Habit reversal

What is Habit Reversal?

Habit reversal involves repeatedly practicing an alternative behavior to replace an unwanted habitual response. The term also refers to habit reversal training, a clinical treatment package used for some tics and repetitive behaviors, including nail biting and hair pulling.

Habit Reversal Training

The clinical package combines several components:

• Awareness training: Learning to notice the urge or early signs of the unwanted behavior.
• A competing response: Practicing a response that is incompatible with the unwanted behavior.
• Social support: Support and encouragement for using the response.

Azrin and Nunn’s 1973 report described a treatment combining awareness, competing responses, and social approval for 12 clients with varied habits and tics. It is part of the treatment's history, not enough evidence to rank all modern treatments for every condition.

What can a competing response look like?

For an illustrative nail-biting case, a person in training might notice a hand moving toward the mouth and practice holding their hands folded together in their lap instead. Keeping them there prevents bringing a finger to the mouth to bite it. The response is paired with learning to detect the movement or urge and with support for practicing it.

Folded hands are among the competing-response examples described in a 2022 study of habit reversal and related techniques. That study gave participants self-help manuals; it is not evidence that the same hand position suits everyone. Within clinical training, the response is selected for the person's behavior and circumstances. The example shows how the behaviors are physically incompatible; it does not promise that the urge will disappear or that a new response will become automatic within a set time.

The Broader Behavior Change Technique

The Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy v1 uses habit reversal as technique 8.4: prompting practice of an alternative to an unwanted habitual behavior. This broader definition does not require every part of the clinical package.

For example, someone might practice putting a phone in a drawer when sitting down to work, replacing an immediate checking routine. That illustrates the broader technique; it is not equivalent to a course of clinical habit reversal training.

Why It Matters

The approach gives a person something to practice, rather than only an instruction to stop. The replacement needs to suit the behavior, the person and the situation.