First - a quick refresher..
So in my applied behaviour analysis module one of our assignments is to conduct a behaviour change project. We had to pick a certain behaviour we'd like to eliminate or improve upon. Having been a prolific nail biter my whole life I decided now is the opportunity to rid of this habit once and for all.
Baseline
I recorded the amount of times I'd bite or pick at my nails every day for a week. Alongside this, I filled out an ABC diary to help understand some of the environmental/stimulus factors that may lead me to bite my nails. Here are my results...
| Week 1 - Baseline | |
| Day 1 | 7 |
| Day 2 | 9 |
| Day 3 | 6 |
| Day 4 | 9 |
| Day 5 | 6 |
| Day 6 | 15 |
| Day 7 | 7 |
Initial thoughts before the week started were about how stressed out I was at the time. I had a lot of uni work/lectures to catch up on, as well as my peak season in my part time job, and training days for volunteer work. The results didn't really surprise me, if anything I thought it would be higher than this. As a second measured, I completed a Zung Self Report Anxiety Scale and got a 63. Not good. The score lies in the "Severe Anxiety Level" boundary.
From my ABC diary, I found that on days where I was particular busy with practical and hands on work i.e. in volunteering, or my part time work (cleaning tasks) - I bit my nails a lot less. Most nail biting actually occurred at times where I was concentrating; like during lectures, watching TV, and working on assignments where I would spend a lot of time thinking hard about things.
Day 6 was a particularly bad day for my hands (15 times). Below is my ABC diary for that day...
| A (antedecent) | B (behaviour) | C (consequence) | |
| Day 6 | 1) Stress from
family. 2) Exhausted from peak season hours at work. 3) Data analysis. |
Excessively picked at and bit my fingernails/skin around them | Really short, a lot of my fingers left with nothing else to bite off. |
On Day 6 I was at work during a kids club shift (usually I sit for a few hours watching over the children playing etc). I had a lot on my mind as well as having spent my few free hours that day trying to get some data analysis done. Enough said, stats is enough to send me to an early grave. I put my hand to mouth 15 times total.
Intervention
I needed to challenge my behaviour. If keeping my hands busy seemingly caused me to bite my nails less, then maybe using a 'competing response' to the urge would work. A no brainer. For the last week I've been sitting on my hands or clenching my fists every time I have felt the urge to bite my nails. Of course with the automatic nature of my habit, I sometimes didn't notice that I had even began to bite them! I recorded each time I would bite my nails (after eventually realising) and instead use a competing response until the urge went away. Below are my results...
| Week 2 - Intervention | |
| Day 1 | 3 |
| Day 2 | 2 |
| Day 3 | 3 |
| Day 4 | 2 |
| Day 5 | 2 |
| Day 6 | 3 |
| Day 7 | 1 |
Already, a huge difference. I've still bitten my nails, however having made myself aware of the times it is likely to occur and using a competing response every time I feel I might bite them, we can see that actual nail biting has reduced from 8.4 times a day (baseline week Mean), to 2.3 times a day (intervention week Mean). But I think the biggest difference can be seen from my Zung Anxiety Score from the end of this week - a 36. This is classed as a normal range anxiety score.
~
I'm about to start on my second intervention week, and hopefully I will be able to say I've gone a whole day without biting! Watch this space...