DS 098 Section 6
Psychology Essay
10 October, 2017 Breaking Habits
A habit is a regular tendency or practice which one repeats over and over again that is usually hard to break. Giving up bad habits, however, is an incredibly tough situation to be in, yet is incredibly good for one’s health. One of the most common bad habits in the world today is biting nails. Biting your nails is extremely unhealthy for many reasons such as making your nails look unsightly and causing permanent damage to your nails, teeth, and gums.
The major health issues that are associated with biting your nails is it can damage your nail tissue. Your nail tissue allows your nails to grow normally, so by damaging them, you could potentially be ruining …show more content…
Usually, to give up a habit, one must dive out slowly and take multiple steps to get to their end goal. For biting nails, there are many different methods one can use. For example, finding a good habit to replace the bad one. Most people try holding something in their hands or drumming their fingers on a desk. This allows one’s hands and fingers to be occupied with something else. Another way to help biting nails is distracting your hands with a new hobby such as painting or knitting. One major way to stop biting your nails is painting your nails with polish. Most people don’t want to bite their nails and end up with scrapped polish in their mouths. However, this method would only work for …show more content…
She had never found a problem with her bad habit until last year, her tooth chipped. She headed to the dentist and he asked, “How did this happen?” My mother had absolutely no idea. She said her dentist looked down at her nails and asked if she’s a nail biting. My mom said yes, but this was the first time she felt ashamed of it. Her dentist told her that biting her nails can cause serious health issues with the mouth and teeth and that she needed to put an end to this terrible habit. He fixed her teeth and sent her on her way. I remember my mom coming home and being completely distraught from her visit. She knew that she needed to stop biting her nails, yet she didn’t know how. My brother and I realized that we needed to step up and help our mom fight her way through this. We tried out many different ways to help her and finally, after a few months, she quit.
Overall, breaking bad habits is extremely hard to do. It takes a lot of work and strength to get over a bad habit. However, not all habits can be bad such as taking a walk everyday or drinking eight glasses of water each day. On the other hand, in some cases, habits can be very life threatening and can cause serious damage to one’s health. Unlike my mother, many people cannot get over their bad habits. I am so exceptionally thankful that my mom could get past biting her nails and I sincerely hope others do as well, since I’ve