Elizabeth

Professor Reeves

ENGWR 110

12/04/2020
My Habit Change

Have you ever wondered how you managed to become so good at certain sports, hobbies

or just other activities in general? You may be thinking that it was because of improving skills

over time, this does play a big part, BUT have you thought about how you were able to build

those skills? The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg explains how habits work and how habits

develop over time. Habits can help you automate your daily life and help you use less energy or

brainpower to complete daily tasks. Duhigg talks about the habit loop and how it is crucial when

determining habits. A habit loop contains a cue, routine and reward. The cue is a trigger; the

routine is a series of actions you do out of “habit.” Like something you do every day when you

wake up; finally, the reward is something you get out of doing that routine. If you want to change

a habit, you would need to start with the routine. You would also have to be motivated and

believe in anything you want that could help you push through the hardships and obstacles to

change your habit. To attempt to change my habit, I had to believe in myself and motivate

myself every day. I would tell myself things like “You should paint whenever you feel the urge”

or “Today you will do great and be productive” to get me through the day. The habit I attempted

to change was my nail picking/biting habit. I was successful because I managed to stop picking

and biting my nails for almost a whole month, which, for me, is acceptable. Before, I would pick

my nails every single day. Stopping for a whole month is unbelievable. During the “testing”

phase, I thought I would pick at my nails a lot more than I did. During the one week of

attempting to change my habit, I struggled a lot with homework and other classes. Instead of

picking at my nails, I started to do something else with my hands, which helped a lot. After that
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one week, I would catch myself doing something else instead. For example, I started to play with

a random paintbrush when I was anxious about an exam. I was happy when I realized this. My

research question would be, “Why do I pick (or bite) my nails, and what are the long term

consequences to this bad habit?” I want to research this topic because I am intrigued by what

would happen if I continue to pick and bite my nails. I also want to know why I pick at my nails

and how it developed. Overall, I have been picking my nails for a very long time, and I finally

want to try to stop. I am starting to become self-conscious about how I look, and that includes

how my hands look.

Even though many people still bite their nails, there are negative consequences in doing

so. This bad habit can lead to harm to your body. In the article The Art of Prevention: The

Importance of Tackling the Nail Biting Habit by Pelletier Bagchechi, they explain some negative

consequences that can happen when you bite your nails. The main two would be dental hygiene

and mental health. When people bite their nails, they have a higher chance of having chipped or

notched teeth or inflamed gums. If you bite your nails too hard, that may also lead to small

fractures on your teeth. Having poor dental hygiene means that it could cost more to fix or help

their teeth if they go to a dentist. Also, if they start to realize how bad their dental hygiene has

become, they could become self-conscious about that, which can alter their mood and

confidence. The second consequence would be your mental health. Stress, anxiety, fear,

overwhelm, and more can all lead to a negative impact on someone’s mental health, which in

turn can lead them to bite their nails. Baghchechi says, “Although related to stress, the habit also

can contribute to severe psychosocial distress” (Bagchechi), which means it can heavily affect

how a person socially interacts with others and how they react to certain situations. This article

describes multiple long-term consequences of nail-biting. It helps change my habit because I am

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starting to care about my looks, including my smile. If my dental hygiene worsens and my nails,

I would feel less confident in certain situations. If dental hygiene gets terrible, then visiting the

dentist to “fix” my teeth would be very expensive. This is the reason why this article was vital

for me to read and include in my research.

Many people in the world pick their nails, but why do they pick their nails? In the

newspaper article How to Deal with… Nail Biting by Chloe Lambert explains that there are many

different reasons why someone may bite their nails. Some of the reasons include feeling like you

are not in control, anxiety, stress, and a lack of confidence. The most common one would be

anxiety. Many people who struggle with anxiety also struggle with nail-biting. It also gets worse

when someone has anxiety and is under extremely stressful situations or moments in their life.

Lambert says, “Nail biting is not just a meaningless piece of behaviour: it is often a sign of deep-

seated anxiety, doubts and questions about one’s abilities, or a loss of confidence that might have

built up in childhood” (Lambert 8), which means that people tell themselves that they cannot do

particular actions or they will not do well during specific situations. Whenever they start to

succumb to those negative thoughts, nail-biting tends to happen or even start for some people.

