I now sit here feeling sorry for myself and holding my hands out with the delicate demeanour of a girl waiting for nail polish to dry. I’ve torn 'em all to shreds. Why? WHY?! Every time I do it I think to myself, what a stupid, painful thing to do, how can I ever be inclined to bite them again? It’s like swearing off drink when you’re hungover, only to be sucking down the beers next weekend, completely oblivious. It’ll start because one nail is getting a bit big or it is catching on something. After I’ve demolished that one, the others don’t stand a chance. It’s like Pokemon, baby, once you’ve done one you gotta get the whole set.
It hurts, but not in an overbearing childbirth kind of way. It’s sneaky. One minute I feel fine but then I go to pick something up and it catches the tattered under-skin that jiggles some unholy nerve like an over-zealous businessman shaking hands with a client. Doing up buttons is torture, and is carried out with all the elegance and dignity of somebody eating doughnuts with their elbows.
Fortunately, it doesn’t last long. I can sleep tonight knowing that, come morning, the edge will be taken off and the few micrometers in growth has made a difference. In a couple of days the pain will be gone, but my nails will still look like shit.
Sigh. How am I ever going to realise my dreams, to fall in love, to find a perfect career, save the world, if I can’t manage the elementary task of not eating myself?
Somebody tell me that they lack as much self control as I do…
I used to bite my fingernails until they would bleed. I started wearing cheap “press-on” nails, attaching them with Crazy Glue instead of the ineffective stuff that comes with them. Biting plastic nails is not rewarding, and I got out of the habit of doing it. Didn’t happen overnight, of course, but if you are consistent in wearing the fake nails it will help. Another thing to consider - biting your nails really isn’t good for your teeth.
Last time around I actually tried a reinforcement method of slapping myself across the face three times fairly hard if I caught myself biting. I actually slapped a fair amount of times, the side of the face being smacked being equivalent to the hand I was chomping on.
I kept mine filed down every day so they never caught and I had no excuse to bite. First thing every morning, file, file, file. Then I got used to having them a little, and with practice and keeping them smooth, I got over it.
I second what SnakesCatLady suggested about the glue-on nails. You could also go to a nail salon and have really expensive fake nails put on. It takes a couple of hours to apply them and they cost a mint, so you’d think twice before biting them. Who wants to waste so much time and money?
Easiest solution in the damn world. Carry a nail clipper and emory board with you. I was the same way. I take care of the issue right away and have no urde to bite my nails any more.
When I decided to stop biting my nails I started carring an emery board everywhere. I still do bite off a piece occasionally if one’s breaking and I don’t have emery and scissors, but I don’t nibble. If I catch myself starting to nibble, I find something else to nibble on. And that’s what I think you should do. The impulse will be there, but only because you’ve started doesn’t mean you have to go on. You can stop. And yeah, I know this sounds like something out of AA, but hey, only because calling “biting your nails” “an addiction” sounds exagerated doesn’t mean the mechanisms aren’t similar.
Middlebro used to bite his real bad. One day I told him “dude, you gotta stop that, you’re hurting your nails badly.” “Oh, c’mon, it’s not so bad.” “Is it not? Oh, excuse me, what shape is that thumbnail?” “Uh? looks at his thumbnail, uh, nail-shaped.” “The pink part. What shape would you say it is.” “A triangle, why?” “Look at mine. Look at anybody’s. You’ve managed to eat off everything over one of the diagonals! Nails are your fingers’ shields, you’re eating your own armor.”
After checking out a few people’s hands and finding out that yes, most people don’t have triangular thumbnails, he was able to cut it out. But yeah, it’s been over ten years and sometimes he still sticks his thumb in his mouth, starts nibbling and then spits it out with a “DAMN!”
Years ago I used to be an incorrigible hangnail-picker, went around constantly with the sides of all my nails red and oozing. What worked for me was, every time I felt the urge to pick at my nails, I would smear some Chapstick on the offending/attractive bits, and sit there and rub it in until the urge to fiddle with my nails passed. This meant that I had to keep Chapstick around at all times, but eventually it worked.
