Submitted by ApplemooseGG t3_yfhbxp in LifeProTips
Pretty much title. I bite nails and tear off skin around my nails. So much everything I touch hurts and frankly, I'm kind of disgusted by myself. No matter how hard I try I keep doing it unconciously.
I've tried doing the cold turkey method but that doesn't stick. The disgusting nail polish kinda worked but after a while I got used to the taste.
Anyone have any good tips to kick this habit, because I kinda don't know what to do.
Wipe your ass al fresco without paper
You mean acetone? Doesn't that dissolve into air?
Idk but when I've used it and bit my nails after, it was gross
Mine came with time. I still have episodes, but it’s so much better as I get older. I never thought I would stop and I now I can go for months without mangling myself. I tried everything from chemical solutions to hypnosis. Nails above the fingertips can happen! If I drink, I chew them right off. It’s a slippery slope.
You need to have some actual willpower.
The purpose of the nail polish isn’t to make it impossible for you to bite your nails - it will remind you that you should not be doing it, then it’s up to you to actually stop. Once you have some success you can trim them neatly and then it becomes much easier because you won’t want to ruin them.
I speak from experience as someone who managed to break a 30-year habit in 2020 - frequent hand sanitisation certainly helped!
Ah I guess I've been using the polish wrong then. Thanks for the message.
I have a small set of nail trimmers on my keyring. Once they're long enough to bite I cut them off so there's nothing to Chew.
Work on the root of the problem. The problem is most likely stress or insecurity, some kind of discomfort.
If chewing on your fingernails helps you calm down, why dont you instead chew on some chewing gum for example.
Or take some deep breaths when you feel stressed.
It's easier to replace a habit than break one. I carried fingernail clippers everywhere and used them when I felt like biting. If they are already clipped just go though the motion without actually cutting anything off. It just takes time and patience
That made me ewwchuckle.
Idk what the root of the problem is, because I do it all day every day. I guess it's time for some introspection
Theres nothing to bite and im still trying to peel more nail/skin off. I know it's gross but that's just how it is.
Reduce caffeine intake and find a more disgusting nail polish.
My sister gets her nails professionally done with acrylics and that really hard stuff (shellac? Not sure) but filed really short. The nail techs always think it's weird. But it makes it basically impossible to chew her actual nails.
I like to think about all the things I touch - door handles, toilets, bus rails etc - and how all that nastiness gets under my nails and how gross that would be to put in my mouth.
Chew gum. Chew nicotine gum. Then smoke. Chain smoke. Have a cigarette constantly lit around your fingers. You’ll get smokers fingers in time. Will taste horrible & look horrible (but you won’t care as it’s already horrible).
You’ll stop.
Quitting smoking…harder. Good luck
Think about why / when you do it. Write it down. Write down why you would like to stop. Write down what benefits would come with stopping.
When you’re about to start biting, or catch yourself biting, take a big deep breath. Put your hands away. Keep breathing. You’ll see you CAN stop. And after doing this for just a short time (I’d give it about 3-4 days), your skin and fingernails will look so much healthier, hurt less, you’ll realize how germy it is when you do put them back in your mouth, you’ll feel proud working toward your goal etc etc.
First couple days will be the hardest and then it’s smooth sailing. If you find yourself doing it again, be nice to yourself and try again :)
I managed to stop by simply cutting them with clippers. If theres no nail to bite, you start to break the habit of biting your nails.
I'm at my desk a lot, and keep some nail clippers there. If I catch my self biting them, I pause and reach for the clippers. I was really surprised with how quick my biting nail habit stopped
You have to replace one habit with another.
I started carrying an Emory board with me at all times. Anytime I realized I was biting or about to bite a nail, I took out the board and smoothed off the area.
Took a few weeks but finally worked
yes i always bite on my lip and on my fingernails when i'm stressed
There’s a correlation between nail biting and early trauma, including children without fathers in part of their life. Stress is a trigger for sure, but not always the root cause.
There are many prevention methods, including gross tasting substances, gloves, mouth appliances (such as invisiline). I do suggest looking for the root cause of the behaviour for a more likely positive outcome. Good luck!
Yes it dissolves but also tastes gross for a long time, even post hand washing
this works for me too but I can't afford the 60 bucks every few weeks-sigh
I’m not a therapist but if it’s impacting your life like this it’s time to see a therapist and talk about why you are biting your nails. It seems that you may need some one else to help you work through why it is you are biting in the first place. For me this is what I would do especially if I’ve already attempted to quit on my own
I’ve bit my nails for 20 years and stopped this year completely! Steps I took are the following:
You NEED to let all of them grow out until you see whites at the end. This is the hardest part.
