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WML: How to Stop Biting Nails
Sat, 02/15/2003 - 07:41 — deadprogrammer
As I mentioned previously, I’ve had some success with stopping nail biting. I did not really start biting nails on my own. I picked it up from one of my childhood friends. You know, peer pressure. In fact, it was the same friend that cost me that front tooth which I will be replacing with an implant now. Two things to remember him by. Grrr. I analyzed my nail biting and came up with the following conclusions: Ok, so here’s how I stopped: I went to a Dwayne Reed drugstore and bought myself a whole bunch of manicure stuff: First I took care of the dry skin. I really like that Radiant Hands, Nails & Cuticles Creme - it almost doesn’t smell. Then I took care of the cuticles with the cuticle cream and cuticle scissors. Polished away jagged surface of bitten nails and buffed their surface. For a weekend I used the bitter nail polish thingy. It’s wasn’t very bitter, but it reminded me. More importantly, I kept a nail file at work, in my bag, near my computer and at my bedside table. The hardest thing is to stop after biting a nail. By polishing away the jagged edge as soon as you transgress it’s easiest to stop. I applied the “Maximum Growth and Thicken Up” thingies from time to time. Nails that are bitten for a long time do not grow very well and are thin. These two products help a little with that. I think at some point I am going to get a manicure and a pedicure. Maybe it’s not very manly, but I am very secure in my masculinity. [update] Even after all that I was not able to quit completely. These days I can go without nail biting for up to a month at a time, but I am a full blown nail biting recidivist. That moisturizer really helps though. If you are coming from Lifehacker link, please don’t forget to take a look at the rest of WML posts and other good stuff. Some Items You Might Enjoy:
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My name is Michael Krakovskiy, and this is my blog.
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Comments
God, I’ve been biting my nails — bad — since I was a little kid. We’re talking over 30 years at this point. Right now as I look at my hands 3 of them are bitten to bleeding. (I know, gross).
The thing that never worked for me about the no-bite stuff is that it gets on all your food, and is thus a major annoyance to put on every day. After a day or two of trying to use it and finding that your lunch tastes horrible, you start the third day by saying “Nah, I’ll remember not to bite them….” and then go back to doing it anyway.
Tools are scary for me because the same clipper that can trim away a jagged nail can also be used to start a new place to pick at.
Right now I’m trying to figure out what causes the biting in the first place. I’ve tried everything above that you mention, and then some, including prescription hand cremes and so on. I’ve heard at least one theory that really bad nail biting can be associated with a form of OCD.
thank you fpr helping me with my problem.
Same with myself, even when my fingers hurt it's almost impossible to stop for me, I've been trying to find things to take the place of nail biting with some success but it's mostly a willpower problem.
From a woman helping her husband break the nail-biting habit. Things we’ve found that worked:
The nasty tasting stuff. The trick is not to put too much on. Otherwise it does get onto other stuff. He’s found that one sweep across the top of the nail does the trick.
OPI (a fairly expensive brand sold in salons) has some good products.
Their Nail Envy line is fantastic. It is a nail fortifier. They have a matte version that works well for men. Doesn’t look like you are wearing polish, but really cuts down on breakage and chipping.
OPI also has a nail oil (other lines do to) that works great on cuticles and around the nail bed. It doesn’t smell all girly like creams do. According to the beauty magazines, olive oil also works well rubbed around your nails.
The best nail files are the glass ones. They cost about 8 bucks at Sephora. They get the nail edge perfectly smooth, no little snags. Don’t travel especially well, but use them at home and you should be fine for the day, unless you break a nail.
The Dr. Scholl foot creams rock.
Hope this helps.
While I totally agree that this is the right approach, I too, was able to quit biting for about a month or so. I no longer bite, now, but I pick at the rough edges. I broke the habit of getting my fingers out of my mouth, but I pick instead.
This is truly a difficult habit to braek.
Well, nail biting definitely belongs in the OCD spectrum. Damn hard thing to quit.
Hmm, I think I’ll get one of those $8 nail files. I like good tools.
Insidious.
Never really thought of nail hardener/strengthener before. Maybe I’ll try that.
