I sucked my thumb until I was ten, and then chewed on my nails until I was seventeen, and then I promptly took up smoking.
Ah, the joy of Oral Fixations.
Not the thumb. The right ring finger. My parents said I had to make do with whatever was comfortable because I had a bilateral cleft lip – one weird anatomy, I tell you. When exhausted I pop that finger into my mouth and go to sleep immediately. Sad habit at 35.
I’m a secret smoker. Socially, one or two cigarettes, a couple of times a year.
Not the thumb. My left index and middle fingers kind of upside down. I’m fifteen and still do it. It has screwed up my teeth and my fingers too. I have a gap in between my front two teeth and my left index finger can go probably a good 45 degrees farther back than my right index finger.
I sucked my index and middle finger, can’t remember which hand. Stopped in the early grades (first? second?), can’t remember how. (Mom had been on my case to stop earlier, but I couldn’t/wouldn’t.) Once I stopped, I forgot which hand it had been and never again understood why it had been such a comfort. I’ve never smoked. Used to bite my nails and chew pens, but I’ve broken myself of those habits.
GT