Essay Sample on Nail Biting

Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly why people bite their nails. According to The Verge and Healthline, two major health articles, about 20 to 30 percent of the world's population tend to bite their nails, including up to 45 percent being teenagers. As a former nail biter, I was a part of the 45 percent. Psychologists tend to categorize nail-biting as an obsessive-compulsive disorder as an individual has difficulty stopping this habit with no known barrier being the cause of the nail-biting. Luckily, due to many people undergoing the tendency of nail-biting, there have been multiple solutions to this bad habit. The common process of getting rid of the habit of biting nails is done in a three-step process that involves, keeping your nails shortened, keeping your hands busy, and applying a biting barrier. As an individual (including me) undergoes these methods it'll safely ensure their nail-biting habit creating not only a healthier lifestyle but breaking the bad habit as well.

The CDC recommends that individuals should maintain short nails as it'll prevent the transmission of germs, but keeping your nails shortened is also beneficial to prevent biting. As an individual maintains shortened nails they're unable to bite them if there is nothing there to bite. If an individual is a compulsive nail biter it is best to cut the nails immediately and trim them every few weeks depending on the growth of the nail. A great way for the individual to keep their nails trimmed on a certain basis is to outline a plan which would ensure that the individual will follow this routine efficiently.

If someone still tends to bite their nails there is another solution which is keeping your hands busy. As the individual is engaging in something they enjoy, they cannot focus or even look at their nails much. The tendency of looking at the nails or biting them would go away, causing the individual to focus more on the action they are enduring rather than their nails. A few activities that require the usage of an individual’s hands are upper body sports (you won't be able to participate in the sport if your hands are in use), cooking (you will need to maneuver ingredients and utilize your hands at all times), biking/cycling (your hands are required to grip the handlebars to maneuver the direction of the bike), etc. These fun activities and others you may stumble across not only contribute to other health benefits but will unknowingly clear the habit of nail-biting.

Lastly, the common way many individuals break their nail-biting habit is by barriers. Barriers are an efficient way to prevent biting as the barriers create challenges and eventually the individual would turn away from the habit due to the barrier being in their way. Although some individuals tend to use acrylic nails as barriers, they are expensive and are known to damage nail beds over time, especially when it comes to biting. There are plenty of other options that aren't detrimental to the nails and are inexpensive as they can be found right inside your home. Barriers such as, onions(their unpleasant odor would cause the individual to not bite their nails at all when this vegetable is rubbed against the nail bed), band-aids(if the nail is wrapped the individual would bite into the band-aid making it nearly impossible to bite the nail unless they completely remove the band-aid), a clear coat of a travel size nibble inhibitor(applying the clear solution on nails would cause the nails to have an unpleasant taste, which Allowing the individual to participate in applying these nail barriers and others they may find; they can break the bad habit of biting their nails.

In conclusion, the compulsive behavior of nail-biting is a simple, but hard process to endure as the individual has to have the mindset to want to stop this compulsive behavior. The three-step method which is keeping the nails shortened, keeping the hands busy, and applying nail-biting barriers is an easier way to break this habit as these solutions all have sub categorical solutions to break this habit. Breaking your bad habit of nail-biting has never been easier.

Sources:

Potenza, Alessandra. “It’s Dirty and Disgusting. So Why Do We Bite Our Nails?” The Verge, The Verge, 13 Nov. 2016, www.theverge.com/2016/11/13/13597824/why-nail-biting-habit-science.

“Why Do People Bite Their Nails? Underlying Causes and Treatments.” Healthline, 26 Aug. 2020, www.healthline.com/health/why-do-people-bite-their-nails.