Help me stop biting my damn nails.

[Andarvi]

So, I am turning 24 in less than a month, and have been biting my nails for as long as I can remember. Even went as far as to bite my entire pinky nail off once when I was like 5. It is a disgusting habit and I hate doing it, but I rarely realize when I am doing it and find it nearly impossible to stop.

I read up a bit and see a lot of stuff about hypnosis (fuck that), painting my nails (fuck that), and what I had already known about, stuff you can put on your nails to make them taste like ass. I am more inclined to think the latter of all that would work for me. Has anyone here tried themselves, or known someone who has, to stop biting their nails and found success?

[Correction]

pay for a manicure. You'll not want to fuck up something you spent money on.

[Heavencloud]

I've the same problem but I just peel/pick my nails off so they never grow out... kinda annoying simply because I never have a fingernail to get into a small space to pull shit Don't realize I do it as well... just been a habit for the longest time.

[Moss]

I had this problem when I was a kid, although I never bit my entire nail off. Tried the bad tasting stuff but it didn't work at the time. I eventually just stopped because I became self-conscious enough of how bad it looked and how bad it made my nails look. So yeah, I'm gonna suggest hypnosis .

[Odesseiron]

My friend used to have this problem. He used to put Bacitracin on all of his fingers and whenever he bit them it would taste awful. He did this every day for months and eventually he stopped. Use that or something equally nasty tasting, but harmless. Should work.

[Wakabo]

I use to bite mine till 15~? I eventually just noticed how shitty it looks afterwards and stopped myself by remembering how it looked. A few times after that I maybe bit a few times but other than that. I didn't do it anymore.

It's for dogs, mom had one that chewed on a chair and used this, eventually the dogged stopped. I tried it, tastes like shit, but it would keep me from doing it.

http://leerburg.com/Photos/BitterApple_01.jpg

[Kirin]

Im 25 and Ive been biting mine just as long as you have yours. If its anything like my habit, you dont realize youre doing it 95% of the time, and the 5% of the time youre doing it, is to smooth out a rough nail and you just end up nibbling on the skin and THEN forget youre doing it. Ive tried all sorts of stuff trying to stop biting:

Cayenne Pepper or that bad tasting clear varnish nail stuff for nailbiters.
Having your family or close friends hit you when you bite.
Having a girlfriend/boyfriend bite you when you start biting.
Gloves. (Yes, ive tried it. Works better during the winter)

But through all this, i still have not kicked it completely but it has been cut down say 80% of how much I was biting and chewing through highschool. Also, I hardly ever bite the skin anymore and the times whenI don't realize im biting i just end up with the nail between my teeth without actually biting.

tl:dr, best solution I've found after 15-20 years of this is simply keeping your nails trimmed rather short and the skin around it clean and neat is to keep multiple nail clippers in places you spend a lot of time. I have one on my desk below my computer screen, one attached to my keyring, and one in my glove compartment in my car.

Also, and while it is considered slightly feminine, a manicure every now and then helps too. Ive had it done once before and it did limit how often I chewed them for a good month.

[Penthesilea]

I bite my nails. I think the longest I've gone without is about a month, and that was a conscious effort. After I chipped a tooth (I drink tons of milk/get lots of Ca, but the tooth was weakened cause I tend to chew on pen caps) I definitely cut back on it.

[lilfoo]

stuff you can put on your nails to make them taste like ass. I am more inclined to think the latter of all that would work for me. Has anyone here tried themselves, or known someone who has, to stop biting their nails and found success?

22 and I still bite my nails out of nervous habit. I tried this. One month later after started I started biting my nails b/c I liked the taste. Switched to a new one and grew to like it as well. This method wont work for subconscious habits.

tl:dr, best solution I've found after 15-20 years of this is simply keeping your nails trimmed rather short and the skin around it clean and neat is to keep multiple nail clippers in places you spend a lot of time. I have one on my desk below my computer screen, one attached to my keyring, and one in my glove compartment in my car.

Preventive medicine is the best medicine for this imo. I still bite my nails but no where near the amount I used to b/c of this.

[Eratosthenes]

Back in elementary school, I was a nail biter. The thing I did to help me quit was keeping my nails neatly trimmed.

Some other things you could try is covering your fingertips with band-aids or tape or something, or picking up a hobby like pottery, sculpting, or gardening which will make you not want to stick them in your mouth.

[deviousone]

I used to have that problem, I'm 22 and I haven't tried to bite any of my nails in the last 7 months. What made me stop was my friend grilling me about how my fingers looked really weird at the tips post-bites.

If the look of your fingers don't get to you, cover them in clear finger nail gloss.

I also knew a friend who warded her finger nail problems off by keeping her hands in her pockets whenever she sat idle watching TV (Since that's when her nails usually ended up in her mouth.)

[thetruepandagod]

I bite my nails and im proud of it. Only downside is i have trouble picking up coins and opening canned food.

[Guitarman]

it's a nervous twitch, so you need to replace that habit with another, less obtrusive habit. I used to grit my teeth endlessly when i was nervous or stressed, which was causing serious damage to my teeth, and now i'm hyper-sensitive to cold/hot/sweets etc. What i did was any time i felt nervous or caught myself gritting my teeth, stop and replace it with another habit, in my case drawing small "s" shapes with my index finger unobtrusively(like with my palm in a loose fist, i'll make the shape with my index finger, no one sees that). Nobody realizes i do it, hell i rarely do, and i don't grind my teeth any more.

[Slapper]

Stick your finger up your ass. No joke

[Guitarman]

Stick your finger up your ass. No joke

http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...erm=rusty+hook

not pleasant.

[Salodin]

I used to bite my nails when I was younger all the time. What helped me was getting braces =) for some reason you just can't successfully bite them with braces on. After almost 2 years of braces and being unable to bite my nails, the urge just went away.

I say try that first, then if that fails try all the other suggestions in the thread.

[Drzoidburg]

I used to bite my nails when I was younger all the time. What helped me was getting braces =) for some reason you just can't successfully bite them with braces on. After almost 2 years of braces and being unable to bite my nails, the urge just went away.

I say try that first, then if that fails try all the other suggestions in the thread.

Until you learn that the braces can be used as wedges for peeling up even more nail >.<.
Do NOT waste your money on InnerTalk shit. Thought it was working for like a month, then realized it was summer and I was stress free. 30 dollars gone.

[Ksandra]

tl:dr, best solution I've found after 15-20 years of this is simply keeping your nails trimmed rather short and the skin around it clean and neat is to keep multiple nail clippers in places you spend a lot of time. I have one on my desk below my computer screen, one attached to my keyring, and one in my glove compartment in my car.

hmm I can't believe I've never tried this but I should. I'm an avid nail biter too and never realize I'm doing it until it's too late. I tried all the other stuff including getting acrylic nails, but even then once the nails are gone I start biting right away.

Hopefully this will help thanks!

[Sol-Blackguy]

I just stopped biting my nails almost a year ago. Best method I found was just to take care them by clipping and filing them down enough so they're not at desirable length to bite. Not sure if this helps, but it sounds much easier than dumping an assload of money into hypnosis just so you can bark every time a phone rings.

[Kaludneisucks]

Will power. Get some. SRSLY THO.. i chew mine, i also shred the inside of my mouth, like my inner cheek, good times...