The habit of biting nails: causes and how to get rid

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

Why do we bite our nails

The habit of gnawing nails even has its own medical term - oniophagy due to its prevalence among children and adults. Most often, this behavior occurs against the background of various neurological problems.Let's try to figure out in more detail the situations in which we are torn to bite our nails.

1. Most often nails gnaw during experiences, stress, anxiety. This is especially true of children. They can not throw out their negative emotions, often can not give the offender surrender, so they close up and pour out the aggression in exactly this format. Adults often bite their nails when they are worried, anxious and in no way can influence the situation.
2. A person can bite his nails, showing signs of masochism. The person feels the pleasure of damage to the nail plate and skin.
3. Adults and children can bite their nails on neurological grounds when they scold and punish themselves for something. Gnawed-to-the-blood nails often accompany anorexics - they punish themselves in a similar way for failures in diet, overeating, etc.
4. It happens that adults and children bite their nails from idleness when they are bored and have no place to put their hands.
5. In some cases, the nails gnaw at excessive brittleness and the appearance of burrs. That is, a defect arises - skin that is dead 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 correcting the defect with his teeth.
6. A person biting fingers and nails is considered insecure, withdrawn and clogged. And there is. In some cases, such behavior indicates a violation of communication skills, lack of connections in society, lack of self-confidence.
7. Scientists say that susceptibility to oniophagy is genetically transmitted.
8. Some people bite their nails because they are dissatisfied 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 gnawed by people who are dissatisfied with their sexual relationships, partner or quality of sexual relationships.

Habit biting nails - very unpleasant, ugly and even dangerous. First, the person who bites his nails seems pathetic, insecure and nervous. If you begin to bite your nails on an important conversation or during an interview, be sure that you will be refused work, even with impressive experience and regalia. Gnawed nails are a pitiful sight - it is difficult to show them to people, short nails, it is almost impossible to make a decent manicure. In addition to the 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 just under the nails. Gnawing at our nails, we literally lick out all the harmful microorganisms, getting diseases and worm infestations. Often the process comes to bleeding, in this case there is a risk of infection. Gnawing nails is very bad 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 most cases, the habit has neurological prerequisites. Therefore, to stop gnawing nails, you need to tune in to calm and peace. Try to avoid conflict and stressful situations. If you have a nervous job, maybe you should change it? Not only for the sake of nails, but also for your health, because all diseases are caused by nerves. In the event of a conflict that cannot be avoided, try to keep your hands under control. To occupy yourself and get rid of the alarm, buy a hand toy - two balls that you can roll in your hand, a spinner, or any other anti-stress design.The rosary helps very well - it is convenient to carry them with you, you can take both hands to move.

In general, learn to relax. If you come home in a tense state, wind yourself up, and every time you remember an unpleasant situation, try to calm down. Take a bath with aroma oils, throw out aggression in physical exertion, go for a massage, steam 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 a child, you need to adjust the psychological situation in the family. Most importantly, you need to stop swearing between the spouses or not to do this with a child. Treat your baby with understanding, do not scold him for his notorious nails. If he once again began to gnaw 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 this, and not otherwise, do not make the child feel fear and anxiety. Often, children bite their nails from idleness when they watch TV. Therefore, it is better to replace the views of cartoons with applications, modeling, weaving, mosaicking - so that it is interesting, and your hands are busy.

How to get rid of the habit of biting nails

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

1. If you still can not get rid of addiction and every now and then drag your hands into your mouth, you need to smear them with something bitter or spicy. You can use green paint, iodine, mustard or red pepper. However, such treatments will not go unnoticed, leaving the house with colored nails is not very pleasant. If you need to go to work, you can treat your nails with chloramphenicol. These are pills for diarrhea that have a very sharp bitter taste. Pound them into the powder and carefully wipe your fingers, especially the area under the nails. Pulling your hands in your mouth, you instantly remember the harmfulness of your habit.
2. But often these homemade methods do not help, because the treatment should be carried out after each hand wash. In this case, use professional nail polishes. They have a transparent structure, but they hold on for a long time and give a powerful bitter taste as soon as you begin to bite your nails. This will be a wonderful reminder that you have decided to break the habit.Not only women can use this varnish, but also men.
3. Manicure helps women to solve the problem. It is desirable that it was expensive and high quality. You will simply be sorry for the time and money to spoil such beauty. You can also increase the nails. They will grow under the artificial plate - you cannot get to them. And it’s completely inconvenient to gnaw a tipsu, and you definitely don’t 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 tired burr or straighten a broken nail.
5. If you feel that in a stressful situation or in a waiting period, you need to take your hands and mouth, have seeds, nuts or drying with you.
6. Some people are helped by a regular match or a toothpick, which can be nibbled. A baby can be given 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 is watching TV. In addition, the product is absolutely safe, because it is intended for infants.
7. Sometimes, in order for a child to stop biting his nails, you just need to talk to him.Often, such behavior hides problems with teachers or with a kindergarten teacher, and misunderstandings with peers. Sometimes children are afraid to tell their parents about it, hiding their problems behind a bad habit. If you build a relationship of trust, the child’s neurological health will improve, and he will finally stop biting his nails.
8. Try to drink a course of sedatives that will help you get rid of anxiety, anxiety, panic attacks, unreasonable fear. From simple means you can use valerian, tincture of motherwort and hawthorn. Among the modern drugs can be distinguished Persen, Negrustit, Novopassit, Deprim, etc. Usually the course is one month, during which you need to drink one teaspoonful of medication every day.

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

In general, if you really want to break the habit, ask your near and dear ones to remind you about it when you once again drag your fingers into your mouth.If all efforts are in vain, and you cannot cope with a bad habit, you should definitely see a doctor - a neuropsychiatrist. It will help identify the true cause of such a behavior disorder and help you cope 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