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3 Ideas To Help You Stop Your Nail Biting Habit

Most people find stopping their nail biting extremely difficult. Changing a habit successfully means having a good support network. People who will support and assist you when you need encouragement should be included. Friends, family and professional resources all can be part of your support network.

1. Positive Reinforcement Helps With Behavior Changes Changing a habit is difficult. But without the support of friends or positive influences it can be even more of a challenge.

Tell your friends and the rest of your support network what you intend to do. This can reinforce in a public way your intent and make it easier to quit.

The possibilities of new activities or a different environment is most important during the first critical days and weeks when you quit nail biting.

Many people use negative deterrents as ways of changing their behavior. We all remember being yelled at as a child. Did the yelling always reinforce the behavior your parents wanted? But think of the times you received praise for what you did. You were ready to repeat that behavior.

As an adult, it's the same. Your plan can use positive reinforcement and people to support your plan to change your nail biting habit.

Avoid people who bite their nails. If the person is a family member or close friend, this may be difficult. Minimize times or situations where you frequently bite your nails.

2. Reward Yourself For Success Behavior changes occur more easily when we reinforce them. This means if you reward yourself for sticking with your plan, your brain records this as positive reinforcement for the new behavior.

Each time you reinforce the new behavior, you over ride or minimize the old habit. By reinforcing the behavior change on a daily basis new behavior reaction patterns start to form in your brain. This makes it easier for you to stay on track with your new behavior of stopping your nail biting habit.

The reward does not have to be huge or elaborate. Some people get one of those appointment calendars and a package of stars and stickers. For each day you make your goal of not biting, give yourself a star or sticker. If a whole day is way too long to start with, then take it hour by hour. Sounds hokey, but seeing all those stars or stickers lined up can be a pretty impressive sight.

If stickers aren't your thing, then make your reward something special for you, a reward you value. The reward doesn't have to be big or even expensive. The idea is to reward yourself for each successful step you take in stopping the nail biting habit.

3. Become A Member of a Support Network Joining with other people either on or offline can provide support on difficult or stressful days. Just type "nail biting support group" into your browser search window. You can use MSN, Google, Yahoo, or AOL to quickly connect you with people sharing the same experience.

Like any habit nail biting takes time and effort to stop. It took time to learn the behavior. Give yourself time to stop the behavior.