esteem. It happens that a person or a child feels inferior. This is associated with health problems (obesity), unkempt appearance (presence of teenage acne), speech impediments, etc. Not knowing how to cope with such a problem, the patient bites his nails in the hope of forgetting about it this way.
5. Another less common reason is hunger. Some people bite their nails when they are hungry and have nothing to eat. Trying to satisfy their primary needs, they resort to satisfying habits, so it is important to always carry some snacks with them: nuts, raisins, food or energy bars, sandwiches.

There are people who bite their nails from idleness when they are resting or waiting for something. They don’t know what to do and don’t know how to relax.

Specifics of OCD

To do this, it is worth observing the behavior. You need to look at when the urge to bite your nails arises:

• parents or other loved ones leaving/coming home;
• visiting a new educational institution where there is a change of staff (kindergarten, school, clubs, work);
• forced activity ( homework, cleaning the room, walking the dog); emotional background in the family (scandals, fights, etc.).

If a child or adult exhibits such signs of behavior, then he has OCD. The main thing is to identify in which repeated situation the unwanted behavior occurs. This may not be significant to others, but it is very important to the sufferer.

With a bad habit, a person understands that he is doing something wrong, but it is difficult for him to control himself. It's much easier to get rid of than OCD.

Possible consequences

When doing something bad, a person does not always think about what it can lead to, what harm it will cause to health. In the case of onychophagia, the patient does not think about what consequences await him. He doesn’t realize how ugly his nails will be, how badly the nail plate will deteriorate.

Absolutely anyone can bite their nails. If for men their beauty means little, then for girls this is a real problem, because this is the part of the body that people pay attention to when they meet.

The various consequences of this destructive bad habit are as follows.

• Mental problems. By chewing your nails, a person does not solve the problem and does not eliminate the root causes. As a result, he may become unbalanced if he is prohibited from satisfying his bad habit. Patients may develop mental illnesses such as manic psychosis, nervous breakdown, phobic disorder, schizophrenia, epilepsy, etc.
• Infectious diseases. Diseases arise because a manic person rarely thinks about the cleanliness of his hands. He often bites off the nail plate from unwashed hands, which provokes infections in the body. Not only nails are damaged, but also the oral cavity, face, etc.
• The worst consequence is the appearance of helminths in the body, especially in young children.
• Deformation of the nail plate. It becomes crooked, changes shape and spoils the natural beauty of the hands. Nails constantly peel, which makes them weak. Instead of neat, they become trapezoidal. Hangnails form and the skin on your hands deteriorates, which is quite difficult to deal with.
• Increased fragility. Instead of beautiful and strong nails, weak and brittle ones are formed, which does not allow the girl to grow them to the desired length, because they will immediately break.
• Damage to teeth. The teeth are actively involved in the process of biting nails. Bacteria that gets from your hands into your mouth contributes to the development of enamel and bacteria. Teeth become very vulnerable – they react sharply to temperature changes. If the problem is very advanced, the bite becomes deformed.

• As a result of nail biting, the cuticle becomes inflamed and damaged. Microtraumas form on the hands, nails, and fingers. Girls' hands are unaesthetic appearance.

Correction

It is necessary to improve the psychological situation in the family and lower the emotional tone. Parents need to monitor their speech and behavior in front of their child, and they need to stop quarrels between spouses. You cannot scold a child, much less use physical force. Remember, parents are often the neurotic factor.

After identifying the root cause, you should follow all the suggested recommendations:

• minimize encounters with an alarming situation if it is not possible to avoid it completely;
• protect yourself from communicating with neurotic people if they do not change their behavior;
• You can’t scold if a child still bites his nails: in such a situation, calmly ask what’s bothering him, help him cope with stress in other ways - cry, talk about the problem, etc.;
• encourage a child or adult if he does not bite his nails for a long time; a favorite treat can be used as a reward, new toy, going to the cinema, etc.;
• honestly and calmly explain what is happening, use simple sentences and understandable words, talk about the consequences of this habit very carefully so as not to scare, explain that biting nails is very harmful and dangerous;
• do not discuss this problem with others, no matter whether the child or patient is close or not: such discussions will only undermine trust and aggravate onychophagia;
• give “resource”: with this word psychologists denote the psychological foundation on which a healthy personality can be raised; parents should show the child that he is loved and accepted as anyone, with all his advantages and disadvantages, will always be supported and understood, will not be judged or punished.

Another effective way get rid of the habit of covering your nails with adhesive tape. They cover everything: well-groomed, strong and damaged.

You can make a child or patient see themselves from the outside: leave the camera on for several hours. It is important that the ward is not aware that he is being watched. This will make the experiment fair and allow you to see how a person really behaves in a calm environment. Usually, after watching such videos, a child or adult becomes ashamed of their actions. After this, he will try to deal with the problem on his own.

