Nail Biting....
 

Ok, so I have a really bad habit of biting my finger nails. I've done it all my life and every time I try to stop I always end up doing it again. And I just don't bite them a little, I'll bite them down until they are sore. I was wondering if any of you all have had this problem and what you did to stop it. My Mom said to chew gum all the time but that doesn't work very good for me. Any suggestions or comments would be great, Thanks All.

No offense, but to me, that is disgusting.
I think I heard about putting some stuff on your finger nails that tastes really nasty so you won't want to bite them.

I try not to bite my nails after i scratched myass. It tastes funny ..

.. Other then that, i try to stop biting nails. I've been doing it since i was veeery young.

there's a sort of 'nail polish' you can buy...it's clear, and it's not noticable or anything so you wont look girly. How it works is...it tastes AWFUL. a friend of mine had the habit, used it for less than a month...prolly just a week or two, and never bit his nails again. unfourtunately he never remembers to cut them so he's got nails a mile long which is just as annyoing as biting them...but thats another story.

I've tried 3 of those producsts, and i like the taste of em all :) ..
Dunno why they make stuff that tastes like apples :)

I used to bite my nails, and still do very occasionally when I'm drunk, but I much prefer having healthy-looking, decent-length fingernails. I tried the foul-tasting stuff and found I just got used to the bitter taste, so the only thing that actually worked for me was wanting to stop. As soon as I put in some effort I broke the habit. That probably doesn't help you, sorry :-/

I used it, worked for me.. got me hooked on getting manicures now. I went from nasty nails to "is he gay" nails.

And no I'm not.

wear gloves?

I had this problem too, and well, never tried any of those products, or what not, I'd just out of habit chew my nails. Well, one day one of my female friends who was introducing me to one of her female friends (very pretty woman) pulled me aside and said "you're chewing your nails, that's disgusting". Well... It's not like I stopped immediately right then, but I became aware of it. If I found myself chewing my nails I'd make a note of it and stop, I told a couple of my closest buddies about it, and how I was going to try and stop, and well if they happened to notice me chewing my nails they'd let me know. And now, well, I find my nails get rather long, and there's a girl at work who says "You need to cut your nails!!" so, I cut them the next day. I'd probably still be a frequent nail-biter today if I hadn't been pulled aside and told about it, and I'm glad she didn't just blurt it out, she pulled me aside and told me, blurting it out would have just embarrased me and I'd probably forget about it after the fact.

Pretty much, although it seems like a small minor bad habit, I must say friends helped me out quite a bit with quiting.

finger condoms.
have a friend punch you each time you bite your nails. pavlovian effect after a while...well, maybe.

I don't think my post was very helpful...sorry.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I haven't bit them for 3 whole days, lol

I second the punch technique. My friend gave me permission to punch him in the face everytime he bit his nails. Doesn't bite his nails around me anymore. He just bites them before he sees me, probably from being nervous I might punch him.

Just kidding. My advice is similar to the ones above.

Good luck.

OH wait! Try looking at yourself in the mirror. They say that'll gross you out like it grosses people out when they see you bite your nails.

yah, i've been biting my nails since i was 6... and the only time i was able to stop biting them for a significant amount of time was when i went on a serious smoking bienge (wacky tobbacy, mind you). stopped biting them for a month and then just went back on biting them. so the lesson of my story is: drugs are conducive to learning and bettering ones self.

-alec

Try sticking them in nail polish remover! that stuff tastes horrible! You dont wanna bite that....

i am definitely going to try some of that bad tasting nail polish stuff :D

Get braces on your teeth. That's pretty much how I broke the habit. Also keep a nail clipper with you so you can repair any jagged nails that might tempt you to bite them. I always used to try to 'fix' any chipped nails by biting them.

Been doing it for as long as I remember.. My wife hates it.. I managed to stop once for about a month.. but fell right off the wagon again.. Wish I could stop.. I often catch myself doing it completely unaware until my wife mentions it to me..

Just the way I am.. An nervous teitch if you will.. Beter then tourettes I guess

Yup, it helps a lot. Now I only bite them when Im really nervous:(

I'm hopelessly addicted, I even bite the dead skin at the corner of my nails.

You bite your cuticles? Wow. That's gross. :D

I think to stop nail biting, the manicure thing is a good idea (even for men) at least every few weeks. The reason is that you invest time and money to have your fingernails look nice... so you'll notice them every time you go to bite and hopefully decide otherwise. Eventually you learn to take better care of them.

I have been bitting my nails forever, and I hate the habit. Every time I try and quit, something bad happens and im right back in the habit. So tomorrow I am going to give this nail stuff a shot. Thanks for the advice, I will let you know how it goes.

I'm a biter too. I'm going to give plummie's advice a shot though...

olllld thread i know but im a biter :( i quit for a lil bit but started again :(

i have tried everything and nothing works at all, the gross tasting stuff dident taste bad to me either lol, its so frusterating.

it got to the point where i would just sit on my hands so i couldent bite them lol, long story short need to quit the habbit, my hands look horrible and its incredibly hard to pick up coins :S

I have been a biter since I was like 2..my mother was a biter as well. I still bite...I don't think it's disgusting...I wash my hands constantly and am veryvery rarely sick.

when people give me shit..I give them shit about thier smoking and drug habits...I think everyone should have one vice..and mine harms noone.

try rubbing soap under them...I've never heard of specific products for this...but I have heard soap works. I used to bite, but quit on my own..I don't remember how.

I was a biter years ago. I just decided that I didn't want to do it anymore. Now I file my nails and take care of my cuticles so they look good. I also get an occassional manicure.

I've been an on and off biter for years. I stopped because I was really getting sick of what my hands were saying about me. I can be an anxious and worry type of person so I think my biting was centred around that.

I have not bitten for about a year, but I have kept biting my right index finger so all my nails are long except my 'busy finger'... it's also the weakest whenever I try to grow it.. it will split or grow out funny so I just use that one to bite if I'm having one of my moments..

Me and my friend tried that to stop him drinking. Unfortunatly me punching him would descend into him punching me back, and then me punching him for punching me for punching him because he was drinking and so on and so forth.
It worked in the end, sort of. :crazy:


I don't really bite my nails, i sort of attack them with my other nails, so i'm not too sure how to stop. I destroy them all the time, wether i'm nervous or happy (in fact both of these make it worse), upset or bouncing around the walls. I've given up trying to stop, my nails are healthy if small so i'm not to bothered. If you have a problem with my nails being small, fuck off. :)

I quit biting my nails by taking care of them. Once I started taking care of them...I liked the way they looked so much I didn't want to ruin them. And biting nails covered in nail polish tastes NASTY.