Abstinence in Nail Biting

Nail biting is not considered an addiction.

Due to the recent unfortunate news about actor David Duchovny’s stint in rehab for sex addiction, I read most professionals don’t think sex addiction as clinical addiction as with alcohol or drugs. They also do not consider gambling an addiction. According to these professionals, sex and gambling are compulsive behavioral problems, as is nail biting.

Try telling anyone afflicted with these problems, whether nail biting, gambling or sex and they will tell you they don’t care what the professionals say, it’s a problem as hard to quit as most addictions. Treatment for all of these problems comes down to a person finding a way to stay clean, or use abstinence as a way to deal with them.

To just quit nail biting is just not that easy for most

Now, if it were just as easy to do as it is to say things would be hunky dory. But, if you are reading this because you have one of those problems, (I’m assuming most would be because of nail biting issues), then you know to stop nail biting is one of the biggest personal challenges you face in your life. To someone who does not have the habit, they can’t imagine such a statement to be true. But, for nail biters reality says it is.

Abstinence is hard enough when you can get rid of the cigarettes or booze and avoid going where people use them. But, as you noticed a million times while biting, your fingers are for the purposes of abstinence inconveniently attached to your hands. My ebook, How to Stop Nail Biting, addresses the problem with methods you can use to get a grip, stop biting, refocus, relax and distract your temptation to bite.

How badly you are affected determines what kind of work and program you need to quit

There are plenty of people who quit on their own using some little method like keeping a file handy. I think those people are mildly addicted to biting. Just as with alcohol or cigarettes, some folks give it up rather easily while others suffer mightily and never make it on their own.

It’s your problem. You own it. You have to come to an understanding with yourself how deeply ingrained it is in you. When you do that, you can begin to lay the groundwork to put together a program of rehabbing your fingers through abstinence and care. If you can manage it, you will enjoy being proud of your hands like never before.