The Primary Nail Biting Cure Is NLP And Hypnosis

The underlying causes of most physical habits may be quite varied, and rooted at different psychological levels. Although hypnosis has a wide range of applications, the ailments that are most directly related to physical habits are usually the ones that can be treated with hypnosis most immediately and directly. Smoking cessation is the most well known of these, and is one of the most effective and least invasive techniques for reaching its goal. Another common area for hypnosis treatment is for weight reduction. Similarly, hypnosis is also the most effective technique for conquering a nail biting habit.

The nail biting habit shares many similarities with smoking. It is a ritualistic, physical habit. Either might be caused by the mechanics of a simple physical routine, or may be indicative of deeper psychological problems. And in either case the habit itself can be quite effectively halted with hypnosis.

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

The immediate goal of finding a nail biting cure is much more straightforward. Many of our deeper psychological and emotional states are impacted by our physical state, so in solving physical conditions directly, we are also able to have an indirect impact on deeper issues. In addition, not all negative physical behaviors have underlying causes; sometimes it is truly just a physical habit; it "feels" good for the individual to take part in them.

In my experience, the focused and relaxed state of hypnosis can achieve extraordinary results when it comes to achieving simple physical state changes. Whenever I relieve severe burn pain, remove nausea, and eliminate other physical conditions for a client in just a few seconds, it still amazes me, even though I am supposedly the one with the "power" (as we know, the real power lies in the client's unconscious mind). Our minds are capable of blocking out severe pain and nausea; so the ability to prevent one from nail-biting is a relatively modest goal in comparison.

I have found three of the most powerful hypnotic techniques to be anchoring, substitution and association. With association, one can link a behavior to something truly unpleasant; 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 parlor trick can make a slice 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 very 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 the habit to disappear.

There are chemical products that achieve this goal via foul tasting nail polish. However, with a mental association it is easy to stop 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.

With substitution, it can be effective to replace the nail biting behavior with a more benign habit. For instance, it is very effective to make the suggestion that whenever one feels the impulses that lead them towards nail biting, they will instead take a deep breath, and slowly exhale, achieving all the same feelings and resolution that nail biting used to bring. I have found the deep breathing substitute to be very effective for a wide range of problems.

Anchoring similarly can be used to subvert one action into a different one, and works well with the association and substitution. It is useful in creating the suggestion that each 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.

Hypnotherapy has long been recognized as one of the best techniques for negative habit modification. Just as with smoking cessation, the techniques and concepts outlined here prove to be very successful as a long-term nail-biting solution.

About The Author:
Alan B. Densky, CH is a well-known leader in the field of hypnosis. Visit his self-hypnosis site for free hypnosis articles, videos, and advice. He's perfected an all-inclusive 7-session self-hypnosis nail biting program based on Ericksonian Hypnosis and NLP.