For anyone who is a habitual nail biter and found a way to stop, what did you do?

I got manicures and painted my nails because if they looked nice I wouldn’t bite them. But, I think you’re a guy so I doubt that’d help :/

I don’t bite my nails, I pull them off so they aren’t long. What I did was I cut the insides of my nails with razor blades so every time I tried to pull or bite at them, it’d burn like shit. I’d also put things like jalepeno juice or lemon on them just to keep me from tugging at them.

@redfeather thanks anyways though!

@KatetheGreat are you also a masochist? lol jk!

@Schroedes13 Well how’d ya know!? Hey, it works.

@KatetheGreat I don’t doubt it works. I tried it with cayenne pepper….but now I like spicy foods!

I developed ANOTHER obsessive compulsive disorder to take some weight off my nails, hope you do better than I did!

Former nail biter here. It seems like two things come to mind that eventually got me to stop. One was admiring the normal and relatively perfect shape of others’ nails. The other was observing those that bit their nails in public. It took several years in order to get over it on my own.

I was also a former thumb-sucker until a sister put a stinky brother’s sock on my hand when I went to sleep. I would love to see if there is some relatively current study on this ‘oral fixation’ disorder.

Try oiling up your hands and nails with olive oil. I use to use olive oil to help my nails to grow. It worked but I never could get around the smell factor. It may keep you from biting them off for a while as your nails grow. The manicure thing worked for my daughter. It only took her about a month to get over bitting her nails. She briefly went into hair twirling but that didn’t last long because she hates messing up her hair. She’s been nail bite free for a year now.
I wish you luck. I know how fustrating it can be.
Maybe you can try a hypnotist.

Good old fashioned willpower… and clear nailpolish.

I still bite them when I get really stressed out, though. That’s the fastest way to tell that I’m under a lot of stress for anyone that knows me. It hasn’t been a compulsive issue for me for many years, though. I just tried to be more conscious of what I was doing.

The awful tasting No Bite nail polish. It also helped me loose weight because I couldn’t eat any finger food at all because everything I touched tasted bad. So beware.

Also pure vanity.

@athenasgriffin does it come in a clear version?

@Schroedes13 most brands that make a “No Bite” polish offer it in clear.

just asking…..lol gosh!

…I was just answering your question…

okie dokie! Thanks!

I bit my nails until I was 12. I think I decided I really didn’t want my fingers to look like that. My vanity was stronger than my bite.

@redfeather that was a relatively recent endeavor for you, wasn’t it? Did you quit biting? Yay for you!

Hand sanitizer! It leaves an awful taste on your hands.

@ANef_is_Enuf I had the longest prettiest nails and would literally sit and stare at them, then one day I was so mad and stressed I bit them all off. I fell off the bandwagon, man. I’m currently in the “paint them a different color every day” phase.

My parents tried “no bite” on me when I was a kid. It only gave me more work to do.

One thing that can work is wearing a hair tie or rubber band on your wrist. Every time you catch yourself biting, snap. ..depends on how you feel about negative reinforcement..

I thought I was a hopeless nailbiter, but now I hardly do it at all anymore! However, I don’t think you probably want to use my method, which was to develop digestive problems, become paranoid about putting little sharp chunks of nail into my digestive tract/introducing bacteria into my system from my hands, and cease nail biting out of fear.

If you can manage not to bite them for a week or two, your nails should get strong and hard and biting them will feel gross, like you’re going to break your teeth, and the annoying little edges you always want to bite at will wear away, and you probably won’t want to do it so much anymore.

@Schroedes13 why do you bite your nails? Do you not notice you’re doing it? Or you feel an edge you want to nibble off or something? You could carry a nail file for the edge and something to keep your hands busy for the mindless chewing

@rOs that is a great idea!

@redfeather I don’t do it subconsciously. I just feel the edges of the nail and it starts to annoy me. Ya I’ve tried the nail file, but I didnt find it worked for me.

However, today, I cut my nails with a nail clipper for the first time ever!!!! WOOHOO!!

@Schroedes13 I loved when mine were long enough to clip! Yay!!!!!

Drastic measures worked for me, I put bandaids on all of fingers for a while til I got out of the habit. It worked…

Just having this discussion made me catch myself chewing on them. I have to consciously remind myself not to, no matter how long it’s been. lol.