If a person is stressed, it is worth purchasing an anti-stress toy. Nowadays, spinners and slimes are especially popular. It is important that it does not disturb others, but helps to calm down.

After the symptoms disappear, you should not stop fighting onychophagia. OCD can return if the causes are not addressed. Also, the addiction to it can remain for a long time. Especially if the sufferer is a child, because during this period tension increases, the body is physically rebuilt, and social connections become more complicated.

Treatment methods

If, after consultation with a psychologist, no psychological problems are identified, then it makes sense to fight the habit of biting nail plates. This is dangerous for the health of the body, leaves a mark on the fingers for life, and attracts unwanted attention.

To combat it, it is better to use a behavioral approach. It is necessary to change the chain of stimulus-reactions. There are two ways: to stimulate desirable behavior (giving up the habit) or to punish undesirable behavior.

It is always easier to punish, but it will completely ruin the relationship between the child and the parents. Therefore, it is better to discard this method at the initial stage. The patient will simply begin to hide the problem, hide and get even more pleasure from biting his nails. The habit will return as soon as the punishment stops being so terrible.

Positive reinforcement always works better. This does not alienate, but brings family members closer together. Waiting for reward will turn the struggle of habit into a game. In addition, relapses in such cases occur much less frequently.

The solution to a nail problem looks like this:

• explain clearly and clearly why this is bad;
• determine a short period of time for abstaining from the habit (initially 1 day), for which encouragement will be given;
• at the end of the week or month, please the patient with something significant and especially valuable (a trip to a children's entertainment center, purchasing the desired item or toy);
• if we are talking about a girl or girl - do beautiful manicure yourself or visit a professional technician.

Some specialists use cognitive-behavioral, individual, and group therapy as treatment. If a bad habit or OCD is identified in young children, the use of art therapy will be effective.

Conclusion

The habit of biting nails in adults usually causes anger and irritation, although in children it usually appears due to parenting mistakes. You can get rid of it yourself, but if the reasons for the formation of a bad habit or OCD are related to mental disorders, you cannot do without the help of a specialist.

One of the most common habits in a child is the habit of gnawing. Many parents are sure that biting nails is, in general, quite normal for children. small child, and therefore remain inactive. But psychologists say that this habit may be one of the symptoms of much more serious pathologies.

Why does a child bite his nails?

Experts believe that this activity signals stressful situations that your child often finds himself in. Based on statistics: most often children bite their nails at the age of 6-7 years, which is directly related to the child’s entry into school.

If your baby starts biting his nails more early age, this may indicate that he is lonely and feels unneeded. In this case, it is very important that the baby is in a favorable, calm atmosphere, surrounded by the love of his parents. Peace, mutual understanding and harmony in the family can neutralize a bad habit better than any drugs.

It also often happens that Small child begins to bite his nails and suck his fingers during the period of weaning from the pacifier.

The habit of biting nails may be caused by a banal desire to imitate adults: if someone in your family often engages in this unaesthetic process, it will be difficult to explain to your child that this is a very bad role model.

Why is it harmful to bite your nails?

This is harmful primarily because this lesson not only worsens the appearance of the hand, but also has more dangerous consequences. Doctors say that through the damaged skin around a bitten nail, harmful bacteria and infections enter the body, which can cause the development of fungus and other skin diseases. Also, this activity can provoke disruptions in the gastrointestinal tract, since dirt from under the baby’s nails gets directly into his stomach.

How to wean your child from this bad habit of biting nails

Many parents fight this problem the old fashioned way: they smear mustard on their nails or sprinkle them with pepper. Experts say that this is wrong and the cause cannot be eliminated in this way. If your baby starts biting his nails regularly, you should first find out why he does it. That is, analyze the situation and understand what exactly is bothering your baby and causing him stress, and then try to eliminate the cause.

In addition, try to monitor the condition of your child's nails more carefully - cut them as soon as they begin to grow. This way, the baby will not be tempted to bite his nails.

Do not forbid your child this bad habit, since the forbidden fruit is known to be sweet. It’s better to explain to him why biting your nails is bad: it causes the nail plates to become deformed, the nails become ugly, harmful microbes live under the nails and get into the tummy, and so on.

You can come up with a fairy tale involving two characters, one of whom is neat and kind, and the second is a dirty guy who likes to bite his nails. Everyone is friends with the first character, but no one wants to play with the second until he becomes neat again.

Fighting this bad habit, it is important to switch the child’s attention from his nails to another alternative activity. It is advisable to keep the baby's hands as busy as possible. Great options for activities: modeling, drawing, Board games or design.

If the baby is easily excitable, the doctor may prescribe herbal infusions or sedatives that will eliminate feelings of fear, anxiety and relieve psychological stress in the child.

Sergey Vasilenkov for Women's magazine "Prelest"