Nail Biting Problem

[Maroney555]

Ok, I have a REALLY bad nail biting problem

 

I can't stop. I will even be consciously telling myself to stop while I am doing it, but I don't. I can't make myself have the self restraint to stop biting. It's a serious problem and this sounds silly, but it affects my relationship with my fiancee and my dad and even a couple friends...it drives them NUTS!

 

I need help to stop

 

What can I do?

[Nidania]

I had this exact problem until I was 30 years old. I would bite my nails until they would start to bleed.

 

I did manage to stop, and haven't bitten them in 5 years. The only thing I found that worked for me was to keep my hands in a constant state of busyness. I know how to knit, so I knit like a demon for 60 days. If I wasn't sleeping, I was knitting.

 

It does take self-restraint, and that's something you have to learn. I would sometimes have to use one hand to force the other away from my mouth at first. It can be done though, don't lose hope!

 

Edit to add: Oh, and one more thing. I started buying really awesome colours of nail polish, and I painted them constantly, right from the beginning. I took pride in how lovely they were starting to look as I allowed them to grow. Sort of a reward for my efforts.

[Applewhite]

I've stopped by using bitter tasting nail polish they make for exactly this purpose. I think I got mine at Walmart (it was hard to find). It is labeled STOP on the bottle. Although I do put another clear normal nail polish over it because otherwise it gets on my food/fruit etc when I wash/prepare them.

[nj101]

get a guitar, chew gum

 

i used to bite like craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy but i havent in a very long time, i still pick a great deal but it is nowhere near as bad as when i was young. like the posters said above, do things to keep your hands/mouth busy and every time you catch yourself about to bit move your hand away from your mouth and tell youself NO. give yourself time but itll work, worked for me.

[Maroney555]

Great, thanks everyone! I am gonna go to Rite Aid to pick up some pictures and I will check the aisles for that polish.

 

Unfortunately, chewing gum and painting them doesn't work, or is a temporary fix if anything, so I will try that nasty nail polish stuff

 

Thanks everyone Hopefully I can be a success story.

 

I can't even scratch my dogs or do dishes with a scrubby

 

It also sucks because at work we use touch screens and it's sad when it hurts to put food orders in...omg so sad hahaha

[BellaDonna]

The best cure for me was to get fake nails put on (you can get short ones).

 

Also, when I don't have the acrylics on then I keep a nail file handy so that if I discover a rough edge I file it right away and reduce the temptation to mess with it.

 

A lot of nail biting happens when you are not paying attention and in a sort of auto-pilot mode (thinking about something that makes you nervous, watching TV, etc.) Try to be more mindful of when you tend to bite your nails the most. Ask yourself: Am I nervous about something? What are my nails trying to tell me?

[Ac143]

I use to bite my nails like crazy for many years. None of those "stop biting your nails" things worked for me. I know it might sound silly, but I started to get my nails done every 2 weeks for the last few years now to stop from doing it, at first that didnt work either cause I would take them off lol but eventually I stopped doing that cause I felt bad I was throwing away money & hey they looked nice. And now even if I dont get them done, I dont have the urge to bite them anymore. Might work...

[Mavh25]

Yeah, go to your local pharmacy and get this stuff called "BITE IT"

 

I have bitten for 20 years and this really works. Its farkin disgusting.

 

I got into the habit of picking it off, so if you do that too, always re-paint it straight away.

[Maroney555]

Ya, acrylics work...then I take them off, paint them, enjoy the growth for a day or two, then bite hahahaha. My fiancee offers to pay for them so I will stop biting, but usually I don't have time to sit in a chair for an hour.

 

I think I will pick off the yucky polish stuff, too...knowing me. I will definitely try it though and just like keep it handy 24/7 or something.

[ur02111222]

My mom never had nice nails up until earlier this year. She'd always picked and chewed and filed them off. Then she started reading the nail threads on a makeup forum.

 

Nail polish. Befriend it. Paint your nails crazy colors, keep them painted, and they'll start to grow out. Base coat, two thin layers of color, and put on a fast dry top coat while the colored coat is still slightly wet. Use a glob. They dry really quick. Fast coats work well as long as you use them on top of nail polish that is still damp.

 

^ same thing as nidania did with the awesome colors. they look pretty when they grow out and you'll like them too much to bite them!

[hers]

I am a nail biter too. I'm currently in a biting hiatus. What made me stop was a lesbian telling me that lesbians keep their nails short like that and since I have an insecurity of appearing like a lesbian (since I'm a natural tomboy), I stopped biting immediately. That was in april. Not saying it's the same for you, haha, but that's what's working for me now.

 

Also what I'm doing now is keeping them filed very short and fine. If any little piece is jagged or if they're rounded oddly, I'll want to bite them. If they're long enough that I can see them over the tips of my fingers, I file them. I file them down as far as I would if I were to bite them, but it's much less painful.

 

Try filing them a lot. Like daily if you have to. Give yourself nothing to chew on.

 

I've tried that nasty polish stuff and it didn't work for me. Well, it did work. About 6 times. I always went back to biting. Filing them very short is the longest method I've gone with, I've discovered.