Once they grow out a little, put on a clear base layer nail polish, the brand I use is OPI.
It’ll put a sheen on your nails and you will not want to bite it. I promise!
After it gets a little longer, you’ll remove the nail polish, trim and file nails, and put the base layer on again.
Seriously. Can’t believe this worked for me and I haven’t stopped since I was 10 years old when my mom passed. I hope this helps!
There is also Mavala Stop Nail Polosh Deterrant. It's used for your purpose as well as deterring kids from thumb sucking. Safe to put in your mouth, but tastes nasty. And it sticks around for weeks, like nail polish.
I quit for a couple months in the spring (back at it though unfortunately). Was focusing on like ways to better myself and I’ve always been insecure of my fingers nails which would just make me bite them more.
I don’t chew as much as I used to as a kid, I don’t remember exactly what my therapist said but she said it’s a combination of adhd, some sort of oral fixation and probably some sort of weird perfection thing I have going on
Mavala stop helped, chewing gum helped, and then basically just sheer will power+the ability to always have something else to do with your fingers. I use a stress ball, fidget spinner, and finding ways to rub my fingers on the corner of something when I’m working. It’s doable to quit but it’s just so hard when you don’t even realize you’re doing it. I’m trying to stop again right now so I feel your pain
I have the same problem, and I have found I am a lot less likely to do it if I keep them filed smooth and round. Carry a nail file with you for a week and do that when you get the impulse.
I think it always falls apart when the get dirt and oil underneath, and I try to 'clean' them. The answer to that is wearing gloves when working on dirty things, and being diligent with a nail brush afterwards.
Agreed, sounds like this is beyond a normal habit and may be closer to some sort of OCD behavior. I could be totally wrong, but I think it’s worth discussing with a therapist if possible to see if they could help.
(Having ocd behaviors does not mean you have OCD the way most people think of it, you can just have a specific compulsion like nail biting.)
This is anecdotal and might not be super useful, but it kinda backs up what GrouchySquash8923 is saying.
I used to bite my nails to the extreme, constantly bleeding on the sides of each finger.
I had pretty tough days in my life and undiagnosed ADHD.
Once things got more comfortable I pretty much stopped biting my nails constantly and only did it when they needed trimming.
Then I got my ADHD diagnosis and now I only bite if they are so long that they bother me AND I can't find a nail clipper.
So might be a combination of things. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
What worked for me is to rub your nails with your fingers any time you get the urge to bite them until that urge goes away.
I know it sounds silly but it has really worked as I find it helps to suppress the anxiousness that leads to nail biting.
I haven't completely stopped, but I was able to change enough to stop making them bleed and hurt.
There were a couple factors for me. First, I started to recognize that I'm some form of neurodivergent and biting my nails was a stimming behavior for me. Sometimes it was stress related but if you look up stimming behaviors there are a number of other things that can trigger it.
I made a conscious effort to replace biting with something else. In my case I found I was still putting my fingers to my mouth subconsciously so I switched from biting to using my teeth to scrape under my nails. It sounds gross, but my nails are always so short that there is nothing under there. I still don't catch myself sometimes and bite them, but I catch it often enough that my nails are super short, but not painful and bleeding.
I used to bite my nails religiously, but any time I painted them I didn't want to bite them and ruin the polish. I started painting my nails frequently so that way I'd feel too bad to bite them. They're finally at the longest they've ever been in my life and I only managed to stop doing this like 3 months ago.
Just stop. You have to break the habit. When you catch yourself with your fingers in your mouth take them out. Conscious effort. The make a bitter tasting non-toxic nail polish as an aid to help nail-biters quit, if you think you need it.
I used this awful tasting nail polish and after 9 days I had nails and I was biting every minute of the day for 3 years. Now I keep needing to file them down cause they get to long. But I had my hands in my mouth and people sad it looked unattractive
What worked for me was to get the cheap fake fingernail tips at Walmart and super glue them on, file them down short, and keep them on for 2-3 weeks. I kept extra glue in my purse if one fell off and would immediately glue it back on. If one came off and was lost, I would put a band aid around that finger tip until I could get home and glue another tip on. After a few weeks of it, the nails underneath were long enough that I would not bite them. I know super glue is not good for your nails but I was desperate. I will go 2-3 years with long nails and 1-2 years biting them to the quick (I return to biting them when they break and it spirals out of control). I have been doing it this way for 30 years or so. Good luck! It can be done.
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