Some nervous habits are just annoying. However, some are actually dangerous to your health. They can lead to physical and mental issues down the line. Here are the top habits that you need to stop right now if you want to protect your health.
Grinding Your Teeth
This sounds annoying, and is also damaging your teeth. When you grind, you’re wearing down the top part of your teeth. Think about the reason dogs and cats chew on solid items to keep their teeth from sharpening too much.
You can also cause problems for your jaw alignment, which leads to pains in the mouth and headaches.
Biting Your Nails
It seems more like an annoying one, but it can also be damaging to your health. First of all, your nails end up with a lot of dirt and bacteria underneath them.
When you bite your nails, this ends up in your mouth. There are a lot of open cuts in your mouth without you realising, and the bacteria can cause serious infections. You can also tear and damage the skin, which leads to infections in your fingers.
Sucking Your Thumb or Candy
Sucking the thumb is a nervous habit that some people never quite get over. Others replace it with candy. Candy not only rots the teeth, but the sucking motion is causing problems. This motion can stop your teeth growing through properly.
It causes misalignments and pulls them forward. The only way to correct this is by getting braces. You can also end up with health issues since the misalignment can make it extremely difficult to brush your teeth, and that leads to plaque buildup.
Cracking Your Neck or Fingers
There was always a theory that cracking joints causes arthritis. This isn’t quite the case, but it can be damaging to your health.
Small cracks are normal, and is just the gas in your joints being released. However, too many cracks can actually damage the ligament surrounding them. This can cause excruciating pain depending on the type of damage caused.
Picking at Your Spots
Some people constantly pick their spots when they’re nervous. If they don’t pick at spots, they’re playing with the skin on their face. This actually damages the top layer of skin, and can leave scarring in the long term.
You can also spread bacteria from under your nails into the tears in your skin, leading to infection. Find something else to do with your hands if this is becoming a problem.
Chewing Your Lip or Mouth
Do you regularly find yourself chewing on a part of your mouth? Some people stick to the lips, but others do it discreetly by chewing on the inside of their cheeks. Both of these are dangerous. You can end up chewing through the skin, and causing tears.
This then leads to bacteria getting into the cuts, which causes infection. You can also find it difficult to eat or drink because of the sore in the mouth.