The habit of gnawing nails

Agree that it is quite unpleasant to see a person, especially if he is your interlocutor, who has a persistent habit of gnawing on his nails, or they are a haphophagy. This is not only not aesthetically pleasing, but, as doctors say, it is quite dangerous. In medicine, there is even such a term as onychophagy, which designates this particular addiction.

Causes of biting nails

Involuntary desire to bite nail plates and burrs is a symptomatology of deviation in behavior. This "addiction" not only makes a person somewhat unattractive in communication for other people, but often these people continue this action until the skin is not injured and blood arises. In this situation, the nail hole is often damaged.

Mostly, this pathology occurs in children of four to five years and, if no measures are taken, is only aggravated when the baby goes to school. Statistics show that 34% of toddlers attending junior school suffer from this habit. It is not uncommon for the examined pathology to arise in the adolescent during his puberty, which finds expression in his already adult life. You can meet families where nails are gnawed by adults, and children just start imitating them, not counting it as something detrimental.

The reasons for the habit of gnawing the nails can be quite different and bear both a temporary and a prolonged nature.

A number of factors can provoke the appearance of this unaesthetic behavior:

• This can be a variant of psychological protection from a stressful situation in which an adult or a child has fallen.
• Auto-aggression is a situation when nail-biting to the blood is one of the manifestations of self-meditation.
• This behavior may appear in children whose parents, while limiting their freedom, practice totalitarian control.
• Diffidence. Internal conflict, which can be caused by communication problems.
• This situation can be provoked in the family. Inadequate behavior of one or both of the parents.
• Physicians admit and the hereditary nature of the habit, transmitted by genetic means.
• It can be aggression on oneself, when a person tries to punish himself for what he thinks is unworthy behavior.
• Increased brittleness of the nail plate caused by medical problems. The nail breaks and, finding nothing better, the "master" gnaws at the nail.
• A person is able to bite his nails from boredom, from idleness.

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The habit of gnawing nails in adults

Many adults often ask why the pathological deviation occurs on the subconscious level and how to get rid of it quickly, easily and forever. After all, it is capable of bringing into life a lot of unpleasant moments and even destroying a career. Agree, who will keep an employee who, at a responsible meeting or meeting with a client, will afford something similar.

The habit of gnawing nails in adults is not born from scratch. Will not it be superfluous to sit down and calmly analyze the situation that has arisen, to try to understand at what stage of life it originated? Quite often, the roots of this problem go into deep childhood, accompanying a person and in adulthood.

Most often these manifestations are a hidden emotional splash, when directly a person can not show his emotions.

Everyone from childhood knows that this should not be done. Harmful predilections make the nail plate not attractive, which worsens the appearance of the hands. If such a pathology manifests itself for a long time, then a person with such a predilection risks completely ruin not only the condition itself, but also the shape of the nails. To correct this situation, representatives of the weaker sex, at times, can only by cosmetology. This procedure is quite expensive, but it only temporarily solves the aesthetic side of the problem, not correcting the actual situation.

Therefore, it is better to solve this problem at once and on the root than to subsequently find the techniques and spend the forces, time and resources to eliminate the deficiencies.

But this is the visual side of the problem. Now we'll deal with the medical. Everyone knows that it is not safe to put unwashed fingers in your mouth. This is fraught with infectious infection, helminthic invasion. In addition, with this unseemly process, often traumatizing the skin at the fingertips. The resulting damage to the epidermis becomes, in fact, an open "gateway" for invading pathogenic microorganisms.

Therefore, it is clearly necessary to fight this habit.

The habit of gnawing nails in children

Quite often, attentive parents are worried about the habit of gnawing at the children's nails. And they can be understood. But in order to eliminate the problem, one should understand the situation and try to find the source that has become the catalyst for such behavior of the child. Often the baby in this way relieves the nervous tension received from an external source. If you can not fix it yourself, it is advisable to contact a specialist for assistance. In this situation it will be useful to consult a child psychologist or a district pediatrician.

It is necessary to solve this situation as soon as possible. After all, the problem can be more of a psychological nature and over time, gnawed fingernails may not seem a particularly big problem in the background of psychological frustration and conflict.

But in order to effectively resolve the situation, one should "grope" the source and stop it. Only in this case it will be possible to talk about the elimination of the problem as such.

