Biting your fingernails, what's a gentleman to do?

united stars

I have a dirty embarassing nail biting habit. Can not stop. I have practically chewed 2 nails off on my rigt hand. Was with my GP last week and mentioned this , said there was no cure,that it is a nervious habit. This is a cry for help. Thanks.

OldGoat

Going through this with one of my kidlets at the moment. We are using that icky tasting stuff that you get in the chemist to paint her nails. She says it tasts like vomit. :eek:
Habits form over a period of time, 21 being the number that gets bandied about by most. So if you do something 20ish times it becomes a habit. The trick is to make that work the other way around for you. You need to make a habit of NOT biting your nails for 3 weeks. After that it's plain sailing...hopefully.
Good luck.

L31mr0d

Do you have a girlfriend or friend that you spend a lot of time with? Tell them to pinch you on your arm every time they see you biting your nails. It's a form of mild negative reinforcement.

My OH used to bite her nails out of habit and this worked. On top of this I made a point of using positive reinforcement while she wasn't biting them by commenting on how nice her hands looked without puffy fingers and hangnails.

Of course this was consensual and agreed upon between the two of us, she wanted to stop biting her nails, I personally had no issues with it. Under no circumstances should anyone engage in pavlovian conditioning (even mildly) without the other persons consent.

itsallaboutheL

Stop and Grow nail polish stuff is the shizzle

mikom

Google "stink palm"

Will

i've been biting mine most of my life >.< i hate the way they look, usually do it when stressed. tried the stop n grow but bite through it despite the mingin taste. gonna make an effort again to stop, see if this 3 week thing can last

Khannie

Also a biter. I hate it. Maybe we should have a group challenge?

Will

the nba (nail biters association) challenge :pac:

kenon

I used to be a biter too. I made a conscious effort to try and realise when I was doing it and stop. I never really associated it with being a nervous thing either, I think people do it for different reasons. None of that chemist stuff worked either, you just became immune to it and kept on bitin'!

Keeping them cut short also helps until you have broken the habit.

itsallaboutheL

Khannie wrote: »

Also a biter. I hate it. Maybe we should have a group challenge?

bet it got worse after you kicked the smokes?

Arnold Layne

Will wrote: »

i've been biting mine most of my life >.< i hate the way they look, usually do it when stressed. tried the stop n grow but bite through it despite the mingin taste. gonna make an effort again to stop, see if this 3 week thing can last

Likewise, Stop 'n' Grow never worked, I got to like the taste . I stopped for nearly 2 weeks recently, until I was bored, saw my nails, felt like a nibble, back to stumps again:(

OldGoat

Will wrote: »

i've been biting mine most of my life >.< i hate the way they look, usually do it when stressed. tried the stop n grow but bite through it despite the mingin taste. gonna make an effort again to stop, see if this 3 week thing can last

Wot? No WillPower? :rolleyes:

CDfm

It will pass when you grow up:rolleyes:

I have toenails you could make glue from

Stheno

I bit mine all my life until about ten ago when I just decided to stop, and have managed not to bite them since.

I'm 36 and was a chronic nail biter, I chewed through stop and grow, and several times when I got false nails in an effort to stop, I chewed off the false nails including the glue.

For some reason those weeks ago I just decided to stop.

now after about two weeks I had the beginning of nails that didn't look torn and nasty so that helped too, as I could see that they would look much better if I kept on not biting them.

With me it was partly habitual and partly a stress relief thing, I won't say I found it easy to stop, but making up my mind definitively to stop was probably the big difference between now and all the hundreds of times in the past I tried to quit.

Best of luck!

Will

i've gotten to the stage where they're re-growing but i bite mine so bad they get sore when i let em grow, fingers aren't used to having short nails >.<

Stheno

Will wrote: »

i've gotten to the stage where they're re-growing but i bite mine so bad they get sore when i let em grow, fingers aren't used to having short nails >.<

I got that, the sides of the nails kind of bite into the skin and almost rip it??

