People have different ways of dealing with stress and emotional disturbances. One of the most common one among them is nail biting – a seemingly harmless habit, when compared to other bad habits like smoking. It can often be irritating, especially to the family members of those who bite nails. Mothers of children who are habitual nail biters are often worried about how to get their children to get over that habit. Unfortunately, instead of getting to know the reason for nail biting, they try superficial and half baked ideas like lacing the child’s fingernails with a coat of chili powder. It is important to understand that nail biters are actually very nervous, easily impressionable people, who may be worried, stressed out, or even traumatized about something. In fact, they sometimes bite their fingers so deep that it begins to bleed. Thus, a wound is created, which opens the skin to pathogens and other infection. Here are some ways to get rid of the habit of biting nails.
Remedies For Nail Biting
- Keep a nail file handy. The next time you feel like biting your nails, start rubbing the file over the fingernail
- Take your best friend into confidence. He/she should always be on guard as to when you bite your nails and should dissuade you constantly.
- Wear gloves or apply a coat of nail paint to dissuade yourself from biting nails
- Find ways and means to distress after a hard day so that you are less stressed out and more capable of handling everyday pressures
- Give your fingers a spa like treatment so that you feel good about them.
- Keep a daily record of how many times you bit your nails, how many times you fought the urge to and so on. This will help you set targets for yourself better.
- Get a hobby to keep you and your hands busy. Anything which requires long usage of hands and which is interesting, will keep you off from nail biting. Choose from a range of hobbies like pottery, gardening, sewing, knitting, writing, paper crafting, handicrafts, etc.
- Sometimes keeping your mouth busy also helps. You could keep chewing gum with you always. In case, you feel the urge to nail bite, you could chew the gum and keep your mouth busy, keeping yourself from this habit.
- You could also take the help of professional manicure. The change from your otherwise ugly and swollen hands, may give you an inspiration to stop this habit.
- Keep yourself from taking stress and anxiety. These are some of the underlying reasons, which may trigger this habit. Try yoga and meditation, as these will help you keep stress and frustration at bay, thus minimizing the habit of nail biting.
- Getting acrylic nails have also helped many people. These fake nails will help you curb your urge to bite the nails.
- There are some nail biting creams also available as remedies. You may get these creams at your local drug store. Apply it on your nails and as these are very bitter in taste, you won’t think of biting your nails.