Of course my 3yr old is going to have a field day, because she’s all about the manicures these days. “You doin your nails, Daddy? Like Grammie and Mommy do? Grammie did my nails. This one’s chippin.”
(No, we do not send my 3yr old for manicures, but something Grammie gives her a little paint job to be one of the gals.)
Something? I meant “sometimes”. Where’s that edit button? :)
I can totally relate. I stopped biting nails at age 8 or so, now I pick, which is probably worse, it is never ending.
Jeez! Don’t waste all that money on biter nail polish, just smear your fingertips with ear wax. It’s cheep and you always have a ready supply.
Maybe someone will suggest poo next.
My experience: I use the polish and things begin to look up, but then I just use my other hand to pull the nails off instead of biting them. Same ending … unbelievable.
One other product I forgot to mention: If the area around your nails is red and/or shredded, use Neosporin as a rub in cream, rather than the ordinary nail stuff (or olive oil).
Also, keep in mind that nail polish would be treated as hazardous waste if you threw it away in 50 gallon drums. Buy only what you plan to use up. And unless a product is obviously not doing what you bought it for, finish it off before buying something else. I used to buy new nail polish all the time. Now I’m down to one shade in each color.
The most exquisite part of biting nails is the skin around the nail. Marvellous!
I too am trying to stop but finding it very difficult. It’s just so good.
My wife stopped me for a while by offering a sexual bribe.I’ll leave you to guess what.Anyway it worked for a while………………..Then she stopped the sex all together. Yeah, you guessed it. I bite again.
This is the best comment so far!
I think that the secret is to switch your biting obsession for obsessive moisturizing. I have the “Australian miracle” aloe, and a tube of neutrogena in my bag. When you get a hang nail or broken cuticle, rub lotion on it, rubbing towards the fingertips, with the idea that three or four sessions over the course of the day will either rub the tag off, or heal it up. Just as satisfying as biting, and with much more attractive results.
Yeah, moisturisation is key. Also, as one of the people above noted, Neosporin helps heal damaged nails much faster (though it is evil to breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria and stuff). Replacing one ocd habit with another usually works ok - look at Jared from Subway subs. He switched his obsession from stuffing his maw with burgers to eating a set number of subs.
Oy. I have tried all the same things. I managed to get my nails exceedingly normal-looking for my wedding, but that was only because I used bad-tasting stuff, moisturizer, and got weekly manicures for six months beforehand. I just can’t keep up that level of effort in everyday life. So they’re short again now, though not the bloody stumps that I had for fingers in high school. I really enjoyed being able to do things with my nails (like get my Treo stylus out of the side of the phone) without using dimes or other implements, but not enough, apparently, to really make the change for good.
My mother read somewhere that the reason nail-biting is so hard to stop is that it’s innate and has something to do with a grooming gene/impulse/something gone awry. Most people feel a compunction to bathe, cut their hair, etc., but nail-biters feel like they have to keep their nails really short, too. That actually seems pretty plausible to me, as a nail-biter, and I do suspect it’s genetic because my uncle does it, too.
Yep. I am pretty much there too. But you know what, I think with every attempt you can get a bit closer to the final goal. I am gonna try again pretty soon.
Yes, I think that’s probably true. The first few times I tried to stop biting, I gave up because my nails looked so weird anyway. This past time they eventually began to look more normal, and when I backslid, it didn’t get as bad as it used to.
About 3 years ago I tried stopping by getting acrylic nails. I chewed them off. It was very sad and I havn’t tried again since. I’m now gearing up for another go at stopping, but using the tools you guys have mentioned.
Good luck!
Hello
I read your blog on fingernail biting. As a pro fingernail biter I thought I would share some good news.
Take a look here for a solution that works – if you truly serious about wanting to stop biting your fingernails. You’ll be glad you did.
http://www.SaveYourNails.Com
I have been biting my nails for at least 30 years (yikes…now I feel worse just seeing that in type). I just started my quest to stop and now put ‘no bite’ finish on my hands daily for about 10 days (this site motivated me). So far so good. I read it takes 10 days to grow a nail 1 millimeter. I keep looking at my nails going…GROW DAMN IT! The clear finish and slightly less chewed look of my nails is motivation so far (oooh..pretty nails!). My wife also said a while ago that I could not do it…a big motivator to me (I think she knew what she was doing). Recently I have also found myself totally embarassed that I have such chewed nails and am repulsed in seeing others who have chewed nails. Wish me luck!
