The habit of biting one’s nails is common in many people of different ages. This kind of habit can be caused by many things but the main cause is stress or anxiety. Different people find different ways to deal with daily life stress. Some prefer to shop, others eat comfort foods like chocolates and ice cream and others will find themselves biting their nails. There are so many ways one can use to stop the nail biting habit some of them being using substances that have bitter tastes, using hypnosis or just taking good care of your nails such that you will feel a loss if you bite them.
The successful stopping of biting fingernails is possible and the person who is successful will not only ensure healthy fingernails but they will have succeeded in kicking off a very bad habit. In addition to that, the person will feel encouraged to keep their nails in a better state and will feel more confident with their nails in the case of those that are embarrassed by them. The following is a program I came up with to help myself and others who have the same habit of nail biting to stop this destructive behavior.
Step I. Find out the root cause of the habit: The first step one has to do in order to stop biting their nails is to find the root cause of the problem. This is because such behaviors are normally as a result of oral fixation mainly brought about by stress, anxiety, boredom, nervousness or even hunger.
Step II. Find an alternative way to relieve your stress: try to look for something else to do when you are feeling stressed. This could be pressing a stress ball or doing one of your hobbies like drawing or playing games. Whichever activity you choose to replace nail biting with, make sure it is not another self destructing one.
Step III. Set records for yourself and beat them: you can start by setting a target of not biting your nails for a day or not biting a certain fingernail for a day. Once you succeed in doing this you can extend it for two days and so on. Progressively, you will find yourself not biting your nails for a week, then a month and finally never doing it again.
Step IV. Trim your nails: keeping your nails short and regularly filing them could help you to stop biting them since there will not be much surface to bite. Whenever you find yourself starting to bite your nails, stop and trim them then file the ragged parts away neatly and you will find yourself stopping the habit soon enough.
Step V. Go for regular manicures: manicuring your nails will ensure that your nails look neat and pretty. Manicurists always make sure that they cut all the dead skin on the cuticles away. They then apply nail polish which is most of the time bitter to taste and you might not like biting nails with such polish. These kinds of nail polish act as reminders not to bite your nails especially when you find yourself doing it unconsciously.
Step VI. Put on nail jewellery: nail jewelleries can also help one to stop the nail biting habit. These jewelleries can come off when bit and can even choke you. This might scare you enough to make you stop biting your nails.
Step VII. Have a vision of beautiful nails: It will help you to have a vision of clean, neat and beautiful nails because you will be focused on maintaining their status. Since nail biting makes them look really bad, you might not want to do it anymore.
Step VIII. Show off to others: being a show off can at times be advantageous if used effectively. Make sure you show off your nails occasionally in order to find some pride in them. When your friends or even family praises you on the condition of your nails you will find yourself trying to maintain their status. That is the effect of positive reinforcement.
Step IX. Patience pays: do not be in too much a hurry to stop the habit because it will not disappear overnight. Sometimes you can try protecting one nail at a time from your nail biting habit. If you can successfully stay away from it then you move to a second one. Finally you will find yourself not biting any of your nails at all. If you find yourself relapsing, just encourage yourself to do it again and do not give up.
If effectively followed to the latter, this program can work perfectly. The person with the nail biting habit needs to be patient and attentive at the same time in addition to being dedicated totally to this program in order for it to be successful. The person will risk a relapse if they give up somewhere along the way and do not follow the advice carefully.