英語口語：愛咬指甲是強迫癥

     Millions of people around the world suffer from a self-mutilating and often painful addiction to biting their nails, which can be harder to quit than smoking cigarettes, but is often overlooked as a relatively benign habit.
    Medical experts are now taking a closer look at the addiction and have decided to change its classification from a mere habit to a full-fledged obsessive-compulsive disorder.
    The American Psychiatric Association is preparing to change the designation of nail biting from ‘not otherwise classified,’ to ‘obsessive compulsive disorder’ in its upcoming issue of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, NBC News reported.
    Habits that are commonly associated with OCD include repetitive hand-washing and hair-pulling. The disease is characterized by unreasonable thoughts and fears that lead to such repetitive behaviors.
    The occasional chewed nail isn’t an indication of the disorder, medical experts assure.
    ‘As with hair pulling and skin picking, nail biting isn't a disorder unless it is impairing, distressing, and meets a certain clinical level of severity,’ Carol Mathews, M.D., a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, told NBC News.
    ‘That is not the vast majority of nail bitters,’ she said.
    Nail chewing is considered severe when the habit becomes destructive – when it impairs use of the hands or leads to repeated infections.
    Sometimes a nail-biter’s hands and fingers can become infected, but more often, the habit leads to an increased risk of contracting colds and other illnesses because it encourages the spread of germs from the nails to the lips and mouth.
    Nail biters looking to quit their addiction may find they are less inclined to stick their fingersin their mouths if they put lemon juice or hot sauce on their digits.
    Former nail biters who quit the habit said it also helps to wrap nails in tape or Band-Aids and to keep their hands well-manicured.
    全球數百萬人愛咬指甲,這嗜好頗為“自殘”,有些小痛苦,而且比吸煙還難戒掉,但經常被人們忽視,認為不過是一種相對沒什么壞處的習慣。
    醫(yī)學專家目前正對此進行進一步研究,而且已經決定將其從一種習慣劃分到強迫癥。
    據美國國家廣播公司報道,美國精神病學會正準備在下期《診斷和統(tǒng)計手冊》中將“咬甲癖”的名稱從“無其他分類”改為“強迫癥”。
    與強迫癥有關的習慣包括反復洗手和抓頭發(fā),通常以過度思考和恐懼而導致重復同一種行為為特點。
    醫(yī)學專家明確說,偶爾咬指甲不代表患上強迫癥。
    美國舊金山加州大學精神病專家、醫(yī)學博士卡羅-馬修斯告訴美國全國廣播公司:“和抓頭發(fā)與抓撓皮膚一樣,咬指甲在造成一定的損害,給人帶來煩惱,并在臨床上達到一定的嚴重程度時才會劃分為強迫癥。”
    她說:“而大多數愛咬指甲的人都到不了這個程度。”
    當咬指甲的習慣具有破壞性時,我們才會考慮情況很嚴重了,也就是當它影響到了手的使用,或者導致反復感染。
    在有些時候,有咬甲癖的人的手和手指會感染,但這種習慣在更多情況下會增加人們患上感冒和其他疾病的風險,因為這增大了細菌從指甲中傳染到嘴唇和嘴里的幾率。
    想要戒掉咬甲癖的人們可能會發(fā)現,如果在手指上涂上檸檬汁或者辣椒醬,就不太會咬指甲了。
    戒掉咬甲癖的人說,在手上纏膠帶或者創(chuàng)可貼也很有幫助,要保持精心修正的手型。

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