But, as it now turns out, there's a healthy upside to chewing on your talons - particularly if you started the habit as a child. According to a new study released by the journal Pediatrics, children who suck their thumb and bite their fingernails are far less likely to suffer from allergies in later life.
Score one for the hygiene hypothesis. A new study has shown nail-biting and thumb-sucking - two pretty effective ways of exposing oneself to environmental microbes - are associated with lower rates of positive skin-prick tests, or atopic sensitization.
Nail biting explained
Anxiety: Nail biting can be a sign of anxiety or stress. The repetitive behavior seems to help some people cope with challenging emotions.
In terms of causes of nail biting, it was found that psychological imbalances, such as stress, anxiety and nervousness, were perceived as the principal cause of nail biting, followed by nutritional deficiency.
The research suggests that those who bite their nails are more likely to be perfectionists. The lead author of the study, Kieron O'Connor, further explained that as perfectionists are known to express dissatisfaction and frustration, if they are not able to reach their goals.
Nail biting was also more common in patients with TS with ADHD than in those without (75.0% vs 47.6%; p<0.001), but the starting age was significantly later in those with concomitant ADHD than without (5.3 vs 3.8 years; p<0.001).
Nail-biting is frequently associated with anxiety, because the act of chewing on nails reportedly relieves stress, tension, or boredom. People who habitually bite their nails often report that they do so when they feel nervous, bored, lonely, or even hungry.
Famous superstars Tom Cruise, Eva Mendes, Elijah Wood, Britney Spears, Phil Collins and Andy Roddick are all celebrity nail chewers, among others.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, categorizes chronic nail biting as other specified obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), classified in the same group as compulsive lip biting, nose picking, and hair pulling (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
It is known that people who usually bite their nails experience the common cold more often than people who do not bite their nails. While continuously infected with a cold can weaken your immune system and leave it open to more dangerous ailments.
When you feel like biting your nails, try playing with a stress ball or silly putty instead. This will help keep your hands busy and away from your mouth. Identify your triggers. These could be physical triggers, such as the presence of hangnails, or other triggers, such as boredom, stress, or anxiety.
Biting Nails
This habit indicates nerves or insecurity. Whether this means they are nervous about talking to you or just in general, this can be a telling body language cue. It can show that you might be making them nervous (which can be a good or bad thing).
Erosion, chipping, and cracking: the grinding friction of teeth against nails can gradually wear the enamel away, or even cause teeth to chip or crack. Malocclusion and gaps: biting nails doesn't just damage the teeth, it can also cause them to move, leading to malocclusions (problems with the bite) and gaps.
Onychophagia is the clinical name for fingernail biting. It is a common stress-related or nervous habit in children and adults. It involves biting off the nail plate, and sometimes the soft tissues of the nail bed and the cuticle as well.
Onychotillomania is an unusual type of BFRBD characterized by a chronic and recurrent self-mutilating behavior directed to the nail apparatus. It is particularly defined by an irresistible urge or impulse in patients to either pick or pull at their own fingernails and/or toenails.
Nail-biting is a common nervous habit among introverts, shy people, and individuals with social anxiety (or maybe it's just me). For some, it manifests as a nervous reaction to socializing. But while we tend to associate nail-biting with anxiety, it isn't always so.
Only once farming was invented did life become less hard and so nails needed cutting. Besides wear from use, prehistoric people undoubtedly chewed their toenails.
“Acrylic nails are great for serial nail biters who have tried every nail treatment and are at their wits' end. Acrylic sets into hard form, so when applied it will be very hard to bite off”, explained Tinu.
Similarly, biting your nails might increase the rate of nail growth. While it's not clear exactly how this occurs, researchers theorize that the physical manipulation of a nail through biting stimulates the growth plate of each finger to be more metabolically active, leading to speedier nail formation.
Once you've managed to stop biting your nails, one of the questions often asked is whether bitten nails can grow back to normal. The bad news is that although fairly uncommon, nail biting can lead to permanently damaged nails. You can cause permanent damage to your nails by biting them over a long period of time.
“Stimming” refers to self-stimulating behavior, which are repetitive physical or verbal tics common in individuals with autism. To some degree, we all exhibit stimming behaviors. Nail biting, twirling your hair, drumming your fingers on the table, or cracking your knuckles are all forms of stimming.