Perfectionists More Likely to Bite Nails, Pop Pimples

Biting nails out of habit or boredom is linked to perfectionist behavior, a study conducted by researchers of Montreal claimed. The study is now published on the March issue of the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry.

Researchers of the study further said that doing repetitive body-focused behaviors such as nail-biting, eyelash-pulling, skin-picking among others are manifestations that a person is impatient, easily get bored or frustrated, according to reports from Huffington Post.

"We believe that individuals with these repetitive behaviors may be perfectionistic, meaning that they are unable to relax and to perform task at a 'normal' pace. They are therefore prone to frustration, impatience, and dissatisfaction when they do not reach their goals. They also experience greater levels of boredom," Dr. Kieron O'Connor, professor of psychiatry and the study's lead author, said in a press release Tuesday.

Researchers have involved 48 participants in the study who are divided into two groups. People who have a history of doing repetitive body-focused behaviors are grouped as one while others who do not manifest such actions are in another group.

The participants are then given questions rating the intensity of their emotions (e.g. boredom, anger, guilt, irritability and anxiety) and what they do to cope with them. Also, they are exposed to situations designed to provoke specific stimulus like relaxation, stress, frustration and boredom.

Initial findings of the study said that people with a history of doing body-focused behaviors feel a great urge to do these behaviors when put in a stressful or boring situation. But such behaviors did not surface in relaxing situations.

"What triggers the habit is largely frustration and impatience so the action substitutes for more constructive action," O'Connor told Huffington Post.

The researchers assured that there is no harm with the manifestation of impatient behavior as people just want to channel their energy into a more productive way.

According to MindBodyGreen, these set of behaviors will only be harmful if they impede our daily routine and become habit disorders.

However, according to lead researcher O'connor the disorders still have hopes to be fixed. One is through a behavioral treatment that aims to completely replace the habits with more challenging goals. The other is on the examination of the history of the patient and determining factors linked to the habit disorder.

In another study conducted in 2007, Gordon Flett, a psychologist at York University, has linked perfectionist behavior to the likelihood of committing suicide, according to the British Psychological Society.

"This research adds to our previous knowledge on perfectionism and suicide although there has been research highlighting this link for some decades. The high expectations these people have may include strong perfectionistic beliefs that are held such as, 'I must perform well' and the underlying assumption, 'and if I don't, therefore I'm a total failure,'" Flett said.