Most of my life I have had the annoying habit of biting my nails. I am not very insecure about most things but when it comes to my hands I am. It has gotten so bad at points in my life where it would result in bleeding and pain when trying to grab something or touching anything with my hands in general. I remember the specific time where I started biting my nails or at least learned of the habit even existed. I was very young and my mother was telling my about how she bit her nails and her sisters used to get mad at her for it, after hearing this story I began doing it myself and have not stopped since. I am pretty well aware of what triggers the urge to put my fingers in my mouth. The main reason I do it is because it is a nervous habit, the
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In the past I have tried Positive reinforcement by using the “no-bight” nail polish that make my nails taste nasty, it worked in the short run but eventually extinction of the reinforcement led to the habit coming back. So this time around I am going to schedule the reinforcements based of a variable ratio but instead I plan to include some negative reinforcement as well. The biggest problem for me is that I do not realize I’m doing it, which according to Doctor Fred Penzel is common amongst nail bitters. According to Penzel “Some do it in an automatic way, as if they are in a trance and not really thinking about what they are doing” (Penzel, 2008, para. 4) fortunately for me my parents always call me out on it. Every time my parents catch me biting my nails they harass me for it but I ignore them and do it anyway. So I’ll tell them to magnify their harassment whenever they catch me in the act to the point where I will be forced to stop. As far as rewarding myself I do not really plan on doing so because the reward will be not causing self-pain. Hopefully the negative reinforcement of trying to silence my parents combined with the fixed interval of putting the “no bite” polish on every morning until I kick the habit will be
In the past I have tried Positive reinforcement by using the “no-bight” nail polish that make my nails taste nasty, it worked in the short run but eventually extinction of the reinforcement led to the habit coming back. So this time around I am going to schedule the reinforcements based of a variable ratio but instead I plan to include some negative reinforcement as well. The biggest problem for me is that I do not realize I’m doing it, which according to Doctor Fred Penzel is common amongst nail bitters. According to Penzel “Some do it in an automatic way, as if they are in a trance and not really thinking about what they are doing” (Penzel, 2008, para. 4) fortunately for me my parents always call me out on it. Every time my parents catch me biting my nails they harass me for it but I ignore them and do it anyway. So I’ll tell them to magnify their harassment whenever they catch me in the act to the point where I will be forced to stop. As far as rewarding myself I do not really plan on doing so because the reward will be not causing self-pain. Hopefully the negative reinforcement of trying to silence my parents combined with the fixed interval of putting the “no bite” polish on every morning until I kick the habit will be