I guess nail biting is not too bad,It is a customised habit,For me it is cute and unique and what about mouth biters,Afterall micheal jackson did it the court yard.
Cheers
I recently quit biting my nails! But…it’s not an ideal method. I had to take off a week and a half of work due to an illness in my family. I was visiting the hospital two and three times a day, and honestly, I became a little germophobic. There were all these signs everywhere telling everyone to wash their hands a lot, and I get a lot of colds anyway….so I was kinda’ scared about the germs. Once I went back to work, my fingers just looked (and felt!) so much better, so I’ve been mostly sticking with it. I got my first manicure, and I file almost daily. My advise is to develop germaphobe-like thinking a little bit, file a lot, and start volunteering at a hospital, maybe. I still pick a little, but I’m working on it.
I was never a nail biter, however, I wish people would stop in public. I commute on the subway now and it is disturbing to view.
Nail biting is horrifying, the government should put these peoples in camps until they stop.
i’ve been biting like a maniac since i was a young boy. i’ve done it all: pick, bite tip of nail, bite cuticle, and the worst of the worst: PICK AND BITE CENTER OF NAIL. nothing is worse than seeing the mangled, deformed and mutated profile of a destroyed nail.
I second that Bucky!
I’ve been Bite-Free for almost a month now. The nails look funny to me and I think it’s because my nails are so “used to” being so short, that the white part begins lower than most peoples, probably.
I admit, while I have yet to puncture my new found nail, i’ve been obsessively biting the “white tips.” Not quite biting, but squeezing them with my teeth. I find myself doing it every few minutes. I realize that this habit is equally obsessive as biting them, and probably shouldn’t carry on for long…but my mouth seems to be obsessed with the length and girth of my non-bitten nails. I fear my only hope is to cut the nails to perfection and keep them short. If they are cut unproperly, leaving jagged edges, I don’t have to tell anyone reading this how you are unable to exist until that edge is somehow shaved.
I’m going to put my pride aside and get a manicure so somebody else can cut my nails this time. I remember back to the fourth or fifth grade, the only other time i’ve gotten a manicure. My mother instructed me not to bite my nails for approx. two weeks if I wanted to get this manicure, for the manicurist would have to dig deep. For whatever reason, the thought of getting the manicure motivated me to refrain from biting for the two weeks. I got the manicure. My nails were smooth and shiny, which garnered a small bit of attention the following day in auditorium. I made the mistake of telling a classmate why that was the case, but that’s not important. I didn’t start biting again right away, instead, I would simply put my fingers in my mouth, and lick the nails. Thats right. Lick. The smoothness of the nail was irresistable to me, much like the current “squeezing” of my tips. I don’t remember why or when, but I obviously began biting again afterwards, and haven’t stopped for 11 or so more years.
I obviously must find a method of satisfying my oral fixation, that doesn’t involve biting/chewing/squeezing or licking if I want to become a member of society who is not stared at with a look of putrid disgust whenever I put my hands to my mouth. Wish me luck comrades…
jojo, you pain is felt across a nation of sufferers. i know the nail squeeze. don’t continue it. you are begging for a relapse. you are continually take one inch closer to the dark side.
if there were only condoms made for fingertips….
Nail Biting 101….for me it has always revolved around not doing something with my hands…TV, Movies, Riding in a car or Driving on a long stretch of highway….anything when i am not doing something. I have been astonished that there are not more credible studies that i have been able to find about this disorder.
I am not sure why it would not be classified that way. I know that eventhough my nails sometimes look like crap, when i see another person that bites nails, it still makes me think that they have a low self control.
My REAL problem is biting the cuticles down to red skin…the skin layer just before it bleeds though, but you can clearly see that several layers of skin have been removed. I have BAD warts all on my hands as a child that eventually went away, but growing up….pick pick pick on those suckers…and here i am 34 and still biting the skin off to blood.
Does anyone else’s mouth water when you feel that first snag? that first sense that you HAVE to bite or pick away some insignificant imperfection to make it PERFECT…only to realize 30 minutes later that you have completly ruined your hands to the point that if you had to go into a job interview, you may call to re-schedule it even if you know that you can’t?
