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Nail Biting | Stop Nail Biting
TREATMENTS TO STOP NAIL BITING It might sound surprising but there are many types of medications available to stop nail biting. Some of these medications like some of the recent anti-depressants prove very effective. The same medications like fluoxetine, clomipramine, paroxetine, sertraline, fluvoxamine, escitalopram, citalopram, nefazodone and venlafaxine also prove effective in treating Trichotillomania (the compulsion to tear or pluck out the hair on one's head and face and often to ingest it) and OCD. These anti-depressants might be used with anti-psychotics in small amounts to enhance the effectiveness of anti-depressants. Anti-psychotics like olazapine, risperidone, quetiapine, aripiprazole and ziprasidone are generally used to cure schizophrenia. But this doesn't mean that if you are being treated to stop nail biting with these, you are a psychotic. To stop nail biting, your physician might use B vitamin inositol which enhances serotonin activity in the brain resulting in lessening of nail biting tendencies.
BEHAVIORAL THERAPY With medication one could also go for behavioral therapy to stop nail biting. It starts with Habit Reversal Training (HRT) which includes four parts and intends to make you stop nail biting and if possible make you learn a better constructive habit. Then you have the Stimulus Control therapy which is used to recognize and remove the stimulus for nail biting. OTHER TREATMENT Various aversion therapies exist to stop nail biting. It might be coating the nails with some kind of special nail polish which tastes bitter. One could war a rubber band on the wrist. Friends and family members could also point out whenever and wherever one starts nail biting. Eating chewing gum has also helped some to stop nail biting. If you keep a record of nail biting, it might reveal the reason for it.
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