If you have ever endeavored to give up your nail biting habit, you realize just how challenging is. Perhaps you have put on bandages or gloves over your fingernails, or tried bitter nail polish. Perhaps they worked for a short time, but ultimately you found yourself with chewed-up nails and bleeding cuticles again.



The reason that a superficial nail biting cure is not likely to work makes sense when the cause of the behavior is examined. The nail biting habit is chronic and comparable in nature to other stress-related patterns, like skin picking and hair pulling. At the core, these behaviors fill an inherent 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 provide the sense of relaxation you have after nibbling on your nails.

In that vein, someone cannot ever cure nail biting, but do not worry: Fortunately, time-tested therapies that can support recovery are available. There is a three-step course of action that can efficiently stop nail biting if you are committed to do so. The fundamental step entails hypnosis.

For the uninitiated, hypnosis conjures pictures of people watching swinging pendulums or acting like an animal for the entertainment of others. Rest assured that at its source, hypnosis is only profound relaxation in a trance-like state. Many wrongly think that hypnotic trances are like sleep, but you are fully conscious and awake, simply more relaxed and open to suggestion.

In fact, a lot of people experience some form of self-hypnosis daily, during periods when we tune out the majority of the distractions around us to focus on a certain task while staying fully conscious. It takes place naturally while we watch television, daydream or read.

Because nail biting is related to stress, the more effectively you can work through and release tension and anxiety, the more winning your hard work to stop nail biting will be. The primary objective of hypnotherapy is to teach you how to live in a state of relaxation at all times.

You are encouraged to investigate various hypnosis approaches, such as traditional hypnosis, Ericksonian hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques, to improve both the state of relaxation and to accomplish a greater sense of well-being. A competent hypnotherapist can tell which method is ultimately best.

The following step to curbing a nail biting pattern is to become conscious of the behavior since nail biting is executed unconsciously. Hypnotherapy is advantageous for this part of the plan, as corresponding with the unconscious mind to elicit the conscious mind's understanding that you are about to bite your nails can help very much. This allows you to make the assessment to bite your nails or not. And because hypnotherapy has previously assisted to relieve the main stress, the powerful impulse to bite your nails has been significantly reduced, or even abolished.

The final action for using hypnotherapy to discontinue biting nails is to fully eradicate the original desire to bite or chew. There are methods that can literally program you with a craving to renounce biting your nails, because just as practices can be effectively alleviated with help from hypnosis, they can be established.

Hypnotherapy is valuable for ending behaviors such as biting your nails because, even though the session will not miraculously make complete strength of will, it can bolster your determination and make certain that choices you make while in a hypnotic state will still stay strong when you are agitated. Additionally, hypnotherapy can help you connect with your unconscious mind to get it to support your conscious mind so both units support your end.

It is noteworthy that some prospective hypnosis clients hold a concern of having suggestions planted or of having "hidden" memories while in a trance. Rest assured that hypnotherapists are formally skilled and accredited and hold to the strictest ethical and professional rules. The processes used by professionals to make constructive suggestions to your unconscious are entirely different than those used for memory recall or age regression. So the use of hypnotherapy for successfully ending the need to bite your nails will not result in unintended behaviors or memories.

CONCLUSION: Nail chewing is an inherent impulse like any other, and using strength of will 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.