The hiccup terror

Today I had an attack of hiccup and I can say it was the worst experience I ever had. It lasted for almost 8 hours, with a few interruptions of course, and it was driving me crazy. I wasn’t able do work properly, I could not have a conversation without making everyone around me laugh, and I was starting to be worried about my health state.

So, the first thing that I have done when I got at home, it was to organize a brainstorming trough my friends for any advices about ways to get rid of the hiccup, and I even tried to find out the possible health issues that could have caused the hiccups.

For those of you that don’t know what hiccup really is, the hiccup is a sharp noise caused by a sudden spasm of the diaphragm, commonly cause by digestive disorder.
Whenever you experience an attack of hiccup, I advise you to stay away from medical explanation and try not to read about the problems that could have caused it.

If you ignore my advice, you will find a long and scary list with diseases and other factors that could have cause the hiccup, like this one: abdominal disease–gastric distension, GI hemorrhage, bowel obstruction, esophagospasm, or inflammation including hepatitis, peritonitis, gastritis, enteritis, appendicitis, pancreatitis, abrupt temperature change, alcohol, inferior wall MI, irritation of tympanic membrane, metabolic derangements–azotemia, hyponatremia, uremia, diaphragmatic irritants, diseases of chest wall, lung, and heart–mediastinitis, tumors, aortic aneurysms, subphrenic abcesses, pericarditis, foreign bodies, excess smoking, excitement or stress, toxins, drugs–general anesthesia, barbiturates, diazepam, α-methyldopa, tumors, pneumonia, herpes zoster, central and peripheral nervous system disease–encephalitis, tumors, meningitis, brainstem infarcts, phrenic nerve compression, cervical cord lesions.

When you hiccup the next time, you will surely panic and think that you are having an heart attack if you are taking that list as granted. I don’t say you should not, but actually, the hiccup means that there is a slight increase of carbon dioxide in the blood, and your body is trying to get more oxygen. So there is no need to panic, in most of the times, at least.

I want that people who read this post will share with us their worst hiccup experience, and I promise that I will soon make a list of ways to get rid of the hiccup terror. At the moment I am testing some of them, and maybe I will find one that work.

Related posts:

• 5 ways to dodge the hiccup attack
• Stop biting your nails by identifying and eliminating the stress factor
• How to work and live a healthy life

Written by: Liviu Moldovan

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Stop biting your nails by identifying and eliminating the stress factor

I ran into a forum where someone asks for help about how to stop biting her finger nails. So I decided that I can help many other people, that read my blog by telling them how I stopped biting mine finger nails.

“I am a professional very well respected business woman, wife and mother. I cannot stop biting my fingernails! The only way my hands look decent is to wear acrylic nails from the nail salon. I have done this ever since I was in first grade according to my parents. I am now 40.I want to stop and just grow my own healthy nails, but I bite them without even thinking about it. My husband continually corrects me about this in public and I get embarrassed. Please help me stop this terrible habit is you can.”

“I bite mine too, probably since I was 8 or 10. Same situation, but I don't pay to have mine done, I just go to Wal-Mart and get the cheap ones. I would like to quit, but i just keep doing it even though I tell myself I'm not going to anymore. I've tried the nasty tasting stuff too. I don't know, my nails are paper thin, so even if they grew long they'd probably break right off anyway. It drives me crazy that I can't stop.”

“I think it is anxiety...I know it is hard, I am considering seeing a doctor because perhaps I need help to conquer anxiety. Well, I don't know your history and stress levels but I know that stress can make you anxious and nail biting is an induction of anxiety which can be caused by stress...”

These are only three testimonials of people that bite their finger nails and the last one even agrees that the factor causing this is the stress. So if you want to have success in losing this habit fight the stress and then try to stop biting nails, not the other way.

So here is my story and how I stopped biting my finger nails:

I began biting my fingernails long ago, when I was like 8 or 9, just after I stopped sucking my thumb. It was interesting at that age, but with time I realized that I had to stop because my nails began to hurt, bleed, and my skin began to harden and replace the nail in some way.

Later, after doing some researches, reading some psychology books and going to some doctors, I found the answer to my problem: I was biting my finger nails because I was stressed, by any small thing, a test in school, talking in front of the people, presenting my projects, etc.

At the age of 16 I had problems dating girls, and at the age of 19 I had problems when showing my artwork to others, because of how my nails looked. So I decided to lose this habit. It was harder for me, because biting my finger nails went along with smoking. And I could not stop biting my fingernails, until I stopped smoking (but that’s another story).

After solving the smoking problem it was really easy to drop this habit. But I have to admit, that any stressful situation makes me put my finger in my mouth and taste my nail, and even try to bite it with my teeth if I am stressed enough, but I can control myself, and I am not biting my finger nails any more.

I saw guides that state that you can lose this habit by placing bitter solutions on your finger, etc. I disagree, because you can never lose a bad habit if you don’t solve your brain problem first. So in this case, try to realize what you are doing, understand that it doesn’t bring any benefit to you or your health, and that it’s bad to bite fingernails. Analyze what makes you put your finger in your mouth, identify that factor, which in 90% of cases is the stress factor.

The last step is to eliminate that stress factor, by fighting it your way. I have discussed how to relax and get out of a stressful situation on many topics (more about this topic here - How to work in stress, and under pressure). You can fight it by doing something that relaxes you, by drinking the “usual glass of water”, by disconnecting your mind from the problems and try to find the solutions later, and trough different methods, you name the method regarding to the situation you’re in.

Tell us the method you used to stop biting your finger nails !
Have you succeeded identifying and eliminating the stress factor that was causing you to bite your nails ?
Tell us your story, or ask for our advice, and we’ll help you. Write or call and we’ll answer.

Written by: Alexandru Hategan

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