Habits & Repetitive Behaviours
Something you do without quite asking yourself. Often for years, usually in private.
If you pick your skin, pull your hair, bite your nails, or clench your jaw without quite meaning to — there's a name for that. Body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRBs) are far more common than almost anyone who has one realises. They tend to happen when stressed or in a half-absent state rather than as a conscious decision, which is exactly why "just try harder" doesn't work — and exactly why hypnotherapy is such good ground to work on them.
Hair pulling (trichotillomania)
Between one and two people in a hundred at some point in their lives, usually beginning around puberty. Eyelashes, brows, scalp. Most people have never said it out loud to anyone, and the secrecy is part of what keeps it in place.
Skin picking
Around two in a hundred people currently, a little more often women than men. Face, scalp, fingers. Like hair pulling, it usually happens while your attention is somewhere else entirely.
Nail biting
The most socially accepted of these and still genuinely hard to stop, because it is tied to thinking, waiting and stress rather than to any decision you make.
Teeth grinding and jaw clenching
Often discovered by a dentist rather than noticed by you. It is the body holding tension that has not been given anywhere else to go.
Cheek and lip biting
Quiet, constant, and usually paired with concentration or worry. Rarely raised on its own, and very often there alongside the others.
Nervous habits
Fidgeting, leg bouncing, hair twisting, throat clearing. Not harmful in themselves, but a signal worth listening to — and often the easiest thing to shift.