When people see someone biting their nails it is commonly thought of as undesirable and disgusting. Many people get started nail biting in our early school years and then stop during our late teens. Fingernail biting may continue into adulthood for many, and becomes a conditioned response, causing real physical harm to the fingers. Hypnotherapy can be very effective at helping people to change this problem behaviour (habit).
So what causes a nail biting habit?
A problem behaviour becomes embedded when a particular behaviour is repeated over and over again, and which is typically subconsciously driven. The nature of a problem behaviour is that it is a snap to get into but tough to escape. A problem behaviour / habit is identified as a bad one when it damages us mentally or physically.
Quite a few people overeat, lots of people smoke, others waste away hours using the net. It is when these activities are performed without you knowingly doing them, without you possessing the conscious thoughts that lead to the activity that you know it is a habit. It’s when you have just put out a cigarette or bitten off a whole nail and then discover you can’t recollect consciously choosing to do it.
What makes nail biting a problematic habit?
Nail biting is, usually, a behavioural pattern developed by those suffering from anxiety, but can also be a purely physical habit. The main reason nail biting is so detrimental for you is that it damages your body. In mild cases the sufferer could have ugly ripped cuticles and fingertips, liable to bleeding and infection. In more extreme cases, the finger can become disfigured and the nail utterly lost.
The habit can also affect your mouth, dental problems relating to nail biting are not uncommon. Gingival injury is damage to the soft tissue in the mouth (the gingival tissue) and can be caused by frequent nail biting. As well as this, germs buried deep in the nail bed can be transferred to the mouth and spread serious infections into the body.
Inwardly, nail biters are inclined to feel self conscious about the habit but are unable to ignore the compulsion to do it. It can be very degrading being asked to stop nail biting when you didn’t realise you were doing it. It is also uncomfortable when others see your ruined nails and fingers.
The important thing to recognise is that the nail biting is normally a coping mechanism for something a little bit deeper that needs bringing to the forefront of the mind and addressing.
Hypnotherapy for nail biting is fantastic at addressing this behaviour. Most clients achieve excellent results within just a few of sessions.
Paul Howard, a specialist hypnotherapist from The Surrey Institute of Clinical Hypnotherapy, said “All problem behaviours in this case a nail biting habit share similar drivers and triggers. However, nail biting is just one of the problem behaviours we successfully work with. Probably the most common would be alcohol and drug use although there are many others even smoking and weight control often have problem behaviours associated with them. By using hypnotherapy we are able to remove adjust or divert the drivers for the behaviour and generate different responses to the triggers. ”.
The Surrey Institute of Clinical Hypnotherapy is committed to raising awareness to the help that hypnotherapy can bring to sufferers of psychological issues. They have specialists that cover various issues such as anxiety, weight control, insomnia, psoriasis and smoking. They have been in practice since 2002 and have male and female therapists on staff.