Some unwanted habits are easy to describe but surprisingly difficult to stop. You know you keep cracking your knuckles, clearing your throat, sniffing, tapping or biting the inside of your cheek. You may even tell yourself not to do it. Then, several minutes later, you realise it has happened again.
The behaviour may be harmless but irritating. It may embarrass you, distract other people, cause soreness or make you feel that you are not in control of your own body.
I use hypnotherapy, NLP and practical habit-change techniques to support adults who want greater awareness and control over repetitive physical habits. The aim is not to shame you or promise that one suggestion will magically remove every behaviour. It is to understand what keeps the pattern going and help you respond differently.
MAIL@THEEXCELPRACTICE.COM OR CALL 07807 540142
What Counts as an Unwanted Physical Habit?
This page covers repetitive personal habits that do not need an entire treatment page of their own, including:
- Joint and knuckle cracking or clicking
- Repeated throat clearing
- Nervous coughing or habitual coughing
- Repetitive sniffing
- Cheek, lip or tongue biting
- Nose picking
- Pen, pencil or object chewing
- Thumb or finger sucking
- Humming or making repetitive sounds
- Leg bouncing, foot tapping and repetitive fidgeting
- Touching the face, beard or hair without pulling it out
- Repeatedly adjusting clothing or checking a physical sensation
Some provide stimulation, release tension or accompany concentration. Others begin after a genuine physical irritation and continue after the original cause improves. What matters is whether you want to change the behaviour and whether it causes distress, damage or disruption.
Why Do These Habits Become Automatic?
A habit develops when a response is repeated in a particular situation and provides some kind of immediate reward. The reward may be relief, stimulation, satisfaction, concentration or simply removing an uncomfortable sensation.
Common triggers include:
- Stress or anxiety
- Boredom or understimulation
- Intense concentration
- Tiredness
- Social nervousness
- A physical sensation that feels unfinished or “not right”
- Particular places, tasks or times of day
- Seeing or feeling the body part involved
Through repetition, the brain links the trigger and response:
Situation or sensation → urge → habit → brief relief or satisfaction → stronger association
Eventually, the movement may begin before conscious thought catches up. That is why repeatedly saying “stop doing that” achieves very little. The person usually already knows.
Joint and Knuckle Cracking
People crack their knuckles, fingers, wrists, neck or other joints for different reasons. Some enjoy the sensation or sound. Others feel pressure building and believe the joint must be cracked before it feels comfortable. It can also happen while thinking, preparing for a task, feeling tense or waiting for something.
Work may focus on:
- Identifying when the hands begin searching for a joint to crack
- Separating the sensation of pressure from the automatic response
- Learning to leave the urge unanswered for a little longer
- Giving the hands a neutral alternative during concentration
- Reducing stress or restlessness connected to the behaviour
Ordinary painless knuckle cracking is different from a joint that clicks because of injury or a medical condition. If clicking is accompanied by pain, swelling, stiffness, weakness, restricted movement or a joint repeatedly giving way, seek advice from a GP, physiotherapist or other appropriately qualified professional.
Throat Clearing, Nervous Coughing and Sniffing
Repeated throat clearing, coughing and sniffing need more care because they may be habits, symptoms or a combination of both.
A cough or sniff can begin for a genuine reason, such as an infection, allergy, asthma, reflux, post-nasal drip, dryness or irritation. Even when the original problem improves, the throat may remain sensitive and the response can become learned.
The cycle may look like this:
Tickle or sensation → clearing or coughing → temporary relief → further irritation and attention → another sensation
The behaviour may become stronger during meetings, quiet situations, conversations or periods of overthinking. A “nervous cough” may appear around particular people or situations, while sniffing can become linked to tension or repeatedly checking whether the nose feels clear.
Hypnotherapy and practical habit work may help once an appropriate professional has considered physical causes. Sessions may support you to notice the earliest urge, reduce anxiety around the sensation and mentally rehearse a less forceful response.
However, I do not diagnose a cough as psychological or advise somebody to suppress a protective reflex without assessment. The NHS advises speaking to a GP about a cough lasting more than three weeks. Seek prompt medical advice for coughing up blood, chest pain, breathing difficulty, unexplained weight loss or worsening symptoms.
Persistent throat clearing, hoarseness or swallowing difficulty should also be discussed with a GP. Depending on the cause, an ear, nose and throat specialist or speech and language therapist may be more appropriate.
