Nail Biting

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Nail biting (the medical term is onychophagia) is the act of biting your cuticle, the soft tissue around your nail or your nail itself. It occurs in about a third of young children (aged 7 to 10), 44% of of adolescents, between 20 and 30% of young adults, and 5% of older adults (Terry McClanahan – Operant Learning Principles Applied to Nail Biting). It is more common in boys than girls and tends to be at its worse between the ages of 10 and 18. Although it may be pure habit, the chances are that if you bite your nails, you are prone to anxiety and stress. It’s possible to bite your nails in your sleep (and in fact, some people only ever do it in their sleep – hypnosis is equally as effective in dealing with this type of nail biting, too).

As well as being embarrassing and unsightly, nail biting can be very painful; it can also cause infection – most germs are picked up on the hands, but cannot infect you unless they come into contact with your mouth nose or eyes. The hand to mouth contact involved in nail biting means that if you bite your nails you are much more prone to illness. Nail biting can lead to ridging, nail deformity and even nail loss. Bacterial infections can lead to dental problems such as gingivitis.

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Whilst some nail biting is simply bad habit , if it is very extreme – causing bleeding, infection, loss of the nail, pain and scarring – it may have crossed the line between habit and a form of Uncontrollable Habits. 

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Hypnosis reduces stress and anxiety to break bad habits

As well as the specific suggestions which you will be given whilst in hypnosis to help you break your habit, the very deep state of relaxation which hypnosis gives you means that you are far less likely to develop the state of anxiety which leads to your carrying our your bad habit, too. Hypnosis helps you feel calmer and more relaxed, enables you to manage stress, to feel more in control of your actions and much more aware of them, and to replace your bad habits with a more positive response.