Anyone?
All of these postings are good to read. My husband is a nail biter and it is really gross to me. Every time I look over at him when we’re watching a movie or TV he’s biting and I can hear it, too. It’s as bad as someone whispering throughout an entire movie. Also, when we’re getting romantic, he scratches me really bad with his hang nails and it completely ruins the mood. Needless to say, we don’t have a great sex life. Anyway, he refuses to stop biting and I’m to the point where I want to put the bitter polish on his nails in his sleep. Am I a horrible wife? What do I do to get him to at least want to stop? Thanks and good luck to everyone out there trying to kick the habbit!
This problem persists amongst the many I see. How sweet it is to be understood by you all! My fingertips are in constant pain. It hurts to extend my fingers now! I’ve tried will power, and designating my girlfriend to remove my hands from my face when we’re together, but that doesn’t even work. It’s just so damned tempting each time I look at my hands… Damnit!!
ive been biting my nails since i was a child (now 46) it was a stress factor thing. Unhappy childhood.. etc….i stopped biting for many years after the breakup of my marriage and was looking for a new relationship. I also stopped during the period i wore teeth braces. seems I tend to bite when they are broken off and short. When they are long, i do not bite. when they are short, i hate the way they look so i bite, which makes them shorter to the point that they bleed and HURT! i also pick them off with other nails. i enjoy the tearing sensation & i like to chew on them. one thing that has helped me stop biting is to wear clear nail polish. i put on many coats and cover the surrounding skin too. they look a little nicer and i dont want to bite as much. i tried the nasty tasting stuff and it never worked, because to me it didnt taste all that bad, and my urge to bite was stronger than the taste of the bad liquid. at this writing, some of my nails are long, some are short, some are in between. i cant wear fake nails b/c the nail beds are ruined. i wish there was a clear cut method out there, to make us stop this nasty habit! its embarrasing, and my new husband hates the way my hands look.
I am pretty much the worst nail biter. I will use anything to pick at my nails including mechanical pencils, box cutters, scissors or my swiss army knife. I am sitting here right now ripping the crap out of my entire finger tip just using a paper clip. The only time I have ever stopped was one summer that I hung out with my nail biting buddy every day cuz we had no jobs. We agreed to punch each other right in the face every time we saw each other bite. Needless to say I slugged that kid right in his dome about 300 times and my nails grew for an entire week. But at the end of the week when I went to boring Church or something even worse, I took a quick glance at my nails and simply had to feast on them. I am 22 and I have decided that I will probably be a nail biter until I die, unless I can quit cold turkey right here right now. Fat chance
i am 13 yrs hold and bit my nails it is a habbit i have had all my life. i got it from my parents my nails look ‘yuk’. everyone else has amazing nails and mine and horrible i decided that it was time to “stop” i had to or there would be no nails left. i am going to try it for 2 months and see how i go i will give you an up date when 2 months have finished whish me “luck”
I stopped biting my nails since my last post and got a man manicure yesterday. My nails look money. I like how they buffed my nails. Reccomended.
thats what happened to me. i let my nails grow and they get to be pretty good. but once they get too long it is unacceptable and i have to shave them down. i try to hit up the nail file first but most of the time i just bite them down or use something sharp leaving a tid of white left. then the cycle begins again. i havent completely stopped biting my nails but the urge is far less and they don’t look like complete garbage.
i also have no remorse for my cuticles. i ravage those things but fortunately i’m able to stop before i tap in to the skin on the side of my finger. moral -maybe we dont need to completely stop biting, but just cut down significantly so they dont look like crap. phase it out
I am biting my nails right now. I am 26 and have bitten them as long as I can remember. I have tried a few times to stop, and they grew and looked normal, but I still have to keep putting them in my mouth and eventually I feel a little rough edge or hangnail and once I bite one, it’s downhill from there. I slowly start biting them all and then it’s gradually back to the old nasty bitten nails. I tried fake nails, bitter stuff, lotions, creams, etc… Has anyone ever tried hypnosis for nail biting? I was thinking of maybe trying that???
