When you have the bad habit of biting your nails, you may think that you are just stuck with the habit. The truth is that you don’t have to live with painfully bitten nails, especially if you are open to many different types of treatments that have been designed specifically to help you stop biting your nails.

Treatment Using Aversion therapy

Aversion therapy is perhaps the most common treatment for nail biting, but the results that you see from this treatment are usually in the hit and miss category of ways to stop nail biting. Aversion therapy may help those who have a very mild case of nail biting, or who have just begun the habit and want to stop it before it become more severe.

The main way that aversion therapy works is that you paint a thin layer or bitter or very spicy chemicals onto your fingernails, so that when you begin to bite them you taste the product. Aversion therapy does have several benefits, including that the cost is relatively low and the treatment can be used when you are working with a child. Also, you can use all natural ingredients, such as cayenne pepper, as the main source of therapy.

Unfortunately, aversion therapy does not work for those who have a serious case of nail biting, and it may not even work for those who bite their nails in response to stress.

Stress and Nail Biting

Nail biting is most commonly liked to higher internal levels of stress than other body focused repetitive behaviors. For example, if you notice that you bite your nails more often when dealing with a stressful work or home situation, then you are probably going to need a more mentally focused type of treatment that aversion therapy can offer.

For ways to stop finger nail biting that is related to stress, you should look for a treatment that teaches you how to manage your stress more effectively. For some people, stress management classes or yoga can sufficiently reduce their stress levels enough so that they are not biting their nails constantly.

For others, stress therapy is the best option for learning how to stop nail biting. Stress therapy is generally the most costly option that you have, but in the long run may help you manage your stress in order to avoid other health problems that are related to stress, such as irritability and low energy.

Hypnosis as Stress Therapy

Hypnosis can also be used as a treatment for nail biting in adults. Hypnosis can help you learn to relax, so that you aren’t constantly tempted to bite your nails when you face a situation that you normally feel stress in. Since nail biting and stress are so closely related, learning to relax using hypnosis is a good, and cost effective, option for treatment.

The main thing that you will want to remember is that hypnosis only works when you are open to the suggestion of being hypnotized.

D. Bruce Stevens is a recipient of, & an advocate of using self hypnosis for a variety of stress related ailments

D. Bruce Stevens
Nov 15 2008

Highly Recommended Methods of stopping finger nail biting with self hypnosis can be found at the Neuro Vision website

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