What is onychophagia?
Onychophagia is simply a technical name that doctors use to describe the usual nail biting. Many people have this habit, but for most of them they never develop a serious problem. Several people with a tendency to chew nails actually begin to damage their fingers by being too much. These people do not even have to realize that they will hurt until it happens, and some of them eventually decide to look for psychiatric help for their onychophagia.
people usually start biting nails either in early childhood or during puberty. Some experts think that people who are starting to do it like teenage are somehow hormone -controlled, perhaps stress. Once the habit develops, it can long for a long time and several people keep it throughout their lives.
Experts are not 100 percent sure why develop onychophagia, but there are theories. For example, some people think it's an instinctive thing. This is because behavior is sometimes also visible in noials. Many professionalThey think it is because animals have a defective gene that makes them want groom all the time, and some believe that people with onychophagia simply show symptoms similar to genetic defect. There are theories that the same tendency could also be involved in the mechanism for obsessive compulsive disorder at the psychological level.
people often unknowingly bite on the nails while they are nervous or stressed, and can even do it to an excessive extent, but as a result usually nothing serious happens. These people usually do not bother to obtain real treatment of their onychophages and can go through life with less attractive nails, but this is the only real consequence for them.
In other cases, the custom may be a much more serious problem. Some people with nail biting habits also suffer from uncontrollable nuts, and can spend hours chewing your fingers in an effort to changeIT way their nails look or feel. Over time, these people can literally tear wounds into their fingers or cause blisters around the fingers.
There are many ways of solving onychophages and experts suggest that some of them work very well. One simpler approach is often to urge patients to better care for nails. For example, some people are starting to paint nails or even get a manicure. As a result, people are self -confident about how to keep their nails attractive, and often train to stop biting without further help. Others use coatings to give their fingers a disgusting taste, and some who have more serious problems can take drugs for obsessive compulsive disorder.