See, you have to think about the psychology behind nailbiting and picking. It’s a habit that you get into, and the way you get out of any habit is by replacing it with another habit. This means that you have to think about what you’re doing; you have to hate the bad habit enough that when you catch yourself doing it, you have to stop and think for a second, and then force yourself to replace it with the more desireable behavior. Like, “Oh, no, here I am, picking my nails again,” and then you have to make yourself get out the Chapstick and faithfully sit there rubbing it in until you get bored with fiddling around with your nails.
Word is that if you do something the same way for 30 days, it becomes a habit. So you only need to focus on “not biting my nails” intensively for 30 days.
Hmm. I’m a serious nail-biter (and pen-chewer, finger-drummer, &c.), but I’ve never had any problems with it. I mean, occasionally I bite off too much so when I rip it it hurts a bit, but I never get myself all bloody or anything. I didn’t know people had it that bad.
Now toenails, other other hand… why are pinkie toenails so small? You pretty much have to use clippers–which I don’t–to keep that little sucker from gettin all misshapen.
This worked me as well. I also keep a little trimmer with me everywhere I go. If the nails are smooth, they don’t distract me, so I don’t bite them as often.
I still bite my nails to shorten them - even thinking about clipping with the trimmer makes my whole fingers itch, like they know the pain is coming. But as soon as they’re bitten down, I file them smooth.
(I wash my hands before biting, and do so in privacy, to avoid squicking folks out. I can’t quit 100%. It’s an indulgance. It’s both weird and freaky, I know. But it’s quite a bit less disgusting than the habits I had when I was a little kid, and my nails look much much better than you’d expect.)
I keep a nail clipper and file in my desk at work, a nail file in my purse, and nail clippers and a nail file on our living room table. It helps with controlling the behavior.
Yeah, the trouble I have with clipping is that while it’s a lot neater than biting them to size, it still doesn’t feel right, so I end up nibbling them anyway. And by ‘right’ I mean the feeling that a 1-week unbitten nail has - short, smooth and comfortable. Perhaps the emery board is the answer, but there’s something about them that creeps me out, mainly that rasping sensation.
Im in the process of trying, once again, to stop biting my nails. Ive always been one of those compulsive chewers, often biting the nail down so far that it bleeds.
Ive tried painting my nails, finding other habits (so now I also twirl my hair, bite my lip and tap my feet along with biting nails), and stopping cold-turkey, but the most success Ive had is to always keep a piece of gum in my mouth. Chewing on something helps keep the nervous energy in check so that you don’t start chewing on your nails. I also keep at least one emory board on me at all times, because hang nails and uneven nails are the bane of nail biting! Also, sometimes replacing biting with filing helps, because you can fiddle with your nails and yet not bite them.
I had been biting my nails down to the fingertip, and somtimes past the tip, for as long as I can remember but now not so much. Dead skin builds up in the corners of my nailbeds; keeping the nails past the tip doesn’t leave room for this. They’re also good for playfighting with my SO.
I still bite my nails when I feel the need to trim them and have no clipper handy. I’ve become pretty adept at biting 'em just enough that they are still over the tip.
I’ve never been a nail-biter, but if it’s a case where you only do it because the nails are getting long, why not just buy a couple nail clippers and keep them at any desk you are working at?
Whenever one starts to bug you, just work to remember to pull out the clippers instead of biting.
I think if we had a contest for who had the worst bitten nails and fingers I’d win. I’ve been doing it as long as I can remember (I’m 34 now) and its caused more than its share of problems. Personally I think I tend to get colds more often than others due to the open wounds. They’re small but you touch everything with your fingers and germs can get right in. I chew right down past the nail and one some fingers all the skin around the edge. Its gross. My mom tried painting on some kind of nasty tasting liquid when I was in first grade which accomplished nothing. One thing I’ve noticed is that its not so much about removing the nails/flaky skin and more about the oral fixation. I grind my teeth at night as well and I think its more closely related to the chewing action than the removal of the nail and skin. If you figure out a way to beat it let me know.