Nail biting is a way of dealing with an unwanted situation (call it stress, if you like). It is a substitute for a mother’s nipple and a regression back to a comfortable, securel, stress-free time in your life.
Take the nail biting away and you leave a vacuum in the unconscious mind that will be filled with something else. Occasionally, something worse, such as nose picking or overeating.
The cause must, therefore, be dealt with and not the symptom.
A good Hypnotherapist can resolve nail biting in a very few sessions.
Robert Shields
http://www.hypnotherapy-training.com
17 Aspects of nail-biting! A good opportunity to find your own way to get rid of this unwanted behavior. Any comments?
hah, ive always been biting my nails. my girlfriend encourages me to stop biting them by pulling my hands away from my mouth when i do. But, I always start again right after she stops me. Is it just me or do some of you guys have lots of dead dry skin on your thumbs. i have always been biting the skin off my fingers and my fingers are really dry and full of dead skin. anyone else have this problem?
Put you hand out and take a long look at your nails and imagine they are normal-looking nails. If you really want to stop and its a big issue in you life, you will summon the determination to stop. You can be what you want to be and do what you want to do, all you need to be is mentally strong.
I’ve bitten my nails for 46 yrs. If I don’t wear acrylics (which cause your nail beds to lift after 15 yrs) then I bite or pick. Bitter polish, ANY polish I will chew off. My nail beds are so deformed from biting, that when I do let them grow out they are flat and ridged, which causes me to chew. None of the suggestions worked for me. I’ve spent $$$$ on manicures, mosturizers, etc. Hypnosis didn’t work either. Let’s get real people, theres GOT to be a cure.
I LOVE picking my cuticles. I love the feeling of manipulating a big fat dry piece of dead skin up and down. The pain is comforting.
This is so sick!
I want to stop but I don’t want to!
I can stop biting mine for a few days and develope minute whites. But the nails are paper thin and the whites need to be cleaned out from under constantly. Not really, but I do until the whole tip folds backward and I have to bite it off to keep it from ripping and then I should match that one with the rest and now look: I’m bleeding in four places. How do you speed up attachment of new growth to the skin? I don’t need whites 3/8”
from the end of my finger.
Eww. My nails are horrible. I’m 13 and I’ve been doing it forever.
I usually bite my left hand when sitting on the computer and my right at school. (I am left handed! So everything evens out). Right now my nail are fairly long (For me anyways Let’s say a quarter of a centimetre ahaha). I chew my nails down to stubs and I hate it! When I get fake nails my nails grow extremely fast except for I put the fake nails in my mouth and its gross. The germs get under the nails and it gets all eww when the nails fall off. I really need something to make my nails thick and long.
Any suggestions?
♥Jusseh,
ive tried every damn possible way to stop biting my nails horrible tasting cream, hypnosis , family sponsoring me but nothing worked and then one day i just thought am i really this pathetic? i mean at the end of the day all it really takes is to just think (even say aloud) im gonna stop and then every time you think of trying just say to yourself NO!!!! and if that doesnt work first think how pathetic and weak u are then go and get proffesional help!!!!
I can really relate to what you’ve said BITER. Although not a nail biter, I am right there with you on the surrounding skin issue—I bite and tear at the cuticle and skin on my thumbs—and do they look a mess! I appreciate your candor because I would never admit that as a biter, I actually derive pleasure from such an unhealthy, disgusting habit! But I’m sure that as the old folks say—It’s the nerves. I AM a very anxious person and coming from a very stressful childhood I guess I should be happy that nail-biting IS my issue instead of drugs or alcohol.
ok so I have been a bad nail biter for as long as I can remember. I guess it started with the thumb sucking when I was a kid. so I finally got the bad tasting stuff which is working so far. The problem is that now I am tasting the stuff when I lick my lips. It isnt from touching my mouth. Is it getting absorbed into my system and coming out through my pores? Has anyone else had this problem? should I be worried??
