Nail biting. It's something that plenty of people do even though they know it's wrong. Just Google "how to stop biting your nails," and you'll be met with pages upon pages of suggestions on how to kick this nasty habit.
But maybe if you understand why you bite your nails, you won't do it anymore. New research from the University of Montreal may have nailed down the cause.
Boredom, frustration, impatience and dissatisfcation tend to trigger body-focused repetitive behaviors, or BFRBs for short, which include twisting your hair or picking at your skin, in addition to biting your nails, according to a study in the March 2015 issue of Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. What's more, the researchers link these behaviors with perfectionism since they "seem to satisfy an urge and deliver some form of reward," according to a press release announcing the study.
"We believe that individuals with these repetitive behaviours maybe [sic] perfectionistic, meaning that they are unable to relax and to perform task at a 'normal' pace," the study's lead author Kieron O'Connor said in a statement. "They are therefore prone to frustration, impatience, and dissatisfaction when they do not reach their goals. They also experience greater levels of boredom."
To come to these conclusions, the researchers studied the behavior of 48 participants, half of whom reported engaging in these repetitive behaviors while the other half acted as the control group. After completing a questionnaire at home evaluating emotions such as anger, guilt and anxiety, the subjects participated in four experimental situations designed to provoke stress (watching a video of a plane crash), relaxation (watching a video of waves on the beach), frustration (completing a supposedly easy task that turned out to be difficult) and boredom (being left alone in a room for six minutes).
The participants that reported a history of repetitive behaviors said they had a greater desire to engage in them during the tests designed to provoke stress and frustration but not during the relaxation scenario. However, these behaviors aren't necessarily bad. They provide a temporary release from negative feelings when you're not able to do so more constructively, O'Connor told The Huffington Post in an email.
On the whole though, you really shouldn't bite your nails if you can help it, because it can lead to all sorts of health problems. Biting your nails transfers a whole bunch of germs into your mouth, it can lead to infections in your fingertips and can mess up your teeth. Chew on that for a while.
Photo: Eva Prokop | Flickr
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