The habit of biting your nails: reasons and how to get rid

How often do we see a child 4-5 years old who unknowingly bites his nails, grinding them to the very ground. Unfortunately, a bad habit can persist until adolescence and even go into adulthood. A habit has not only an unpleasant aesthetic aspect. To bite nails is dangerous for health - after all, a lot of dirt, various microbes and bacteria accumulate under the plates. If you decide to get rid of the habit, you need to act in a comprehensive manner. In this article, you will read about the causes of this addiction, and also learn how to stop biting your nails once and for all.

Why do we bite our nails

The habit of biting nails even has its own medical term - onychophagia due to its prevalence among children and adults. Most often, such behavior occurs against a background of various neurological problems. Let's try to understand in more detail in what situations we are tempted to bite our nails.

1. Most often, nails are nibbled during experiences, stress, anxiety. This is especially true for children. They can’t throw out their negative emotions, often they can’t give the abuser a change, therefore they close and pour aggression in exactly this format. Adults often bite their nails when they are worried, worried and can not influence the situation.
2. A person can bite his nails, showing signs of masochism. A person feels pleasure from damage to the nail plates and skin.
3. Adults and children can bite their nails on a neurological basis when they scold and punish themselves for something. Nails gnawed to blood often accompany anorexic - they punish themselves in a similar way for malfunctions in the diet, overeating, etc.
4. It happens that adults and children bite their nails from idleness, when they are bored and elementary nowhere to put their hands.
5. In some cases, nails bite with excessive brittleness and the appearance of barbs. That is, a defect arises - bulging skin or a broken nail that you want to immediately fix. But manicure tweezers are not always at hand, and a person often tries to solve the problem on his own, biting off and fixing the defect with his teeth.
6. A person biting fingers and nails is considered unsure of himself, closed and clogged. And there is. In some cases, such behavior indicates a violation of sociability, lack of connections in society, self-doubt.
7. Scientists say that the predisposition to onychophagia is transmitted genetically.
8. Some people bite their nails because they are unhappy with their shape. Especially if the nails are excessively wide, we try to subconsciously give them a more elegant look.
9. According to Freud, nails are bitten by people dissatisfied with their sexual relationships, partner or quality of sexual relations.

The habit of biting your nails is very unpleasant, ugly and even dangerous. First, the person who bites his nails seems pathetic, insecure and nervous. If you start biting your nails during an important conversation or during an interview, be sure that you will be denied work, even with impressive experience and regalia. Gnawed nails are a pitiful sight - they are difficult to show to people, it is almost impossible to make a decent manicure for short nails. Besides an aesthetic problem, such a habit can be really dangerous. Every day, our hands are faced with a huge number of bacteria and microbes, most of which settle precisely under the nails. By biting our nails, we literally lick out all the harmful microorganisms, getting diseases and helminthic invasions. Often the process comes to bleeding, in which case there is a risk of infection. Nail biting is very harmful and ugly.Sooner or later you need to get rid of this habit, but how to do it?

How to calm down and stop biting your nails

In the vast majority of cases, the habit has neurological prerequisites. Therefore, in order to stop biting your nails, you need to tune in to calmness and peace. Try to avoid conflict and stressful situations. If you have nervous work, maybe you should change it? Not only for the sake of nails, but also for your health, because all diseases are from nerves. If a conflict arises that cannot be avoided, try to keep your hands in check. To keep yourself busy and get rid of anxiety, buy a handmade toy - two balls that can be rolled in your hand, a spinner or any other anti-stress construction. The rosary helps very well - they are convenient to carry with you, you can take both hands by fingering.

In general, learn to relax. If you have come home in an agitated state, wind yourself up, and every time you remember an unpleasant situation, try to calm down. Take a bath with aromatic oils, splash out aggression in physical activity, go for a massage, soak your legs, drink a decoction of soothing herbs. And remember, your experiences will not change the situation, why waste your nerves?

If it comes to the child, you need to establish a psychological situation in the family. Most importantly, you need to stop swearing between spouses or not to do this with a child. Treat the baby with understanding, do not scold him for the notorious nails. If he once again began to bite them, you just need to distract the child. Try not to scold the baby too aggressively, because he will certainly begin to bite his nails again. Just ask the child why he did just that, and not otherwise, do not make the child feel fear and anxiety. Often, children bite their nails from idleness when watching TV. Therefore, it is better to replace animated cartoons with appliqués, sculpting, weaving, and mosaics — to make it interesting and keep your hands busy.

How to get rid of the habit of biting your nails

Here are some more tips that may be useful to you if you still decide to get rid of a bad habit.

1. If you still can’t get rid of the addiction and now and then drag your hands into your mouth, you need to smear them with something bitter or sharp. To do this, you can use brilliant green, iodine, mustard or red pepper. However, such treatments will not go unnoticed, it is not very pleasant to leave the house with colored nails. If you need to go to work, you can treat nails with chloramphenicol. These are diarrhea pills that have a very sharp bitter taste. Rub them into powder and thoroughly wipe your fingers, especially the area under the nails. Pulling your hands in your mouth, you will instantly remember the harmfulness of your habit.
2. But often, such home-made methods do not help, because the treatment must be carried out after each hand wash. In this case, use professional nail polishes. They have a transparent structure, but they last a long time and give a powerful bitter taste, as soon as you start to bite your nails. This will be a great reminder that you decide to get rid of addiction. Such a varnish can be used not only by women, but also by men.
3. Manicure helps women solve the problem. It is desirable that it be expensive and of high quality. You will just be sorry for the time and money to spoil such beauty. You can also build up nails. Yours will grow back under an artificial plate - you cannot reach them. A bite at the tips is completely uncomfortable, and you certainly will not want to.
4. Always carry small tweezers with you in your purse in order to use them at the right time and cut off a boring burr or straighten a broken nail.
5. If you feel that in a stressful situation or during a waiting period, you need to take your hands and mouth, carry seeds, nuts or dry with you.
6. An ordinary match or toothpick that can be nibbled can help some people. You can give your child a regular rubber teether for teeth, even if the baby is already old enough. A rubber teether will take hands and mouth when the baby watches TV. In addition, the product is absolutely safe, because it is intended for infants.
7. Sometimes, in order for the child to stop biting his nails, you just need to talk to him. Often, such behavior hides problems with teachers or with a teacher in kindergarten, misunderstandings with peers. Sometimes children are afraid to tell their parents about this, hiding their problems behind a bad habit. If you build a trusting relationship, the child’s neurological health will improve, and he will finally stop biting his nails.
8. Try to take a course of sedative drugs that will help you get rid of anxiety, anxiety, panic attacks, causeless fear. Of simple means, you can use valerian, tincture of motherwort and hawthorn. Among modern medicines, Persen, Negrustit, Novopassit, Deprim, etc. can be distinguished. Typically, the course is one month, during which you need to drink one teaspoon of the medicine every day.

Strengthen the nail plate so that it is less brittle and brittle. To do this, make baths with sea salt and soda, smear your nails with iodine, take calcium.

In general, if you really want to get rid of the habit, ask relatives and friends to remind you of this when you once again drag your fingers into your mouth. If all efforts are in vain, and you cannot cope with a bad habit on your own, you must definitely see a doctor - a neuropsychiatrist. It will help identify the true cause of this behavior disorder and help you deal with the problem. Be calm and beautiful from the top of your head to your fingertips!

Video: what will happen if you bite your nails