Read Chapter Two Free

Here is a free chapter for you to read to help you make your decision to purchase the a life-changing How to Stop Nail Biting book. Practically, the only thing you stand to lose from reading it is your nail biting habit.

Chapter Two discusses whether nailbiting is an addiction. It also provides a quick test you can take to help you determine how severe your own nail biting problem is. No matter how you score, you will find the advice in the book useful in helping you eliminate nailbitting from your life once and for all. Once you see your fingernails grown and groomed, you will be glad you followed the ebook’s advice to help you quit nail biting for good.

Nail Biting – Is it an addiction?

While nail biting may not fit the classical medical definition of addiction, it unquestionably is as difficult to rid oneself of the habit as most addictions. To be fair, alcoholism, drug addiction, even gambling or sex addictions can be the cause of serious harm to oneself and one’s family. It is hard to imagine someone dying or even losing their family due to nail biting. Nevertheless, you can be sure there are those nail biters who, when publicly embarrassed by their BFRB, at least for the moment, wished they could die instead.

If nail biting were an addiction, there would be all kinds of clinics, plans, drugs, and health programs to help the afflicted get clean from their problem. Since that is not the case, nail biters have been left to their own devices. This book and Nail Biters Anonymous now provide a means for nail biters to help each other.

For simplicity purposes, throughout this book references to nail biting encompass all aspects of the habit, including skin pulling and biting, knuckle biting and any other activity related to biting finger nails.

If you have a spouse, family members or friends who want to help and not abuse you or make light of your problem, consider yourself fortunate. Far too often, nail biters suffer and struggle with their problems in solitary. You may be able to bring your family members or close friends into your program to help you overcome your nail biting habit. However, if you don’t, you can still find the support you need at Nail Biters Anonymous.

As a fingernail biter, are you possessed or obsessed?

Let’s face it. There is something going on in you causing you to bite your nails. To say you are possessed is just a silly bit of humor. It’s a safe bet you can recall a time when you had some furious biting session going on and were fully aware you should stop, but didn’t. When the furor of the session passed and you finally were able to look at your nails and assess the damage, no one would blame you for feeling like you were possessed at the time.

Some describe it as feeling like they were on the operating table and listening to their medical professionals talk about and perform the procedure.  It seemed as if they were not part of what was going on…as if someone had taken over and loaned their body for the operation. In other words, they were there and participating, but in the moment and just afterwards, it felt like they weren’t involved, as if it were some other entity in control.

It is those nearly unconscious sessions, triggered by who knows what, that often is the root of every unsuccessful attempt by chronic biters to quit. Weeks of work and will power vanish within a few moments of a near out-of-body experience that ends in shame and disappointment. The raggedy results are then the seeds of more chewing, grooming, picking, and pulling.

Most who have undergone this sort of thing have never tried to figure out what the trigger was for the event. While it may have helped them avoid the situation in the future, the urge to bite, the comfort gained from the process, and the process itself fights for its existence by pushing against awareness of it. This is why keeping a journal is helpful.

There is always time to fix a nailbiting problem after the damage is done.

In the aftermath, it always seems that stopping to find some nippers and a file and quit the session would have been logical, but so would have saying no to the offer to have a drink for an alcoholic. For reasons most can’t explain, in those “possessed” moments, logic does not reign. If this is true, then to permanently quit, one must be able to recognize those potentially disastrous sessions before they begin. Further, a chronic biter needs to have an alternate solution to alleviating distress. The solution needs to be one that can be employed in any situation, whether at home, work, or socializing with friends.

You will find suggestions in future chapters. The hope is if you are reading this book that you also will visit the Nail Biters Anonymous discussion board and offer your own story of how you successfully avoided a disastrous “possessed” meltdown that certainly is a common occurrence among chronic nail biters. This seems to happen when one has managed for a few days or even a few weeks to let their nails grow out. While it wouldn’t be accurate to say nail biters are possessed, it’s not a stretch to say most are obsessed to a degree over constantly biting, grooming, inspecting, pulling, and chewing their nails.

Are some nail biters more obsessed than others?

Although this is a non-medical, anecdotal observation, it is most likely accurate despite the absence of qualified research to back it up. When it comes to undesirable behavior, it seems obvious certain people have a greater degree of difficulty in quitting. This goes for addictive behavior as well.

If one observes the behavior of people who are addicted, obsessed or afflicted, it becomes apparent there are both milder and more virulent strains of these behavior patterns. And so, for some people, the simplest method applied for a few days is all they need to quit biting their nails, or quit smoking, and so on. For others, the struggle is intense and they usually require multiple attempts with outside help to get past the problem.

Some mildly chew their nails and are able to maintain some semblance of normalcy in their appearance and demeanor. Then there are others who can’t keep their fingers from their mouths no matter where they are or what they are doing. The habit for them is so deeply ingrained, they go at it nonstop until their nails and cuticles look bloody awful. Usually, it is only the pain from exposed cuts, torn cuticles, and nails ripped to the beds that is enough to get them to stop for a spell.

If you are of the first sort, just mildly afflicted by nail biting, then you are fortunate. If you are of the latter variety, perhaps going all the way to chewing toenails too, you have your work cut out for you. Regardless of your level, you can quit. In the worst cases, it may require more help than the Nail Biters Anonymous support forum and products recommended here. You may need a doctor to counsel you on behavior therapy and prescribe meds to help calm and center yourself. No matter what the situation, you will find the suggestions here and the support from our community worthy of your participation.

As an example, some smokers can quit with the least amount of effort, while others continue to smoke through the hole in their trachea while battling throat cancer related to smoking. These extremes show how two people with the same bad habit have a much different degree of addiction. You can find the same results in virtually every bad habit or addiction. That means one program is never going to work for all people. What you will learn here is there are different methods, products, and techniques that you will need to explore to discover what will work best for you.

Whatever nail biters get from their chewing nails habit that brings relief, pleasure, or something else worth the negative side results, it is not evenly distributed. If you can honestly assess your own nail biting habit and determine if it is mild or severe case, it will help you know how much determination and work are going to be required to get the job of restoring your nails to full health and appearance done. It will you pay dividends to be honest with yourself.

Take the test below to get an idea where your biting habits fall.

Add the results and check below for an indication of your nail biting severity:

Regardless of your score, you have within you the abilty to quit biting your fingernails for good. It will take a lot of worthy work and pure dedication on your part. But, then anything worth achieving requires hard work. Read the book, put its advice to work for you and enjoy the benefits of nails that make you proud.