Hypnosis As The Leading Nail-Biting Cure
With the majority of physical habits, the underlying causes may be quite varied, and at different psychological levels. While hypnotherapy has a wide range of applications, the ailments that are most directly related to physical habits are usually the ones that can be treated with hypnotherapy most quickly and directly. Smoking cessation hypnotherapy is the most well known of these, and is one of the most successful and least invasive techniques for reaching its goal. Another popular area for hypnotherapy treatment is for weight loss. Similarly, hypnotherapy is also the most effective technique for conquering a nail biting habit.
The nail biting habit has much in common with smoking. Both are physical, ritualistic habits. Either can be caused by the mechanics of a physical routine, or can be symptomatic of deeper psychological issues. In either case the habit itself can be effectively halted with hypnotherapy.
Discovering and treating underlying psychological issues, which manifest themselves in nail biting or smoking can be a process that necessitates several sessions with a knowledgeable hypnotherapist. However, not all hypnotists and hypnotherapists are capable of performing at the deep psychological level. Thankfully, for the purposes of ending a smoking or a nail biting habit, they do not need to work below the most direct physical level.
The immediate goal of curing nail biting is much more straightforward. Many of our deeper psychological and emotional states are influenced by our physical state, so in treating physical conditions directly, we can also indirectly impact deeper issues. Furthermore, not all negative physical habits have underlying causes; sometimes it is truly just a physical habit; it just “feels” good for the individual to take part in them.
I have seen that the focused and relaxed state of hypnosis can achieve extraordinary results when it comes to achieving simple physical state changes. Whenever I eliminate severe burn pain, remove nausea, and solve other physical issues for a client in just seconds, it still amazes and surprises me, even though I’m supposedly the one with the “power” (as we know, the real power exists within the client’s unconscious mind). Our minds are capable of blocking out severe pain and nausea; so helping to prevent one from biting their nails is a relatively modest goal in comparison.
I have found three of the most powerful hypnotherapy techniques to be association, substitution and anchoring. 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 phenomenon can make a piece of white bread taste like the most delicious New York Cheesecake to a subject, one can make the taste and feeling of nail biting to be extremely distasteful. If your subject is consistently and repeatedly conditioned to feel that the taste and feel of nail biting is extremely unpleasant, it will help the habit to disappear.
There are chemical products that achieve this goal via unpleasant tasting nail polish. However, with a mental association it is easy to stop nail biting without relying upon applying a chemical product. This “aversion” type of therapy isn’t generally extremely helpful. But it is reliable only 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 behavior with a more benign habit. For instance, it is quite effective to make the suggestion that whenever one feels the urges that lead them towards nail biting, they will instead take a deep breath, and slowly exhale, achieving all the satisfaction and resolution that nail biting used to bring. I have found the deep breathing substitute to be effective and relaxing for a wide range of ailments.
Similarly, anchoring can be used to subvert one action into another, and works well in combination with the association and substitution. It is useful in creating the suggestion that each and every time subjects see their fingers coming to their mouth, they strongly recall the bad taste association, and they instead take a deep breath to resolve the tension.
Hypnotherapy has long been recognized as one of the most successful methods for negative habit modification. Just as with smoking cessation, the techniques and concepts discussed here prove to be extremely successful as a long-term nail-biting solution.
Alan B. Densky, CH has been assisting clients with stress related afflictions for three decades. He’s perfected a comprehensive seven-session self-hypnosis stop nail-biting CD based on NLP and Ericksonian Hypnosis. Visit his hypnosis site for free hypnosis articles, videos, and advice.
- Alan B. Densky, CH
