Chewing fingernails – causes, treatment and prevention

Chewing fingernails

Fingernail biting , fingernail gnawing , nail biting or nail biting is a common syndrome. Nail biting can become a habit or even a self-destructive compulsion. The reasons can be unresolved mental problems, a tendency to self-destruction or stress .

What is nail biting?

The pathological chewing , nibbling , biting off of the fingernails is referred to in medical jargon as onychophagia. Nervousness, fear or tension as well as emotional problems or behavioral disorders are often the reason for chronic nail biting.

In conflict or stressful situations in particular, those affected tend to behave in this way. Severe forms of nail biting are assigned to the symptoms of “self-injury” (auto-aggressive behavior). Onychophagy (eating of the claws or claws) is also known in the animal kingdom.

Chewed fingernails are an aesthetic problem for many of those affected. The physical consequences of nail biting include inflammation (inflammation of the nail bed) and the spread of nail fungus and warts.

causes

There are many reasons for chewing your fingernails. You can look for them in stress, internal or external conflicts, stressful situations, inner tension , fears , depression and frustration. Some people also bite their fingernails out of embarrassment or boredom.

In others, such destructive behaviors are to be found in accumulation and indicate mental disorders. In itself, fingernail biting is a bad habit that often serves as a substitute gratification and can be broken. Internal tension and excitement can be the reason for having to bite fingernails.

Many children start chewing their fingernails at an early age. They may have sucked their thumbs before. Often the act of biting your fingernails is not done consciously. Biting your fingernails happens imperceptibly, for example, when watching exciting films, when you are tense before classwork, when you are afraid of discovering a petty theft or when you are reading a disturbing book. However, it is also known that many adults chew their fingernails. The extent to which this happens varies from person to person.

diagnosis and course

To say anything about the diagnosis and history of fingernail biting is to attach disease value to this habit. But this is not always the case. Chewing fingernails can be a substitute action when withdrawing from nicotine, drugs or alcohol , make it easier to diet or appear in a life crisis and then disappear again. Fear of an upcoming surgery can also push you back into this early childhood behavior. You can often see a certain automatism when chewing your fingernails. If the person concerned becomes aware of this or someone tells him that the nails he has chewed off are ugly, the nail biting often changes. Women pay much more attention to themselves in this respect than men who bite their fingernails.

A diagnosis is only necessary if there is self-injurious behavior or other indicators that suggest a mental disorder. Auto-aggression, anxiety or depression do not always require treatment. They can occur in phases or depending on the situation. The course of nail biting can vary, but mostly nail biting is only a temporary phase. But chewing fingernails can also express a certain level of suffering or a frequently performed compulsive act, from which the person concerned should be relieved.

treatment and therapy

As for the treatment of chewing fingernails, it can be said that it is not very easy. Basically, one would have to investigate the causes instead of just applying a bitter tincture. Bitter tinctures only help with the child anyway. For adults who bite their fingernails, other ways make more sense. They often do not see fingernail biting as a problem.

However, they may want to break this bad habit for aesthetic reasons. First of all, it must be determined in which situations fingernail biting occurs preferentially. It can express states of shock or sadness after a separation from a life partner that cannot be vented in any other way.In many cases, awareness needs to be raised that it is a bad habit or auto-aggressive behavior. For adults who bite their fingernails, relaxation exercises, chi gong , kickboxing, yoga , or meditation can provide helpful stress relief. For children who bite their nails frequently, reminders, rewards, or distractions are more likely to help. Punishment actions are of little use when chewing fingernails.

Biting your fingernails is usually not a harmless habit. It rather points to mental conflicts or inner tension. Talk and behavioral therapy should be considered for OCD or self-injurious behavior. Fingernail biting can take on severe forms where the nails are almost completely chewed off and the nail bed is exposed.

prevention

A relaxed family life, a lot of recreational sport and good conflict management can be used to prevent biting your fingernails. Anyone who does a lot of sport or has good people to talk to will usually not bite their fingernails. If the fingernail biting is mainly observed when reading a crime novel, it indicates an inner stress level. Perhaps it would be better to switch to novels and biographies.

Dorothy Farrar

Hello and welcome to my Health Guide & Encyclopedia! My name is Dorothy Farrar, and I'm the founder and main author of this platform.
My passion for health and wellness started at a young age when I became interested in the connection between the food we eat and the way we feel. This fascination led me to study nutrition and dietetics in college, where I learned about the importance of a balanced diet and the impact of various nutrients on the body.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *