Yep the key to cutting back on that is keeping yourself (especially your hands) busy and being around other people as much as possible. It's tricky though, because the longer I go without doing it the more I have the urge to do it.
I think there's a lot of truth to those two paragraphs, well said.
I've always suppressed it in part because I've always felt (and still do) that it would scare girls away even more than usual.
It also just happens to be a fact that on average men are taller than women.
But anways, I don't see height (or lack of) as being any sort of requirement.