I’m a nail biter. I’ve been doing it close to 32 years and I can’t stop. I’ve tried the nasty tasting liquid and it doesn’t work. I’ve even had fake acrylic nails put on so my real ones would grow out underneath. I chewed those off too. It’s gross and I’m really tired of it, but most of the time I don’t even realize that I’m doing it. Is it even possible to successfully quit an ingrained habit like this? It’s almost like I’m a smoker, but I don’t know what I’m addicted to.
Hm. I just managed by saying “I don’t want to bite my nails anymore”. It worked, much to my surprise (totally serious there).
I’d say, if you don’t mind looking rather silly, why not completely cover up your finger tips with bandaids or duct tape and force yourself not to take the tape off?
I’ve been biting my nails for about 45 years. :eek:
On the other hand, I’ve never smoked and only drink alcohol when toasting at weddings.
zweisamkeit,
I think your well-meaning suggestions are not likely to work.
Nail biters are prepared to cope with really unpleasant tastes (the liquid you paint on your nails) to keep going.
Hello, my name is Phall0106, and I’m a former nail biter. raises hand and waves
I was a life long nail biter–I can’t count the number of times I’d bite my nails to the quick and they would bleed, with my cuticles all dried and ragged and bleeding themselves. I tried everything, including the icky stuff you put on nails, and the acrylic nails (amazing how fast I could gnaw them off), and duct tape/bandaids…you name it. What finally stopped me from biting my nails?
Two things…One, I decided that I wanted to stop. I looked at my fingers and my hands, and realized how ugly bitten nails made my hands. That’s not the appearance I wanted to present to others. Two, I finally figured out that I needed something in my mouth. I always keep a supply of gum (sugar free) with me, and believe me, when I first stopped biting my nails, I was chewing gum at a furious rate. However, over time, that lessened, so I only occassionally chew gum when I’m nervous or upset (which was prime nail biting time).
Good luck–it’s not the easiest thing I’ve ever done, and every now and then, I’ll have a relapse (which usually means biting my thumb nail), but before long, I’ve got fingernails again and life is okay.
It is possible to break the habit; I did.
I did it by designating one finger as the one I wouldn’t bite. Then I slowly worked my way up to all of them, after a couple of years. I think it worked because I didn’t have to quit biting them cold turkey, which had previously been impossible.
Hey, I was a chronic nail biter, too! My suggestion was because even if initially she doesn’t stop biting, at least she’d be biting bandaids or duct tape instead of the nails. At least that would let the nails grow while she also looked into other methods.
I stopped biting my nails with the following combinations of things:
1). Limited myself to one less finger every two weeks, or whatever I thought I could handle. So the first was, I could bite all nails but the pinkies. Two weeks later it was all fingers but the pinkies + ring finger. And so on.
2) Gave myself something else to chew. Gum works wonders.
3) Started wearing nailpolish. Not because it tasted bad, but because it looked so pretty when the nails were long.
Now, I did this very young, and hadn’t had the ingrained habit as much as you do. Good luck…I hope something works.
I’ve been biting my nails ever since I can remember (I’m 37) but have been mainly down to just biting my pinkie nails for the past year or so. I’ve recently decided to try letting the others grow so I can use them to defend myself from my SO’s claws. 
Mostly reformed nailbiter, myself.
I occasionally slip during a movie, or something, when I’m thouroughly distracted… or if there’s an uneven edge to a nail and no tools are handy to fix it.
I just started trimming them regularly with a pair of nail clippers. Feeds my obsessive-compulsive nature, but leaves the nails looking peachy-keen.
Mine are too short right now to even do this. 
Thank you all. It’s actually kind of comforting to know I’m not the only one who’s been gnawing for decades. You have much better suggestions than my husband who told me to just scratch my butt crack and not wash my hands. OK, while that would work, ew… just EW.
I’m going to try the gum and forbidden finger route. Wish me luck. I can’t believe how hard this habit is to break.
I stopped biting my nails in high school when I started wearing lipstick. I was so paranoid about accidentally smearing lipstick all over my face, it was easy to remember not to bite my nails.
I bit my nails until I was in my twenties and then I hooked up with a woman I really liked and decided that my bitten nails looked really tacky. I just gave up by force of will but it turned out that the trick was the unconscious nature of the habit. I used the foul tasting stuff to allow myself to notice when I did it and once I was paying attention it was fairly easy to stop myself. After a little feedback it became progressively easier to identify when my hands were heading mouthward. It was a conscious pain in the bum for a little while and then became gradually easier to deal with.
This is of no help to you whatsoever, but perhaps you’ll find it interesting.
I was a lifelong nail biter. A couple of years ago I was diagnosed as a diabetic and was put on medication. Overnight, I stopped biting my nails. The compulsion just disappeared. It was pretty weird to have to start trimming and cleaning my nails for the first time in my life.
Same here. I just said “I am not biting my nails anymore” and I haven’t really done it for the last few months. I still bite on occasion like if I am stressed or if the clippers cannot get a certain part of the nail but 90% of the time I use clippers nowadays.
I’ve bitten mine for 20 years. I finally got sick of the pain from biting them too short and I just stopped. Now, every time I get the compulsion to chew I just remember that pain and that stops it for me.
Life long nail biter. The first time I quit was because I had braces and eating pudding hurt, much less nail biting. I took it up again about a year after I lost the braces due to stress from crappy job and trying to graduate college.
My big problem with quitting was I didn’t really have any motivation. Now I have a fiancee who loves back scratches. I keep them long for him. I have at least three nail care sets, one for work, one for home and one for my purse. I have to have them on me at all times in case I get a snag or rough patch. Instead of biting I can just file. I do mess up occasionally, movies seem to be a trend among the biters here. Usually if I know I’ll be tempted I’ll wear gloves.
Mostly reformed nail biter.
What eventually worked for me was moving away from my parents. I think the reduced stress made it easier to stop.
I’ve been biting and picking my nails for as long as I can remember.
Is anyone else in your immediate family a nail-biter? I’m resigned to the fact that my problem is OCD based and unless I drug myself silly with all the concomitant side effects or wear gloves during my waking hours, I’ll be living with clenched hands for the rest of my life. There are more important things to worry about.
My mom and I both are. Acrylics have worked for her, but I seem to be too rough on them. I seem to go in phases - I’ll wake up one morning and notice that my nails are actually long enough to put polish on without looking ridiculous, and then I can go several months keeping them in decent shape. Unfortunately, after my lifelong abuse of them, they’re really weak, so what’ll happen is one will tear or break and I’ll start nibbling on it, and then the next one will break…
expensive manicures worked for me.
I go for rough edges…so keeping them filed and polished is pretty much all I need to do.