If the baby starts to gnaw the nails, do not close your eyes to it in the hope that everything will resolve on its own, and the child, having matured, will understand the addiction of habit and abandon it. It is not necessary to expect this. Such indifference from parents can lead to:

• To a stable habit that the kid will carry and into adulthood.
• The child will learn to hide his true emotions and problems, which will only alienate him from his parents, who will lose his trust. It is quite possible for a child to have problems with his peers or adults, for example, a kindergarten teacher or a school teacher. Subconsciously, he expects that mom or dad will get into the problem, solve it by protecting him. At the same time he, for some reason, is afraid to say about his problems. For us, a specific situation may seem not worth a "eaten egg", but for a little man it's very serious.
• As already mentioned above, dirty hands in the mouth are an infection and parasites that penetrate into our body. And it will be necessary to make even greater efforts to solve this problem and to stop the disease that they caused.
• In this case, a long ignoring of the problem will lead to a violation of the shape of the nail plate. It can become wider, but less short. Hands with such nails lose their aesthetics, they are ashamed to show the interlocutor, which already brings psychological discomfort to the situation.
• Particularly impressionable babies are able to gnaw on the background of vivid impressions, unable to cope with the emotions.

Therefore, if the parents were determined to rid their child of this addiction, it is necessary to find the true cause of its occurrence. Parents need to understand what is bothering the baby, under what situation does he pull his hands to his mouth? In this "fight", adults should be patient: do not pull the baby up with irritation in the voice, do not slap on the hands or scold. This behavior can significantly exacerbate the situation. Only with patience and affection one can find a tumbler, which starts this pathological reaction of the baby. And this is how it is possible to cut this "Gordeev knot".

How to get rid of the habit of gnawing nails?

As already mentioned above, to answer the question how to get rid of the habit of gnawing nails, you can determine the cause of the catalyst. But certain recommendations can already be given immediately.

It should be noted immediately that modern medicine and alternative medicine methods today do not have a "classical tablet", which would allow to easily and quickly cope with the problem.

Some methods used by parents do not bring 100% results either.

• Spread the marigolds with mustard, various ointments or varnish.
• They resort to intimidation and threats.

Such measures if and will give a conditionally positive result, it will be short-lived, as the approach to treatment is not correct. Many try to eliminate the symptom, and not to affect the source of its occurrence. Even if you manage to cope with this symptomatology with such methods, the suffering person will be replaced, and instead of biting the nail plate, for example, he starts biting his lips, winding his hair, trying to pick up the wart, start smoking, and so on.

If it concerns the baby, then, first of all, the mother should try to bring him to a confidential conversation and find out the cause of his excitement. In this situation, it is enough to caress the baby, say that he is loved and proud of him, as well as alone or together with the child to find a way out for solving his problem. If this is not possible for parents, a child psychologist can help.

The approach to the problem must be more thorough. It is necessary to take into account as many factors as possible: the situation in which a person lives, his social status, his personal characteristics, and so on. If there is a feeling that you can not cope with the problem on your own, it is worth calling for help to a specialist, having consulted a psychologist.

The problem can be quashed with various psychotherapeutic techniques. First of all, just categorically forbid nibbling nails is impossible. The person himself must penetrate and want to get freedom from the pathological predilection. Otherwise, the problem will not be solved.

Specialists suggest a number of ways, if desired, that allow to stop the problem:

• If the source of the pathological predilection is anxiety or a stressful situation, it is quite possible to use sedative drugs. It can be a light herbal tincture based on melissa, valerian, motherwort and so on. If the situation is particularly difficult, pharmacological preparations may be prescribed: persen, life 600, circulin, dormiplant, neurastin, novopassit, stress plank, deprim (produced on the basis of plant components) or valocordin, valoserdine, dormiplant, cardolol, corvaldine, corvalolum, nobrassite , sanason and others.

Combined drug novopassit appointed one teaspoon, which corresponds to 5 ml, three times throughout the day. If the clinical picture of the disease requires, the recommended amount of the drug can be allowed to double and take 10 ml three times a day.

But this pharmacological preparation has its own contraindications: individual intolerance of the components of the drug, the presence in the anamnesis of a person of muscle weakness (myasthenia). Caution should be given to medication for patients with disorders affecting the organs of the digestive tract.

Similarly, in this case, physicians can assign behavioral therapy, which is the patient's encounter with his fears and the development of abilities to control his emotions.

• A man gnaws a nail plate because of its fragility, then, consequently, it is necessary to do their strengthening. In therapeutic activities, you can include warm baths based on sea salt, vitamin complexes or monopreparation, containing calcium and other trace elements and vitamins. For example, calcium gluconate is taken for 1 to 3 grams of the substance, two to three times per day.

Contraindication to the use of this drug may become hypercalcemia, increased sensitivity to the constituent components of the drug. Calcium gluconate is not prescribed for severe hypercalciuria, severe renal dysfunction, or if the patient's body is prone to thrombogenesis.

