The Leading Nail Biting Cure - Hypnotherapy

A feature article by Alan B Densky, Mar 24, 2008         

Summary: You may be surprised to know that nail biting shares many similarities to smoking. Both are physical, ritualistic habits. Either may be caused by the mechanics of a simple physical routine, or may be indicative of deeper psychological troubles. And in either case, the habit itself can be very effectively eliminated with hypnotherapy.

 
The underlying causes of most physical habits may be quite varied, and rooted at different psychological levels. Although hypnosis has a wide range of applications, the problems that are most directly related to physical habits are typically the ones that can be treated with hypnosis most directly and easily. Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation is the most well known of these, and is one of the more effective and least invasive techniques for achieving its goal. Another popular area for hypnosis treatment is for weight reduction. Similarly, hypnosis is also the most effective technique for ending a nail biting habit.

The nail biting habit shares many similarities with smoking. It is a ritualistic, physical habit. Either can be caused by the mechanics of a simple physical routine, or may perhaps be indicative of deeper psychological issues. And in either case the habit itself can be very effectively stopped with hypnosis.

Discovering and resolving underlying psychological issues, which manifest themselves in nail biting or smoking can be a process that necessitates several sessions with a skilled hypnotherapist. However, not all hypnotists and hypnotherapists are capable of working at the deep psychological level. Fortunately, for the purposes of eliminating a nail biting or a smoking habit, they are not required to work below the most direct physical level.

The more immediate goal of curing nail biting is far more straightforward. Many of our deeper emotional and psychological states are impacted by our physical state, so in treating physical symptoms directly, we are also able to have an indirect impact on deeper issues. Additionally, not all negative physical behaviors have underlying causes; sometimes it is merely just a physical habit; it "feels" good for the individual to take part in them.

In my experience, the focused and relaxed state of hypnosis can have nearly miraculous results when used in causing simple changes to one's physical state. Whenever I relieve severe burn pain, alleviate nausea, and eliminate other physical issues for a client in just seconds, it still surprises and amazes me, even though I'm supposedly the one with the "power" (as we know, the real power exists in the client's unconscious mind). Our minds have the capacity to block out severe nausea and pain; so helping to prevent one from nail biting is a modest goal in comparison.

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I've found three of the strongest aspects of hypnosis to be anchoring, substitution and association. With association, one can link the undesirable behavior to something aversive; with substitution, one can replace the bad habit with an innocuous one; with anchoring, one can link physical movement triggers with alternative feelings and behaviors.

With association, just like the simple hypnotic parlor trick can make a slice of white bread taste like a delicious slice of New York Cheesecake to a subject, one can make the feeling and taste of nail biting to be extremely distasteful. If your subject is repeatedly conditioned to believe that the taste and feel of nail biting is very unpleasant, it will help to cause the habit to cease.

There are chemical products that achieve this goal via foul tasting nail polish. However, with a mental association they can stop nail biting without depending on applying a chemical product. This "aversion" type of therapy isn't generally very helpful. But it is only reliable when used as an adjunct to relieving the stress that causes one to bite their nails, as well as extinguishing conditioned responses (unconscious associations), which triggers one to bite their nails.

Substitution can be used to replace the nail biting habit with a more benign habit. For example, it is quite effective to make the suggestion that whenever one feels the urges that lead them towards nail biting, they will take a deep breath instead, and slowly exhale, experiencing all the same feelings and resolution that nail biting used to bring. I have found the deep breathing substitute to be very effective for a wide range of ailments.

Similarly, anchoring can be used to subvert one action into another, and works well with the association and substitution techniques. It is useful to create the suggestion that every time subjects see their fingers coming to their mouth, they strongly recall the unpleasant taste association, and they take a deep breath instead to relieve the tension.

In summary, hypnosis has been recognized as one of the more effective techniques for negative habit modification. Just as with smoking cessation, the concepts and techniques discussed here prove to be very effective as a long-term nail-biting solution.



Alan B. Densky, CH is a recognized leader in the field of hypnosis. Visit his hypnosis site for free hypnosis videos, and advice. He offers an all-inclusive seven-session hypnotherapy for nail biting program based on Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and NLP.

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