I learned to file my nails so that they were kind of a semi circle shape, so that the outside that dug into my skin didn't and I got into the habit of not biting them and they grew. Plus filing strengthens your nails, no bad thing after 36 years of biting.

Will

yeah that's it exactly. will have to figure it out, fingers are killing me today, even hurts to type. was late for work (relying on dublinbus :rolleyes: is never good) and had a go at my fingers >.<

Stheno

Will wrote: »

yeah that's it exactly. will have to figure it out, fingers are killing me today, even hurts to type. was late for work (relying on dublinbus :rolleyes: is never good) and had a go at my fingers >.<

I know you might feel a bit unsure about it as a bloke, but I had no clue how to file/manicure my nails when I stopped biting them so I went for a couple of manicures and watched what they did to learn.

A. I learned it, and B. shelling out €20 a pop to do so certainly motivated me not to eat my €20 in the form of my nails

A mens beauty salon might be a place to get a manicure? Most of them do it, and it's usually €15 - €20. They do the filing in such a way that it lasts 10-14 days ime.

When they grow nicely and are nearly at the tip of your fingers, they will look great, and you'll be chuffed. BUT!!!! You'll have to learn to type with them!

Will

I'm fairly insecure about my fingers, don't like anyone looking at em, and the idea of someone else filing away at em doesn't make me feel oh so awesome. Will think about it and see how I do, they've to get long enough first too

Stheno

Good luck I got mine done when they were nearly stumps and felt a bit stupid alright, the person trying to file shape into nothingness

Worked though

Khannie

itsallaboutheL wrote: »

bet it got worse after you kicked the smokes?

Eh. Had to think about it, but I don't think so. When I finally quit smoking, I actually didn't miss it at all. I had been totally convinced by the allan carr method.

mikemac

Eh, no need for me to go unreg I'd say but all the same.....

For as long as I can remember I bite my fingernails.
Mainly in the morning on my 40 minute sloooooooow bus route. If the commuters around me were not happy then I didn't notice.

Bite my nails every day. I'd sometimes peel back part of loose skin on my fingers. In fact, I'd chewed my nails/skin sometimes they bleed!

Some posters will be disgusted, hell I'm pretty disgusted writing this. But I'm not alone.
Or tell me I'm not alone

Any solutions out there. I do think it's a nervous habit.
Like I see smokers who gave up and then go around chewing pens in the office. It's an unconscious habit, they're just simulating smoking. I don't smoke btw

And this is a habit I'd like to kick

Red Hand

Any time you find yourself doing it, subsitute nail-biting with something else that will take concentration. Maybe buy bubblegum, chew it and then try and work it into knots in your mouth?

L31mr0d

was a thread on this recently here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055710404

I_am_Jebus

used to do it years ago myself... filthy habit. Most of the time ya do it without knowing..

It's like any habit, you just have to train yourself to stop doing it. It takes time and effort..

it'll be worth it in the end...

OldGoat

Merged threads.

kaimera

26 and I can't help it.

I've done the 3 weeks but then end up biting them down to nothing again.

Tried the polish stuff when i was younger but took a nail clip to them instead. fail.

mikemac

L31mr0d wrote: »

was a thread on this recently here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055710404

Sorry, didn't see that
Not just to having search function back :pac:

Thanks for merging

miss_feminem

united stars wrote: »

I have a dirty embarassing nail biting habit. Can not stop. I have practically chewed 2 nails off on my rigt hand. Was with my GP last week and mentioned this , said there was no cure,that it is a nervious habit. This is a cry for help. Thanks.

I was the same and to be honest, the only thing that has stopped me biting my nails, was getting braces. Since my front two teeth are being moved I can't really bite the nails.

I find replacing a habit with another habit usually works. Try chewing gum instead

anplaya

I_am_Jebus wrote: »

used to do it years ago myself... filthy habit. Most of the time ya do it without knowing..

