If you have ever endeavored to quit your nail biting habit, you recognize just how hard it can be. Perhaps you have put on bandages or gloves over your fingertips, or tried flavored nail polish. Perhaps they were successful temporarily, but ultimately you found yourself with chewed-up nails and torn cuticles yet again.



The reason that a topical nail biting cure is not likely to be successful makes sense when the reason behind the behavior is understood. The nail biting habit is persistent and related in nature to other stress-related patterns, such as skin picking and hair pulling. At the core, these behaviors fulfill a natural desire; thus if the urge is not eliminated or satiated, the behavior will start again. No amount of bitter nail polish will curb the need for nail biting or give the sense of relaxation you have after chewing on your nails.

In that vein, a person cannot actually cure nail biting, but do not worry: Thankfully, time-tested remedies that can lead to recovery are available. There is a three-step treatment that can efficiently stop nail biting if you are motivated to do so. The most important step involves hypnosis.

For those unfamiliar, hypnosis conjures pictures of people watching swinging pendulums or acting like an animal for others' enjoyment. Rest assured that at its source, hypnosis is just deep relaxation in a trance-like condition. A lot of people mistakenly think that hypnotic trances are like sleep, but you are awake and fully conscious, simply very relaxed and open to suggestion.

In fact, most of us are subject to some manner of self-hypnosis every day, during periods when we ignore most of the distractions around us to focus on a certain task while staying fully conscious. It takes place effortlessly while we watch television, daydream or read.

Because nail biting is stress related, the more effectively you can release and work through anxiety and tension, the more winning your move to stop nail biting will be. The top target of hypnotherapy is to help you to live in a state of relaxation always.

You are encouraged to try many different hypnosis methods, such as traditional hypnosis, Ericksonian hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques, to boost both the relaxed state and to get a better sense of happiness. A qualified hypnotherapist will know which type is ultimately best.

The subsequent step to curbing a nail biting inclination is to become conscious of the behavior since nail biting is performed unconsciously. Hypnotherapy is advantageous for this stage, as corresponding with the unconscious mind to elicit the conscious mind's awareness that you will soon bite your nails can help significantly. This allows you to make the judgment to bite your nails or not. And because hypnotherapy has already aided to improve the related stress, the powerful compulsion to bite your nails has been greatly diminished, or even removed.

The finishing action for using hypnotherapy to discontinue biting nails is to completely remove the underlying compulsion to bite or chew. There are techniques that can effectively program you with a compulsion to eliminate biting your nails, because just as habits can be effectively quelled with help from hypnosis, they can also be introduced.

Hypnotherapy is effectual for restricting behaviors such as biting your nails because, though the treatment will not miraculously generate absolute strength of will, it can reinforce your determination and make certain that options you make during a hypnotic state will still carry over when you are stressed out. Furthermore, hypnotherapy can help you commune with your unconscious mind to get it to support your conscious mind so both entities support your goal.

It is noteworthy that some prospective hypnosis clients have a concern of having ideas planted or of experiencing "hidden" memories while in a trance. Rest assured that hypnotherapists are officially taught and accredited and follow the strictest professional and ethical procedures. The systems used by hypnotherapists to make positive suggestions to your unconscious are entirely separate from the ones used for memory recall or age regression. So the use of hypnotherapy for efficiently stopping the impulse to bite your nails will not result in unintended behaviors or memories.

CONCLUSION: Fingernail biting is a drive like any other, and using determination alone is generally not enough to refrain from the behavior. Using hypnotherapy or hypnosis CDs and all other resources available will more likely result in a successful, comfortable end to your nail biting.