I’m 35 and remember starting as a kid, when I saw my Dad biting his nails and he was getting attention about stopping!! Now he has stopped and I’m addicted. I have terrible red scar tissue around the tips of my fingers. Does anyone else have this?
so ive been biting my nails for as long as i can remember . my nails have never grown past my fingertips … they have always been booty fingers and nasty. I am trying really hard to stop biting. The bitter “Bite No More” crap it worked at first cuz the taste was so horrible but now that ive been using it for a coupple weeks im pretty much used to the taste…. everytime i have a longer nail than the rest i watch it grow for awhile and then bam its completley back to where i started… all my friends and family tell me you have the shortest nails i have ever seen in my life dont you ever look at your hands and see how nasty that looks. Well duh i look at my hands i look at them everytime i bite my nails. Everytime i watch tv sit in my room work .. everything i do i always bite no matter what. i have been doing a lil bit better on the biting but not good enough. they are still not past my fingertips… i hate this i get so excited that they are growing and i find a corner that isnt even or a hangnail and there goes everything ive been working toward. I am so sick of seein my nails like this. I wish i had the will power to jus quit cold turkey … but does anybody have the will power to quit when they bite there nails? cuz it seems like every person who has commented on this subject still has not stop all together will it ever end or will i always have booty fingers. Man im so embarassed when my friends are showing off there pretty girl nails and then come to my tom boy nails and you jus wanna gag. Uhhh this is a horrible problem … i hope i can stop there obviously isnt much advice then what i already know … but damn these things are disgustingly ugly and i cant stand it anymore maybe i will eventually get the will power to stop…
Good luck to anyone else trying to quit biting and if you have any other solutions besides morsturizers creams nail polish and bite no more crap then please let me know.. i need to know damn
I’ve read on other websites that it helps to wear a rubber band on your wrist and snap it whenever you start biting or feel the urge to start. Snap it hard, so it hurts, and that will help remind you to not bite. I also paint my nails (with regular polish and the bad-tasting kind), wear gloves when I’m at home, and sit on my hands so I can’t bite them.
Simply dip your hands every morning in sheep manure. guaranteed success!
Simply dip your hands every morning in sheep manure. guaranteed success!
Yep...34 here.....been biting my nails on and off since I was 4-5, when my parents got divorced. I boil it down to when i have 'control' in my life and things going really really smooth for me...I can stop.
But, once I have something that stirs up my simple happy life....I start to bite again. I usually can last for 6 months with out biting.
So, being the 1st of the year...it is time for that insane resolution to stop biting my nails...again.
Creams, files, polish, buffers...you name it....but the nasty tasting stuff doesn't work for me.
Happy New Year and good luck fellow biters!
im 13 and have been biting my nails and cuticles since forever. i bite when i am hungry, bored or if there is even the slight imperfection. im gonna try carrying a nail file around, drawing in a note book when i am bored, but i cant do anything about being hungry at school! Those bitter polishes dont work for me, i just bite through them! I think its definitely a form of ocd. i always say 'Right, i will stop TODAY'. but then i think 'oh, ill have 1 last bite' and so on. its a cruel cycle.
Don't worry, I have the same problem...if you find something that works let me know.
I don't know if it works but I heard Vaseline works. Just rub it on your fingers/nails and leave it there i guess....
I have bitten my nails since before I could talk - no-one else in the family does this so we have no idea where I picked the habit up from.
I am 32 now and one of my friends recently commented on the fact that my fingers are bent, it appears that when biting the sides of my fingernails I have pushed that hard over the years that my bones have bent..! (right hand, palm towards me, fingers bent over to bite the right side of the nail - hold hand up straight (still palm towards me) and the finger bends to the left..! opposite for the left hand) Does anyone else have this..?
I did have acrylic nails but loved to bite/pick them off and I am frustrated at the length of time it takes my nails to grow. I have now just started biting at the skin, it makes me feel sick but god...I am additcted to that feeling now.
I want to give up, like one of the other posters, my current boyfriend has a really stunning ex, with fantastic nails. God knows what he thinks of my bitten stubs. I know he is disgusted at my habit and its a horrible feeling.
I have tried over the years everything possible (including washing up liquid on the nails and old engine oil) to no avail. If I do get the nails to a decent length they start to annoy me and I start biting again.
I think the only thing left to try is hypnotherepy. *sigh*
Claire
I have been biting nails for the last 40 years. I was sent out of the class while I was in 9th grade, for biting the nails. Thanks for all the tips.
I shall try them also.
