You have probably heard of hypnosis being used for smoking cessation and weight loss and so you went searching for a way that you could solve your problem with hypnosis as well. After all, nail biting is a habit just like smoking isn’t it? Well yes, and no.

Nail biting is a habit, but there is no drug intake as a result of biting your nails like there is with smoking a cigarette, or a cigar, or chewing tobacco. So you might think that nail biting should be an easier habit to change, but this is probably not true. Let’s first see what a habit is and then see if we can figure out why different habits should require different methods to change.

Habits are behaviors that have been followed so often that they became routine and familiar patterns. The neural pathways that control our muscles reflexes have become so well worn by the behavior that we naturally just follow it’s path without thinking about it at all. Habits are created through repetition. When we continue to behave a certain way we are making it easier to do that behavior in the future.

Smoking cigarettes becomes a habit after we have smoked for awhile. We make associations between the behavior and whatever we are doing at the time. Being around certain people might become a trigger for smoking. Doing certain things like driving, talking on the phone, working on the computer can become associated with smoking. So that whenever you do those activities you automatically reach for a cigarette.

Nail biting is different than just habitual smoking. Nail biting usually is learned as a way of dealing with a feeling. It often starts when you are very young. As babies often suck on their fingers, when they get older they may start to bite on their nails. It’s the same movement of hand to mouth, but a different focus. Sometimes you feel a need to do something with your hands. Not using your hands leads to you feeling nervous. Biting your fingernails gives you something to do and focuses your mind on biting your fingernails instead of the nervous feelings inside.

So biting nails becomes a distraction from the nervous or anxious feeling. And it is a response to that emotion, and not just a plain habit. So working with you on your nail biting behavior usually involves addressing the feeling that is causing the behavior as well. When you learn to be more relaxed naturally you lose your need for nail biting.

When you’re serious about changing this behavior, give me a call at 212 223-1832. I can help you through this problem quickly.

Nail biting is bad habit. It is something that is quite common among people of all ages. People who are nail biters often don’t know why they bite their nails and are at a great disadvantage as to how to stop their bad habit.

this type of habit usually starts when we are young. If there is a need in the child to do something with their hands or fingers, it becomes an easy process to bring their hands up to their mouths and begin to chew on their nails. They might have even seen an older boy or girl doing the behavior and they just copied it because they thought it was a grownup thing to do. And you know how children all want to be grownups so very fast.

Some kids find it comforting to be sucking or chewing on things and we can think there might be a connection between nail biting and suckling and comfort. But whatever the reason is that the behavior began, by repeating the behavior it quickly becomes a habit. And as the years go by it becomes just something to do.

The process of nail biting for a teen or an adult is a mindless behavior. Many times the nail biter isn’t even aware that they are biting their nails until sometime into the process. they might all of sudden notice that their hand is up to their mouths and they are chewing on the nail. It can also progress to really chewing away at it. The nail biter can sometimes get a sense of satisfaction from the act, like when we scratch an itch.

Because this habit starts off as mindless, we know that it originates in the subconscious. Compare it to other mindless behaviors like, breathing, blinking, and swatting away a fly. We can bring these behaviors out of their mindless state if we want to. And that is the first step of any type of control process. Being able to notice when you are about to bite your nails instead of after you are already chewing away, gives the nail biter some ammunition in the journey to change.

Hypnosis is a great tool that can program the nail biter’s mind to recognize when the hands are starting to move toward the mouth. And with that recognition there is the opportunity for a moment of choice. And the nail biter who wants to quit can then move their hands back down to their sides and start to create the more desirable habit of a non nail biter.

To find out how you can stop biting your nails call me at 212 223-1832.

What is your biggest nagging concern about stop nail biting? What kind of problem have you been dealing with? Post your questions and concerns below.