I’m a nailbiter, too. It drives my mother absolutely mental. But sometimes, I look at my nails and go, “Uuuurgh…” I also noticed other non-nailbiters’ nails and they’re so pretty and clean and mine are just nasty. So, everytime I look at someone else’s nails, I force myself not to bite them because I want pretty nails, too. And carrying something else to bite/chew, like gum, can help…at least, that’s what people have told me.
Very recently reformed nailbiter here.
It used to drive my mother crazy when i was a kid. She tried the bad-tasting crap on my fingernails, but i just ate through it. She even tried bribery, telling me that if i stopped i could have all the money in her spare change jar. Forty bucks was quite a bit of money to me when i was 15, so i stopped just long enough to get the cash, and then resumed the habit.
All through my adult life i continued to bite my nails. It didn’t help that i did it most often when i’m doing a sedentary activity like reading, because i’m a grad student who spends about half my life reading.
Then, about a month ago, i looked down at my hands one day and realized that i hadn’t bitten my nails in a couple of weeks, and they actually looked like a regular person’s fingernails. I thought they looked pretty cool, and i resolved to keep them that way. So far, i’ve been pretty good. I still, for some reason, bite the nails of the last (smallest) finger of each hand, but the rest are looking good, and my partner is completely amazed.
There was no method to my quitting; it just seemed to happen. I hope i don’t go back to my old habits.
Good luck!
I’m a nail-biter too. I managed to quit a year or so ago, for about 3 months, but backslid badly. I found quitting smoking was easier.
I was actually starting to get really angry with myself yesterday and today about the state of my nails. I bite them until they bleed and cause pain. Two of them are so short (after years of intense biting, I have bonsai nails) that you can only just see the nail slivers poking out from the cuticle in a very small curve at the base. It disgusts everyone who sees them, including me.
I was just gearing up for another big quit-nail-biting attempt, so while I can’t offer advice, I’m happy to offer support, cheers and become a nail-buddy!
When I was about seven, I just decided one day to stop biting my nails, and it worked. Perhaps biting my nails was never a coping-with-stress response for me, or maybe I just have unusual will-power and self-control. In some ways, I think that people first to methods like painting or taping their nails are subconsciously surrendering to the perception that they cannot beat this problem on thier own.
I think that if you really want something, you can do it. For example, just tell yourself that you will not touch your face or mouth at any time during the day, and when you notice you are doing it, stop. That’s really all it takes! After a few times of doing this, you’ll notice yourself doing it less. I think that if it doesn’t work for you, then you really haven’t yet convinced yourself that you want to stop completely, because it gives you too much comfort. If that is the case, you must acknowledge it.
I have successfully eliminated various other stress habits, such as clenching my jaw to help concentrate (now I focus on totally relaxing my jaw instead), using this general method. That said, YMMV.
Nail biter for 23 years - jealousy and spite has kept them unbitten for three years now, going on four.
My ex-fiance was friends with this very phony, fake-y looking blonde girl, who always had to look “just so”, even if she was just going to the grocery store. She looked down her nose at me every time she spoke to me. After all, I was plumper, didn’t dress like she did, nervous, stammerer…
I remember her coming home one night and fluttering over to her boyfriend, flashing her nails at him, and making sure I saw them. They were long and perfect and pretty and airbrushed. My then-fiance told me later on that her nails were fake, and underneath the pretty nails were bitten down, yellowed, cracked, rotting real nails! I gasped in horror - then the horror was replaced with sheer glee! Little Miss Thang wasn’t all she pretended to be! (yes, yes, petty, I know, but I was still pretty young and bullheaded and very, very insecure). I knew then the one thing I could do to spite her - grow perfect, natural nails.
Like many others in this thread mentioned - I just stopped. It was surprisingly easy. I had tried bitter crap on my nails in the past to stop, and chewing gum, etc. but this spite-driven project required no vices. I just suddenly let them grow.
What helped was so many people began to compliment my pretty nails, and so I wanted to keep them that way. I trim them to a reasonable level (and they all get a trim when two or more break), and today I still get many compliments on my nails.
FTR - I’m no longer jealous of that girl - I understand better now that she was far more insecure than I was. I haven’t even seen that girl in over three years. But if I ever do, I’ll smile at her warmly. And maybe give her a finger-wiggling wave 
I still nibble my nails a bit – nowhere near as bad as I used to, when I was a child I gnawed my hands raw. But when I started playing piano our teacher wanted us to keep our hands looking beautiful and groomed, and as a result I became rather vain. I stopped chewing, kept my nails trimmed just so, and painted them with clear acrylic polish to make them gleam. It still works and I’m still proud of my pretty hands.
Have you looked into this stuff? Apparently it makes your nails taste bad. I’ve heard of people having success using similar products.
If you want to paint something on to your nails that tastes bad try colourless iodine. Systemic iodine is important for nail strength and when I was learning guitar years ago my teacher recommended painting my nails with iodine because my nails are very soft. He insisted that it strengthens them. Doesn’t matter if it doesn’t really it will do the trick as well as anything else in terms of tasting foul.
Oh yes. Nasty tasting stuff does not deter me. This thread has really given me some hope that I can quit though.
So many nibblers out there - maybe we should form a support group? 