I'm trying again to stop biting my nails; I tried once before (unsuccessfully, obviously). But one thing that I noticed that bugged me was when the whites got too long--so I just covered them with a dark or opaque nail polish so that I couldn't see them and be tempted to bite them. Won't work if you're a manly man, unfortunately, but I think it helps drive off the temptation if you can do it.
I've never had the fingernail biting problem, my bad habit has always been biting my toenails. I'll try some of these tips, maybe they will help me stop.
i can stop biting my nails. im 10 and it is so hard i just hope that the things you recamend will help thats not the only habit i have i also stuck my thumb.
I have been biting my nails ever since I was a small child, and even now I can't help but stop. I know that I shouldn't do it, and I've tried everything. Sometimes I can last for a month without biting, but after a while, the "long" nails start to feel uncomfortable and I go on a mad frenzy to bite them. I chew and bite and tear off the top layer of the nail until I'm left with a short stub. As soon as I start to feel the pain, I immediatly feel a wave of regret sweep over me. When I go outside and see every other female with beautiful long nails in frence manicures and etc. I feel jealous and embarrassed. I vow that I'll grow them back and stop for good this time. Five weeks later, I'm back with short stub finger nails.
I'm 14 and have been biting my nails since I was young (I think 2) and I hate it and can't stop I've tried everything, nail biting solution, will power but to no avail! I grow my nails a little bit then I feela little snag or rough edge and I'm before I can stop myself! Aswell my nails are really weak when they grow and fold over painfully, i get obsessed when I see a white tip and have to obssivlely clean under it to make it more white, then I end up biting them anyway! Does anyone alse feel like this?
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Ive just been sucking my thumb to keep from biting my nails, an just bitten my recently grown long thumb nail cos it was bending back them it broke so I bit it, arghh 3 weeks hard work gone! >:( and I wtill feel like biting it!
Ok, if none of you have tried this, you should! I'm 36, bit my nails all my life, yes I love to do it, yes it's so comforting, yes I run my tongue across every fingertip to see if there's anything that needs to be bitten off...I've had success with stopping but it never takes for good. Here's what I finally accepted- I can't have long nails. To have long nails that I won't be tempted to bite (no raggedy edges, no chips, etc.) I'd have to get a manicure every few days and keep on top of that like crazy. Having bitten all my life, it's just not in me to do the whole nail grooming thing! But if I grow one out even a little bit and it chips, or isn't shaped well and there's a little corner or whatever, I bite! Therefore, I purchased a small pair of nail clippers that I keep in my purse. I don't bit my nails but I keep them clipped very very short, basically cutting back all of the white (not to the bleed-zone of course, just leave a millimeter or whatever). This is the only thing that has worked long term. Sure, I don't get to end up with pretty long nails, but that's what I realized, I can't have both. The only times I've fallen off the wagon were when I misplaced my clippers and got a snag. Next thing you know, there go 3 or 4 nails. Good luck everyone, try it!! For some reason I like the baby size clippers the best, leave a smoother cut.
This is the best realistic advice so far. Thanks!
every time you find yourself biting your nail or skin around the nail try and focus on exactly what it feel like and what about that feeling makes you want to do it. Most of the time this feeling is pain and you dont really know why you would want to keep doing it. If you do this every time you catch yourself, biting your nails will eventually seem silly and become unappealing. its not immediate in its results but it works.
you just have to try really hard to make a conscious effort to stop yourself every time you start to bite, every time you put your fingers in your mouth, every time you start to pick at them, even every time you start looking at them! once you start looking at them you are looking for something to bite off or something to even out, so stop yourself as soon as you catch yourself doing it. i think the hardest part is getting yourself to actually want to stop, because it can be very satisfying... so commit to wanting to stop and dont put your fingers in your mouth. i think the reason all these products dont end up working is because in the end it is completely in your control, you are the one lifting your hand to your mouth and you are the one biting down, so if you want to stop get control of yourself and do it.
I've bitten my nails for about 20 years and have actually worn down most of my teeth! The two front teeth on the bottom are the worst! If I'm not biting, I'm picking acne on my face, eating, or picking nasty boogars! What the heck?! I don't, however, pick my nails with anything other than my teeth. HELP
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