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Surely you know someone who bites a nail in an environment close to you. Maybe you are that person too. And it is that the habit of biting our nails is very common: it is estimated that up to 30% of the population has this habit, which is much more common among children and adolescents. es.
Do you bite your nails from nerves? You are worried? For pure joy? And if you want to break this habit, how can you stop it? Today we explain why we bite our nails and we offer you some solutions in this regard.
Why do we bite our nails?
The habit of biting our nails is also called onychophagia. The Greek word ννυξ means “nail” and φαγειν means “to eat”. As we have said, it is a much more frequent habit among children and adolescents, and it does not tend to disappear in adults in all cases. There is no specific fashion when it comes to issues of gender and behavior of people who suffer.
Medical professionals disagree in determining whether onycholargia is a pathologic disorder.)
Researchers disagree on why we bite our nails, but the American Psychiatric Association has considered them OCD since 2012.
The American Psychiatric Association’s list of obsessive-compulsive disorders (commonly known as OCD) has included tinea unguium since 2012, but some researchers have found that it’s a learned habit. , Its origin is the person who suffers.
Others have found that our nail biting is a behavioral problem associated with stressful and anxious situations (here, dysphagia itself is not a problem, but a symptom of another problem) or excessive behavior. It was already mentioned in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry in 2015.
Do I have to stop biting my nails?
Onychophagia can be an unsightly, unhealthy and, in many cases, embarrassing habit for those who suffer from it, but it does not have to be a dangerous habit as long as it is not associated with other more serious tis disorders after conduct disorders.
Published on Unplash by Dollar Gill
The danger of a sore throat in the nails is that it causes us to have other types of consequences in our body. For example, dental problems (bent, missing teeth or gingivitis problems or inflammation of the gums), infections caused by bacteria around the skin toes, which according to this study are the most common of paronychia. Cause) or stomach condition.
How can I stop biting my nails?
The first thing you should do if you want to stop biting your nails is to identify the origin of this habit. In our case, nail bites are the result of these episodes (as in bruxism), because nail spines can be associated with stress and anxiety situations. In this case, it is appropriate to identify these situations and try to get to the root of the problem, which causes us stress, which can be our work, family or social situation. There is no way.
For children, punishment is not effective in preventing nail biting
In the case of children, punishment (it is common to see parents slapping their children lightly to prevent them from putting their fingers in their mouths) has not been shown to have good results in preventing biting. It has been shown that a habit reversal treatment with the help of a psychologist is more effective.
Published on Unplash by John Fornander
Another way that can sometimes give good results is to nail our nails with a special transparent nail polish that gives us an unpleasant taste when we chew it, eventually biting our finger. (Same nails), or for women, opt for “hard to bite” porcelain or gel nails.
