What do your nails look like right now?

Comments

• Oh, I'm sorry. Do you struggle with biting your nails..? You know when you said that, I thought of something I'd read not long ago. Maybe there's an off chance this will be helpful to you.
  
  Did you know that onychophagia (nail biting) can be the result of a problematic cingulate system? (The cingulate system is the part of your brain that deals with your ability to shift attention, cognitive flexibility--ability to adapt to change, deal successfully with new problems--adaptability, movement from idea to idea, ablility to see options, ability to "go with the flow", ability to cooperate--shifting attention and with getting stuck in innefective behavior patterns).
  
  In a fantastic book I read called Change Your Brain, Change Your Life by a man named Dr. Amen (a clinical neuroscientist, child and adolescent psychiatrist, and medical directer of the Amen Clinic For Behavioral Medicine), he talks about problems with the Cingulate System, which include (does any of this sound familiar to you?)

  • Report
  

  by Amy on January 6th, 2009

• Worrying
  Holding onto hurts from the past
  Getting stuck on thoughts (obsessions)
  Getting stuck on behaviors (compulsions)
  Oppositional behavior
  Argumentativeness
  Uncooperativeness; tendency to say no automatically
  Addictive behaviors (alcohol or drug abuse, eating disorders)
  Cognitive inflexibility
  Road rage
  “I would also add oppositional defiant disorder.”
  Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  OCD spectrum disorders: "There is a group of disorders that have been recently labeled obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders. People with these disorders get stuck on unwanted, repetitive thoughts and cannot get them out of their minds unless they act in a specific manner. According to psychiatrist Ronald Pies, postulated OCD spectrum disorders include:

  • Report
  

  by Amy on January 6th, 2009

• Onychophagia (nail biting)
  Tourette's syndrom (involuntary motor and vocal tics)
  Kleptromania
  Body dysmorphic disorder (feeling that part of the body is excessively ugly)
  Hypochondria
  Autism
  Compulsive shopping (repetitive thoughts like 'I need to buy this one thing! I need to buy this one thing! I need to buy this one thing!')
  Pathological gambling
  Chronic pain
  Addictive disorders
  Eating disorders (such as anorexia and bulimia--in which there are "repetitive thoughts that significantly interfere with behavior" like '''Im too fat! I'm too fat! I'm too fat!' despite rational evidence to the contrary")
  Trichotillomania (pulling out one's own hair)

  • Report
  

  by Amy on January 6th, 2009

• I hope this is in some way helpful to you!

  • Report
  

  by Amy on January 6th, 2009

• Thanks, Amy, but no thanks. I'm a lifetime nail-biter who has tried everything to stop. I've learned to accept the habit as part of who I am and to enjoy it. If you want more information, go to www.theafternoonbreak where Chris Dowsett and I are mounting a compaign against people we call The Anti-Nail Biting Fascists. You might fit into that category.

  • Report
  

  by Pete on January 6th, 2009

Comments

Comments

Comments