People who bite their nails are at risk of mental illness

The habit of biting your nails can be equated to obsessive-compulsive disorder. The list of pathological habits also includes pinching, twirling hair on the finger and trichotillomania (pulling out hair on the head or other parts of one’s body).

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an obsessive condition. It can be chronic, progressive or episodic. A person experiences intrusive, disturbing or frightening thoughts. These are obsessions. To get rid of them, he resorts to obsessive and tiresome actions - compulsions.

Psychiatrist Robert Kaplan believes that even seemingly innocent habits like nail biting can be a sign of a real mental disorder. Specifically, trichotillomania affects 8-14% of women and slightly less men. It occurs in both primary school students and adults.

But according to Dr. Carol Matthews, a psychiatrist at the University of California, the disease can be diagnosed if the habit begins to really distract and disturb. Therefore, people who bite their nails do not always suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Source: meddaily.ru