Can't stop biting my fingernails!

LegacyUser

Ill keep this short - all my life Im biting my nails and even more so in the last few months, Im now doing it when I dont even realise Im doing it! Id love long nails...
Any suggestions on how to stop?(im 27 yr old f)

mayordenis

I'm 22 and a lad, so obviously not a big deal for me -
Not 100% if this would count as medical advice or not - so apologies if it is, but the awful tasting nail varnish stuff you can get in pharmacies worked for me in the past - I find myself it's just down to realising before you start biting what your about to do, and stoping. If you were to look into that remember to never eat anything not using a knife and fork, the taste really is horrendous.

Daemos

Not being funny, but have you tried chewing gum? It worked for me when I tried to stop biting my lip.

Ann22

If you can manage to grow them a tiny bit, paint them a nice colour so you've a little bit of pride in them and carry an emery board everywhere with you so that if you feel a sharp edge you can file it off instead of being compelled to bite it off. I go through spells of picking the skin around my thumbnails..it's terrible. I have to keep plasters on them until they're fully healed then I'm grand but if I get the tiniest little cut or anything that I can feel an edge on I just can't keep away from it and before long I'm mutilating myself.

CorkLady1983

try gel nails for a while, get tips put on, they are a bit thicker than regular nails so if you try to bite, you're going to end up chipping you teeth. A friend of mine used have that problem - that's what she did as well...

Nailzone in clerys are very good if you are considering this option...

Splendour

CorkLady1983 wrote: »

try gel nails for a while, get tips put on, they are a bit thicker than regular nails so if you try to bite, you're going to end up chipping you teeth. A friend of mine used have that problem - that's what she did as well...

Nailzone in clerys are very good if you are considering this option...

Sounds like a good option though if there's a possibility you ight end up chipping your teeth, I'm not so sure...

Buy cheap false nails and stick 'em on; eventually your nails will grow under them. I had one or two chewed nails and this worked for me. Funny when the nails were long, I never was inclined to bite them.

Pinky Pixie

Get a hair bobbin and put it on your wrist. Everytime you even think about bitting them or have bitten them and realised, snap the bobbin as hard as you can. Okay it sound awful. But it really works I got a friend to do it too and it worked for her...so give it a try You subconsiously teaching yourself to stop!

PCPhoto

use clear varnish on your nails - the taste will eventually stop you from biting them

Stheno

I am a chronic nail biter.

I have tried all of the above and none of them worked.
I've also tried going for a manicure each week so that shelling out cash for nice nails would make me stop.

I ate the nasty tasting stuff, chewed off gel nails, tore off the bobbin on the wrist, ate the nice nail polish off then had a pleasant chew on my nails, spat out chewing gum, tore off the plasters, everything.

I'm now in the middle of a "just stop eating your nails" venture. I've not eaten them for two weeks, as I just decided not to. My nails are very weak due to years of my chewing them, but they are growing.

regardless of what makes you stop or what inducement you use, you need to want to stop full stop, otherwise you'll still keep at it.

Just imo.

R.D. aka MR.D

try keeping one and once that has grown keep a second one and so on.

this worked for my mum.

hasn't worked for me because i am an unconscious biter!

CaptainSkidmark

i used always be doing it, i'd feckin bite so low it used bleed, but i got a nail varnish over the counter. its clear stuff and by god you will think twice about biting it again if you do bite it.

im a 25 yo male but i had no bother wearing it because it was not shiny and transparent

dlambirl

I suppose i'm a fine one to talk because i take fits of biting my nails and then growing then, biting them, etc....


If you rub nail varnish remover on your nails, or the stuff you can get in the chemist, the taste is horrid and could put you off biting them..........you just have to remember to keep it applied!!

Also, what i do is paint my nails and instead of biting my nails i chip the paint off. Works for me.

My one downfall is that my nails are so weak and split and break once they get long........any tips on how to strengthen them??

c montgomery

You can get a coating that you put on your nails that tastes horrible. Its odourless and colourless so no one will know and you yourself will not even notice it. However when you go to bite them the taste is so offputting that you will defo stop doing it.

Also maybe carry a pen with you and chomp on the top of that.
Try and get out of the habit of biting on stuff tho, ruin you teeth and then youll be on the dental forum:)

kelle

I've bitten mine since I got teeth (according to Mum, Lord rest her) and I'm now 38.
All those solutions that taste horrible didn't do me any good as I got used to the taste.
the only time I seem to stop is when I take up knitting, or something that requires me to use my fingers a lot so I'm not thinking about biting my nails. Of course, it's not practical to knit all the time, so it's not a longterm solution.

tinkerbell

I can never understand the nail biting thing, I actually don't think I could bite my nails! Anyway ... start off with leaving one nail out of your "must-bite" list ... if you get the urge to bite, then bite your other nails but not that one nail that is on the not-allowed list. Bring a nail file around with you so that if you get a sharp edge, you can file it down rather than biting it.

Then after a week or so, you'll see your one nail starting to look nice again and you'll be all proud that it looks so nice. Now add another nail to the not-allowed list and only let yourself bite the other nails (if you must).

Repeat until you have all the nails on the not-allowed list.

CorkLady1983

don't think you'd actually chip your teeth I don't think, I was working on something there one day at work, and started sucking on one of my nails subconsiously, the surface is smooth so I don't think you tend to start biting them...because they look so pretty...

Nevyn

Make sure you wash your hands after eating so that your nails don't taste like food.
If you have an oral fixation then find something else to chew or nibble on.