Nail-biting could be a form of release; when you bite your nails, you try to eliminate all that pent

up stress and anxiety. Sometimes, if that person does not get rid of that pent-up anxiety or stress,

they start to get upset easier and lead to more mental problems. This newspaper article helped

answer the part on why I pick and bite my nails. I know I struggled with anxiety, but at first, it

was minimal. The past couple of years, it has gotten worse, same with my nail-biting habit, but I

had no clue why. Reading this article opened my mind to the multiple reasons I started and how I

started to pick at my nails. Now I know that I am probably really stressed out and full of anxiety

about certain things in my life. I believe it is because of school, and I feel like I will not be smart
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enough for certain things. This leads to me talking down to myself, which I have noticed has

increased my bad habit of biting my nails. I also believe it is because of pressure from family and

past education. I was told to get a bachelor’s by my family and complete college in 4 years only.

Recently I have been struggling with math, which is making me rethink my degree choice, but I

have no backup plans. This has stressed me out, which made my nail-biting habit worse.

Nail-biting is hard to control and get rid of; most of the time, nail-biting happens because

of anxiety or other factors, but what would be some ways to stop nail biting? The book Nail

Biting by Rebecca J. Frey and Eric Bullard explains that nervous habits, like nail-biting, can

form during childhood in a self-soothing way. The habit of nail-biting forms a regulation; it is

how one manages their mood and feelings. Many people want to stop biting their nails; they do

not know how to stop completely. There could be multiple reasons why someone wants to stop,

“Nail biters may also become so embarrassed by the outward appearance of their hands that they

begin to avoid activities that might call attention to them” (Frey and Bullard 74), which could be

one reason (this is my reason). Being embarrassed to do things may lead people to be motivated

to change that bad habit and replace it with a good one. Some solutions would be to do

something else with your hands, like arts and crafts, or painting your nails with a bitter-tasting

liquid to get you to stop biting your nails. Of course, if those things do not work, then getting

professional help would work too. HRT is habit reversal training and can be practiced at home,

with a professional, or someone else who can help you stay on track to replace this bad habit. It

is a form of behavioral therapy, which instead of the nail-biting habit is replaced with another

habit that could substitute the nail-biting instead. Finally, suppose those things do not work, and

nail-biting is severe. In that case, it can lead to getting more reliable, professional help and

getting prescribed medicine to help deter nail-biting habits. This book helped solve my nail-
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biting habit by giving solutions on how to stop. It gives many different options to try out and see

if they work. I have painted my nails (not with a bitter-tasting liquid) to deter me from messing

with my nails. I have also tried to do something else with my hands to stop me from picking out

of habit. For example, I have painted jars, do puzzles, and other crafts that keep my hands busy.

Overall, there are many different ways I need to try in order to keep this bad habit away. If I try

out these different methods, I will become more confident since I would not be biting my nails.

My research question would be, “Why do I pick (or bite) my nails and what are the long

term consequences to this bad habit?” After reading through many different articles and books

and finding my three primary sources, I finally understand why I developed this habit and how it

started. I believe I pick and bite at my nails because I struggle with anxiety and have low self-

confidence because I talk down to myself. Picking and biting my nails does help me feel a sort of

release. Instead of holding in my stress and anxiety, I pick at my nails, which helps so much.

Recently with college, I have become more stressed and anxious about my work and grades,

which has not helped my bad habit. In total, I have learned many things about nail-biting. I

learned how many different consequences can happen in the long run if I continue with this

habit. Like bad dental hygiene and social interactions. Though I did learn many ways, I can

change this habit and replace it with other things instead. Like chewing gum, painting nails, or

getting professional help. Which, to me, is an excellent outcome from doing this research. I

learned a lot about habit change in general from reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

because it describes how to change a habit and what needs to be done to change one. For

example, you need to be motivated and believe in anything you want to push yourself to achieve

your goal. In this case, the goal would be to change your bad habits by replacing them with a

good or better habit.

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Works Cited

Baghchechi, Pelletier. “The Art of Prevention: The Importance of Tackling the Nail Biting

Habit.” International Journal of Women’s Dermatology, Elsevier Inc, Sept. 2020

Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. New

York: Random House, 2012. Print.

Frey, Bullard. “Nail Biting.” The Gale Encyclopedia of Children’s Health : Infancy through

Adolescence: L-R, 2016, pp. 1871–74

Lambert, Chloe. “How to Deal with ... Nail Biting.” Times (London, England : 1788), NI

Syndication Limited, 10 Aug. 2010, p. 8