Nail Biting Is Nasty, Overcome The Urge With A Hypnosis CD

The underlying causes of most physical habits may be quite varied, and rooted at different psychological levels. While hypnosis has a wide range of applications, the behaviors that are most directly related to physical habits tend to be the ones that can be treated with hypnosis most directly and immediately. Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation is the most commonly recognized of these, and is one of the more effective and less invasive techniques for achieving its goal. Another popular area for hypnosis treatment is for weight loss. Similarly, hypnosis is also the best technique for conquering the nail biting habit.

Nail biting shares many similarities to smoking. It is a ritualistic, physical habit. Either may be caused by the mechanics of a simple physical routine, or can be symptomatic of deeper psychological issues. In either case the habit itself can be effectively halted with hypnosis.

Discovering and treating underlying psychological problems, which manifest themselves in nail biting and smoking can be a process that necessitates numerous sessions with a skilled hypnotherapist. However, not all hypnotherapists and hypnotists are capable of working at the deep psychological level. Fortunately, for the purposes of eliminating a smoking or a nail biting habit, they don't need to work below the most direct physical level.

The immediate goal of curing the nail biting habit is much more straightforward. Many of our deeper emotional and psychological states are influenced by our physical state, so in treating the physical conditions directly, we can also have an indirect impact on deeper issues. Also, not all negative physical behaviors have underlying causes; sometimes it is simply just a physical habit; it just "feels" good for the person to take part in them.

I have seen that the relaxed and focused state of hypnosis can achieve nearly miraculous results when used in achieving simple physical state changes. Whenever I eliminate severe burn pain, alleviate nausea, and eliminate other physical symptoms for a client in just a few seconds, it still amazes and surprises me, even though I'm supposedly the one with the "power" (as we know, the true power lies within the client's unconscious mind). Our minds have the capacity to block out severe nausea and pain; so the ability to prevent one from nail biting is a modest goal in comparison.

I've found three of the most powerful hypnotic techniques to be association, substitution and anchoring. With association, one can link a negative behavior to something aversive; with substitution, one can replace the bad habit with a harmless 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 best New York Cheesecake to a subject, one can make the feeling and taste 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 very unpleasant, it will help eliminate the habit.

There are chemical products that achieve this goal via unpleasant tasting nail polish. However, with a mental association it is easy to end nail biting without depending upon applying a chemical product. This "aversion" type of therapy is not generally very helpful. But it is reliable only when used as an adjunct to eliminating 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 effectively replace the nail-biting compulsion with a more benign habit. For example, it is quite effective to place the suggestion that whenever one feels the impulses that lead them towards nail biting, they will take a deep breath instead, and slowly exhale, experiencing all the satisfaction and resolution that nail biting used to bring. I have found the deep breathing substitute to be very effective for a wide range of ailments.

Similarly, anchoring can be used to subvert one action into another, and works well with association and substitution techniques. It is useful in creating the suggestion that each and every time subjects see their fingers coming to their mouth, they vividly remember the bad taste association, and they take a deep breath instead to resolve the tension.

In summary, hypnosis has long been recognized as one of the more effective methods for negative habit modification. Just as with smoking cessation, the concepts and techniques described here prove to be very effective as a long-term nail-biting solution.

Alan B. Densky, CH has been assisting clients with stress related afflictions since 1978. He offers a complete 7-session self hypnosis nail-biting cure based on Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and NLP. Visit his hypnotherapy site for free videos on hypnosis, and advice.