Picture this ..
 

.. You've been chewing your fingernails as long as you can remember.
All of a sudden you feel like stopping, and you get more and more proud of seeing your nails grow. Ofcourse you cut and file your nails, but they are still a bit longer then you are used to.

So this one night, as you go very tired to bed, you need to take your lenses out. You stick your index finger and your thumb into your eye, as you are used to.
You start squeezing them together around the lense, it bends .. and Slips .. and you don't notice it before you pinched yourself right on the eyeball ...

The next day you wake up with chewed down nails again ....

.. who said anything about a clever subconsciousness ??

I used to chew my nails for years. It was to the point, they looked really bad and disgusting. Chewing your fingernails is a very hard thing to quit. For the longest time, i would sometimes wake up with scratch marks on my body. I didnt know what it came from. After months, i figured out that it was due to me chewing my nails. It would make my nails really sharp in some places. Now i just file them and use nail clippers.

HAHAH! That is the funniest story ever! My nails have always been kind of long, and nothing like that has ever happened to me :) I check my cuticles sometimes tho, and I play with my hair in a bad way. So we all have our little quirks. Oh,and I chew on my lips.... K, I'll stop now :)

Christ on a cracker, my anus just squeezed shut thinking about pinching my eyeball...

I chewed my nails religiously until my dentist pointed out last year that I am wearing down my teeth from biting my nails. I quit cold turkey after that. They look nicer, and itches are easier to deal with. Every couple of weeks I take clippers to them. It was easy to quit with the right reason.

I bit my nails when I was in grade school, got way too many hangnails from it and just grew out of it i guess. I have friends who still do it constantly though, it's nasty when they go spitting their nail clippings around the place though.

and lol gilada nice response.

I bite my nails. I have for 30 years. Never even gave it a second thought to quit. As far as the ragged cut. I put my nail vertical against my canine and the tooth next it and file em down smooth. It took my wife 3 years to figure out I even chewed them. She never knew.

I wish I could chew on my big toe nail. It looks so thick and tasty.

Really, I am just kidding about the toe nail.

Apex Shok... one word. Yoga.

I've also been chewing my nails as long as I can remember, but recently I've tried to stop. Whenever I get really stressed out though I find myself chewing them without even thinking about it, sometimes to where it is painful. Anyone have any tips for stopping?