Contents
Nail biting: this happens to your body every time you do it
Psychology
If suddenly they talk to you about onychophagy, you probably don’t know what they are saying to you. If, on the other hand, you hear “biting one’s nails,” it sure sounds a lot more familiar to you. Onychophagia is the name that has been given to the compulsive habit of biting the nails, something that can cause future problems in the teeth, deformations of the cuticle, infections, warts and all kinds of alterations related to the dermis and, in cases very extreme, it may even involve the loss of the nail.
Leticia Doñagueda, a psychologist at El Prados Psicólogos, says that it is a frequent behavior in children and adolescents and that it tends to disappear in adulthood: «As we grow older, the habit of biting our nails can be modified by other types of behaviors such as biting a pen, smoking, moving hair, etc. Most of the people who carry out this behavior report that they cannot control it and that, even at times, they are not aware that they are doing it.
This automatic, addictive and unconscious habit has a psychological origin, as reported by Lidia Asensi, an expert in psychology: «The American Psychiatric Association qualified the onychophagy within obsessive compulsive disorders. These types of disorders are related to high anxiety, which is difficult for the person to manage. It is this anxiety that leads the person to initiate compulsive behaviors to counteract it ».
Causes of nail biting
There may be several reasons for nail biting behavior:
1. Stress. “Many people bite their nails when faced with a specific situation such as an exam, a meeting or due to the accumulation of daily stress,” says Leticia Doñagueda, from El Prado Psychologists.
2. To calm situations that generate anxiety. “When they are in situations that cause them nerve or anguish, it favors the need to bite their nails,” says the expert.
3. Shyness or low self-esteem. “Frustration, anger, perfectionism or people with a high level of demand are traits that can help the appearance of onychophagia”, say Lidia Asensi and Leticia Doñagueda.
4.Fear. “Although it has not been associated, fear is a factor that generates this behavior,” says Lidia Asensi, from Psychology Madrid.
“Faced with these emotions, nail biting has a calming effect on people who use this behavior. At some point in the past, these people learned that biting their nails helped them ‘manage’ the stressful situation in which they were, obtaining a feeling of calm later, “explains psychologist Lidia Asensi.
Onychophagia, harmful on three levels
According to the expert in Madrid Psychology Lidia Asensi, nail biting has negative consequences at different levels: «A physical level because bleeding, infections and deconfiguration of the fingers and / or teeth appear, since emotional level can generate frustration because it is a behavior difficult to control», Explains the psychologist, and adds another level:« there is also the social level, since it can be unattractive to present the hands with bitten nails, thus affecting the image of the person ».
Is there treatment?
Those who frequently bite their nails have probably already tried different methods to stop biting their nails: esmaltes with bitter taste, keep nails short, chewing gum instead of putting your hand in your mouth … Apparently, according to Lidia Asensi, these are not enough for the behavior to stop and she insists on working on the cause that generates the start of this behavior.
“It is important to recognize at what specific moments the behavior appears. Once those moments have been identified, understand what emotions appear in those situations and learn in therapy. ‘Why do we feel that way?’ We must learn to manage emotions, work on the anxiety program and learn to adaptively face the different situations that generate anxiety or unpleasant emotions “, says the expert, who advises doing the following:
— Reduce emotional arousal through relaxation techniques.
— Create healthier habits for the person, in other words, gradually eliminating the automatic behavior of nail biting.
— Learn to understand and manage emotions.
At the dermatological level …
Si nail biting is not good psychologically speaking, it is not for our health either. It affects 20-45% of the population, with a slight predominance in women over men, and explains Lourdes Navarro, a dermatologist member of the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, who can also affect toenails … «It is more common than Fingernails are repeatedly bitten, but it can also affect toenails. When the latter happens, you have to be on alert because it could be a very serious psychiatric problem.
Not only is it not visually attractive, but the fact of biting the nails on numerous occasions favors the appearance of blood, infections and fungi. «This repetitive behavior focused on the nails causes bacteria, fungi and viruses to appear; a shortening and modification of the shape of the nail (they acquire a triangular appearance in relation to the usual triangular one); the appearance of longitudinal pigmented bands of a brown to black color on the nail “, warns the expert. But the damaging effects do not end there: biting the nails could even affect the gums: «The resorption of the tooth root due to the force of the biting and the increase of Enterobacteriaceae in the bacterial flora of the mouth. Osteomyelitis of the distal phalanx of the fingers also appears ”, he says.
How is this disorder treated? Modifying the habits that trigger the compulsive attitude. «This is considered the first line of action with the performance of cognitive behavior therapy, habit reversal therapy, distraction techniques … Another measure would be the use of finger bandages, which would act as a barrier and hinder access to biting nails “, explains the dermatologist. However, there is another method that could be the solution: treatment with psychotropic drugs. “High-dose oral N-acetyl cysteine could be another option, but scientific literature regarding the efficacy of N-acetyl cysteine is not very conclusive.”
Useful
- It is estimated that around 30% of children between 5 and 10 years of age usually eat their nails, the percentage increases when we move to the adolescent population, reaching an estimated 50%. Although from the age of 18 this figure decreases, in adulthood around 15% maintain this behavior, being in some cases specific and related to complicated life events.
- Learning what onychophagia is, the psychological causes and the treatments to solve this disorder can help you in many areas of life, not only aesthetically, but also in your emotional life.