• For a woman, one of the ways to get rid of the addiction, can be the build-up of nails and painting them with acrylic paints or gel. In this situation, the psychological tumbler works more. Well, what woman, having paid a considerable sum, will want to part with such beauty.
• If necessary, it is possible to introduce into the therapy the application of substances having a repulsive taste on the nails. This will make it easier to control your involuntary desires.
• If a person really wants to get rid of the habit, then you can ask relatives or close friends to unobtrusively pull back with another attempt to stick your finger in your mouth.
• Another way to distract yourself from the desire to gnaw nails is to engage in an interesting affair, concentrating your taking on it.

How to quit the habit of gnawing nails?

If the habit in question does not bring any discomfort to a person, then it will not be possible to cope quickly with the situation, since the person has no motivation to solve the problem.

And the situation when a person is "ripe", he, first of all, has a legitimate question, how to quit the habit of gnawing nails? You can advise some activities that will allow you to find a substitute for pathology, teach you how to control your emotions.

• One of the points of therapy is the ability to relax. It will reduce the intensity of stress, bring pacification, which simply does not need emotional release, which often manifests itself by nibbling the nail plate. In this situation, soothing baths on herbs will help. You can try to light a flavored lamp that exudes specialized soothing aroma oils. If desired, it is worth trying to do yoga, meditation, relaxation or positive autovusheniem.
• Another way is to set a goal to get rid of pathology. To control the process, it is worth noting the date of the "beginning of the road" in the wall calendar. Every evening the results of the day are summed up. If throughout it has turned out never to bring the phalanx to the teeth, you should be encouraged. This way is long enough, but the result is worth it. And the main thing is the result, as well as moral satisfaction from the work performed and the difficulties overcome.
• You can "forcefully" make a replacement with the need to bite your nails with the ability to chew nuts and dried fruits. Such a replacement is not only psychologically justified, but it will also benefit the body.
• You should always have a manicure set with you, which, if necessary, you can use when processing a broken nail. And this applies not only to women, but also to men in particular.
• Revise your diet, perhaps it is poor in vitamins and minerals (especially calcium), which is the cause of increased brittleness and lamination of the plates. To improve the situation, such foods and dishes should regularly be present on the table: nuts, pork knuckle cold, sour-milk products, Bulgarian pepper, all kinds of greens, pumpkin seeds and others.
• To strengthen and improve the condition of the nail plate, you should regularly use special nourishing creams. At least once a week, make hands for hands based on sea salt or medicinal herbal infusions. The high effectiveness of the result shows the use of drugs, which include vitamins D and A. Applying cream, nourishing masks, water procedures are best performed before bedtime. After the nutritional composition is applied, you can put on cotton gloves and go to bed. So the bed linen will remain clean and the skin, and the nails of the hands will receive their food.
• When working at home or on the plot, use rubberized gloves to protect your hands from chemicals and the environment.
• If you want to refrain from the habit of gnawing your nails, you should not forget about the psychological side of the problem, it is on it that you should first of all direct your attention. Perhaps a person has serious psychological problems. Then it will be right to seek the help of a specialist. Treatment, painted by the doctor, can include hypnosis, acupuncture and many other methods of traditional and non-traditional medicine.
• If the situation is associated with organic lesions, then more substantial examination and treatment is needed.
• There is a category of people starting to gnaw their nails when hunger overcomes them. Therefore, in such a situation you need to monitor your diet. The regimen should be frequent, but insignificant portions, so that you can not treat obesity later on.

Experts believe that the most effective method of getting rid of a problem is a set of activities that include psychological exercises together with various, more applied tricks (nail rubbing with substances with an unpleasant taste).

To small children it is possible to try to put on fingers an adhesive plaster. For very young patients, psychological methods are not entirely suitable and are ineffective. It is hard enough for a small child to explain that nibbling a nail, putting dirty fingers in his mouth carries a certain danger. Naturally, this does not mean that it is not necessary to talk about this to a child. Over time, you can find more weighty arguments for your baby. For example, a teenage girl can explain how ugly a manicure will be, and later the very kind of hands that even the most elegant manicure will not save.

Another of the options that can help in weaning the baby from the habit of gnawing on the nails will be a more attentive attitude to the little "why" and its problems. It is necessary to do more with the child, so that he is interested and not bored, then the reason for manifesting harmful addictions will disappear.

The habit of gnawing nails is an unpleasant, dangerous reflex for human health. But she is not a sentence for the rest of her life. With this you can and must fight. But get rid of, just drinking a pill, will not work. It is necessary to be tuned to carry out certain work, groping, primarily, the cause, which is the catalyst for the manifestation of this pathological reflex. If you can not independently manage the problem, you should not brush aside the help of specialists. But after passing this path, such a person gets other dividends, becoming more calm, confident and able to manage his emotions and his life!