Other Physical Habits
Cheek or lip biting, object chewing, nose picking, face touching, humming, tapping and fidgeting can become connected to concentration, tension or sensory stimulation.
With mouth habits, a person may search for a rough area and keep biting until it feels smooth. Biting then creates further roughness, producing another trigger. Repeated oral damage, ulcers or an area that does not heal should be assessed by a dentist or GP. Jaw clenching is covered separately on the teeth grinding and bruxism page.
Nose picking and face touching may begin with dryness or a genuine sensation, so persistent irritation, obstruction or bleeding needs medical advice. Repetitive picking that damages the skin is considered on the skin-picking and scab-picking page.
Humming, clicking the tongue, leg bouncing and tapping may provide stimulation or regulate tension. Not every repetitive movement or sound needs to stop. Before treating it as an ordinary habit, we should consider whether it may be a tic, a stim or part of another neurological pattern.
Habit, Compulsion, Tic or Stim?
People often use the word “habit” for very different experiences.
- A habit is generally a learned response connected to cues and short-term reward.
- A compulsion may be driven by intrusive thoughts, feared consequences or strict internal rules, as can occur with OCD.
- A tic is a sudden movement or sound that may be preceded by an uncomfortable urge. Tics and Tourette syndrome are not simply bad habits.
- A stim may help somebody regulate sensation, emotion or attention and can be associated with autism or ADHD.
- A body-focused repetitive behaviour involves repeated actions directed towards the body, such as nail biting, skin picking or trichotillomania and hair pulling.
There can be overlaps. Understanding the function helps determine whether habit work is appropriate or another professional should be involved.
How Hypnotherapy May Help
Hypnotherapy uses focused attention and mental rehearsal to help bring an automatic pattern into awareness and strengthen a different response.
Depending on the habit, sessions may help you:
- Notice the earliest movement, sensation or urge
- Identify situations in which the behaviour is most likely
- Interrupt automatic sequences sooner
- Tolerate an urge without immediately acting on it
- Reduce tension connected to the behaviour
- Develop a practical alternative or competing response
- Rehearse behaving differently in familiar situations
- Respond constructively to lapses rather than giving up
Some of this work overlaps with principles used in habit-reversal training: awareness, recognising triggers and practising an incompatible or less harmful response. Hypnotherapy can support the rehearsal and automatic use of those strategies, but no particular outcome can be guaranteed.
A Practical and Individual Approach
We begin with your version of the habit rather than applying one standard script. We may explore:
- What the behaviour looks and sounds like
- When, where and with whom it happens
- Whether you notice before, during or only afterwards
- What sensation, thought or emotion comes first
- What relief or reward the habit provides
- What you have already tried and what realistic improvement would mean
Practical strategies may include brief monitoring, environmental reminders, changing hand position, using a neutral alternative and practising a pause between the urge and the action.
The goal is not constant self-surveillance. We create enough awareness to make a choice, then allow the new response to become more natural through repetition. Techniques involving mindfulness and healthier habits and routines may support this process.
Sessions in Reading, Didcot and Online
Sessions are available in Reading, Didcot and through online hypnotherapy.
An unwanted habit does not have to be dramatic before you are allowed to seek help. If it repeatedly bothers you and you genuinely want to change it, that is enough reason to discuss it.
Call 07807 540142 or Email today and working in-person and online
You can also find practical information about sessions in the frequently asked questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can hypnotherapy stop any unwanted habit?
No. Hypnotherapy may help with learned, automatic behaviours, but suitability depends on what drives the behaviour. Medical symptoms, tics, compulsions and stimming may require a different or combined approach.
Can you help me stop cracking my knuckles?
Potentially, yes. Work may focus on awareness, triggers, tolerating the urge and developing an alternative response. Painful, swollen or unstable joints should be medically assessed.
Can you help with constant throat clearing or a nervous cough?
Habit work may be useful after possible physical causes have been appropriately considered. A cough lasting more than three weeks, or other concerning symptoms, should be discussed with a GP first.
What if I do the habit without noticing?
That is common. Increasing awareness of early movements, situations and sensations is usually one of the first parts of the work.
Do I need to know why it started?
No. Earlier experiences may sometimes be relevant, but change does not depend upon discovering one original cause.
Can sessions take place online?
Yes. Online sessions can address awareness, triggers and alternative responses in the environment where the habit may often occur.
Call 07807 540142 or Email today and working in-person and online
Description of a habit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habit