It's like any habit, you just have to train yourself to stop doing it. It takes time and effort..

it'll be worth it in the end...

gotta agree with ya there ,bit them for years as a kid,teenager and adult.bit them down to the roots etc,bleeding ,the whole lot as any serious nail biter knows.tried everything to give it up before i realised it was just in my head and i just needed to see that.decided to give up biting them once and for all.harder than it seems but totally worth it.

if ya fail dont be disillusioned ,try and try again.i certainly didnt stop with my first 50 attempts id say down the years but i finally got a handle on it.i like to think it was an insecurity thing that i had when i was growing up that i no longer have,so i dont worry as much so i dont tend to need to bite my nails as a result of that.

best of luck with it.

ash23

Myself, my 2 sisters and my mum have all managed to break the habit in the last year.
I did it by stopping biting 3 fingers on one hand. Made a concentrated effort to avoid biting those 3 fingers. Then when I started seeing progress I stopped biting the same 3 fingers on the other hand. Then the last remaining finger so I could still bite my thumbs and then I stopped biting them too.

I still keep my nails short as I can't type with long nails and they annoy me a bit. I also started getting manicures once they'd grown a bit. Now that they look really well I don't want to bite them.
Well I do. And I'm tempted when I'm stressed out but not as bad as I used to be.

Mackleton

Yep, lifelong nail biter here too. Tried everything, the varnishes, chewing gum, falsies, was able to stop for a month and got to be able to paint them and everything. However my problem comes down to the nail itself being weak and so when they break I am just tempted to even them out and it's a slippery slope from there.

It's a constant source of shame for me, can't stand people looking at my nails and am aware of how unattractive it is. So I'm going to have another go and see how it goes.

Terodil

Posted something along these lines on PI somewhere but can't find it since it's non-searchable :mad:

1. You need to break the habit firstly and most importantly by noticing when you are doing it. The problem is that this habit kicks in subconsciously most of the time. So if you manage to notice what you are doing in exactly the moment you are about to do it, you've already gone half the way. That stuff you can get in the pharmacy may help, concentration and general awareness may be sufficient too.

2. Establish a system of punishments. I did it with a plate of coins -- whenever I realised I had bitten my nails one coin went from the plate into a glass jar. Commit to donating the money to a good cause. Be honest with yourself.

... (I think there was a #3, there should be else this would not be an awesome list but I can't remember it now. Ah well.)

Good luck.

dRNk SAnTA

Glad I found this thread!

I'm 22 and have been biting my nails since I was a kid. I was pretty bad for it, and as a result the tops of my fingers are really fleshy because my nail has been bitten back too far. My friends say I've got suckerpads!

So last Saturday I decided enough was enough, I bought some of the StopnGrow stuff and I haven't bitten my nails since then.

It's hard enough, I still find I'm looking at my fingers all the time trying to find something to bite!

Does anyone know if my finger nails will eventually recover to what a non-biter's look like? Or will I be stuck with my fleshy suckerpads?

BankMan

dRNk SAnTA wrote: »

Glad I found this thread!

I'm 22 and have been biting my nails since I was a kid. I was pretty bad for it, and as a result the tops of my fingers are really fleshy because my nail has been bitten back too far. My friends say I've got suckerpads!

So last Saturday I decided enough was enough, I bought some of the StopnGrow stuff and I haven't bitten my nails since then.

It's hard enough, I still find I'm looking at my fingers all the time trying to find something to bite!

Does anyone know if my finger nails will eventually recover to what a non-biter's look like? Or will I be stuck with my fleshy suckerpads?

Pretty much exactly what i did.I use to bite the nails, and the skin around them! Stopped about two years ago. I basically just decided I was stopping and that was it ! At first I found it a good idea to keep cutting them quite short with nail scissors until I got use to them. They look grand now. I defo found that manky stuff you paint on that tastes like gone off knickers a great help at the start.

dRNk SAnTA

Thanks a lot man, you're right I should keep my nails short for the first while until the habit is properly kicked.

I've tried a couple of times before to give up, but I think it's important to really want to stop. That is the difference for me this time. The foul tasting stuff isn't enough to stop someone who wants to bite their nails from doing it. I try to use it to remind myself that i've just put my nail in my mouth, then I try to distract myself by doing something else.

It's worked for 1 week so far anyway!