Always Sick? It Could Be Due To This Very Common Bad Habit | HuffPost Life

Feb 23, 2025

I have a pretty bad habit I need to confess to: I love biting my nails. I am a nail-biter and even at my big age, I find it so comforting and satisfying. While I am also always washing my hands, I’m aware that this habit is... unsightly, to say the least.

I’m not alone, though. In fact, according to the experts at Psychology Today, around 20-30% of adults bite their nails.

Chronic nail biting is clinically known as onychophagia, which Psychology Today explains as “a pathological oral habit and grooming disorder characterised by chronic, seemingly uncontrollable nail-biting that is destructive to fingernails and the surrounding tissue”.

Um. Guilty.

The bad news doesn’t end there for us nail-nibblers. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) warns on their website that nail biting can have seriously detrimental impacts on our health.

Health experts at UCLA explain: “No matter when the habit forms, it often begins as a coping mechanism in response to feeling nervous, bored, lonely or hungry. But it’s also commonly associated with emotional or psychological problems.”

These problems can include anxiety, separation anxiety and bed-wetting.

They add: “Pathological or severe, uncontrollable nail biting is the most common body-focused repetitive behaviour (BFRB). People with a BFRB disorder who bite their nails may also have other body-focused repetitive behaviours such as skin picking and hair pulling.”

Some of the health issues that can be caused by nail biting include:

It’s not an easy habit to break but the medical experts at Web MD offer the following advice:

Good luck!