Since childhood, I have absently twirled locks of hair, and run my hands through my thick, luxurious mane. It feels soothing and delicious.
But hair-twirling is a bad habit that breaks hairs and makes hair fall out.
It's hard to curb because it's unconscious. While reading, I catch myself playing with my hair and think: "Get your hands out of your hair!" This doesn't work.
Achieving things, no matter how small.
This article by Dan Kois is helpful and insightful. In 2020, he finally stopped biting his nails at age 45. He explains how he did it.
Grooming behaviors are particularly hard to curb.
"Nail-biting is a body-focused repetitive behavior, in the same family as hair-pulling, skin-picking, and cheek-chewing. As with all such behaviors, it can be triggered by stress or anxiety but is not necessarily in and of itself a sign of stress of anxiety.
“These are all grooming behaviors in the animal kingdom,” said John Piacentini, professor of psychiatry and director of UCLA’s CARES Center for childhood anxiety. “Grooming behaviors are very, very strong instincts and patterns. We believe that these disorders are grooming instincts that have gone a bit awry.”
"The behavior is particularly hard to curb. “There’s no medication, really,” said Piacentini. “It’s hard to monitor, and hard to prevent. Oftentimes, it’s done automatically. We catch ourselves only after we start it. So even if you are trying to stop, the horse is out of the barn before you realize it.”