Good way to stop nail biting?

[Blueobelisk]

Cut your hands off.

I was gonna say just cut your fingers off.

I don't get the nail biting habit. Never happened to me. I actually bite the back of my finger on the bottom by the knuckle though. Not hard, just when I'm thinking. Who bites their nails though? Your fingers always touch dirty stuff. That's gross to a germophobe like me.

[Deleted]

When I was younger I used to do that a lot. In fact, I didn't just bite my nails, I used gnaw at the skin around my nails as well, often leaving me with ripped up fingers, lol.

I was given some special nail varnish so that if I bit my fingers I'd get a bad taste in my mouth. Can't remember if it worked, but it should.

[The Ogdru Jahad]

I bit my nails for years, finally got this terrible tasting stuff to put on them and I quit real fast. It's bitter and even just a slight touch of your lips to your nail causes you to taste it and stop.

Trust me, it works.

[Lilly32]

what I really cant understand is I managed to kick Xanax, Klonopin, and Alcohol after only a few weeks having been drinking for 15 and taking the pills for 10 years yet I cant stop biting my nails. Managed to stop drinking without rehab or any intervention just quit. The benzos needed some assistance to overcome withdraw symptoms but still never needed help other than 2 weeks of valium. I can quit 2 of the hardest things to quit (Benzos and Alcohol) but I cant stop biting my nails. Does that make sense to anyone?

[Raptor With a Saber]

Easy answer cut off the finger tips, Hard answer use a nail clipper instead can you believe those things cost like 5$ for something so damn cheap that it can replaced by something your body has. Fun answer hire someone to bite them for you and walk around all royal like.

[Syenite]

Do what everyone else seems to be doing. Get a diagnosis - as far as i remember psychiatrist deem nailbiting a psychological disorder...

[Yunru]

Anything with bad taste works agaist nail biting.
If you hate some fruit for example put your finger in juice and dont remove it. Because the brains will think that the nails have a taste of something you hate, they will stop doing that. (you can always replace it with something stronger)

[Conspicuous Cultist]

I was gonna say just cut your fingers off.

I don't get the nail biting habit. Never happened to me. I actually bite the back of my finger on the bottom by the knuckle though. Not hard, just when I'm thinking. Who bites their nails though? Your fingers always touch dirty stuff. That's gross to a germophobe like me.

I agree, as a fellow germanphobe I can't understand how people can bite their nails when there's still the holy roman empire looming over the horizon.

[Mars_Trueskills]

Take some chillies, (birds eye will do) Cut them up and rub em' all over your nails :P That'll stop ya'

[Lilly32]

Get a diagnosis - as far as i remember psychiatrist deem nailbiting a psychological disorder...

dont they deem everything these days to be some type of disorder?

[OneSent]

Try using nail clippers and clip your nails to the point where there is nothing to chew on. I tend to always clip off the "white" part of the nail, but be careful not to go too short or it they feel sore. Keep these nail clippers with you at all times and whenever you get the urge to bite you nails, just clip them instead.

It will take your mind off of biting them and also distract your mind from being nervous. Eventually, not biting your nails will become habit and your problem will be solved naturally. Plus, your nails won't look absolutely disgusting anymore, lol.

I used to prefer biting my nails off when I was younger but, I think I stopped biting them right around the time I started to use the nail clippers. This was about 14 years ago and I haven't put my nails into my mouth since. Hope this helps!

[Revik]

I used to be a chronic nail biter. Bled all over the place. I have many memories of torn nail pain. Ugh. I would find some small piece of nail (or skin beside the nail) that was out of place and I just HAD to "fix" it. Naturally, teeth can't do this, so I would end up making the problem much worse and causing myself a lot of pain in the process. It was a terrible OCD thing.

I tried the "horrible tasting nail paint" stuff. It didn't work. I continued biting, except now it tasted terrible when I did.

Eventually I started carrying around a pair of nail clippers on my keychain. When I found a hangnail (or whatever), I would just clip them off and move on with my life. Yeah, I'm that douchebag who pulls out a pair of clippers in public. It's not like I do a full clipping in the middle of Walmart, but I do pop em out now and then to cut an OCD-inspiring nail. It's saved me a TON of pain over the last decade.

I totally know this. While I didn't have a nail biting problem I have awfully dry skin so the skin around my nails were prone to peeling. Like you I have this OCD perfectionism and when something was out of place or peeling I had to fix it. Unfortunately for me it wasn't just an oral thing. My fingers would probe my other fingers but thumb especially and anything that didn't feel right I would pick at it with my other fingers.

I've only been on the wagon for a month now after having done it for 20+ years. My wife got so pissed at me never being able to stop that she sliced her finger with a knife. Extreme I know but so far its worked. If this doesn't fix me I may have to go with cutting my hands off.

[DismalNether]

I solved this problem by destroying the environment, whenever I get an urge to bite my nails I take one of those plastic water bottles and take the cap off and chew on it while I drink water. Now I just have this bad habit of chewing water bottle caps.

[AeneasBK]

ear wax
nuff said

[zaaz]

girlfriend used to use this shit called nibble no more or something to that effect

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Think long and hard about all the shit that is underneath your fingernails, that is what worked for me.

[Deleted]

Better than punching random strangers

[Deleted]

Boxing gloves, they also prevent other habits too.

That however encourages the habit of boxing, and instead of bitten nails you might end up with a bitten ear, and skull trauma.

[N-7]

Wash your hands with lemon juice everytime you do it. :P

[dontknowdoya]

As a person who resently stopped biting nails.
The way I did was simple. Every night before going to bed I was saying for 5min "I am gonna stop biting my nails, I am gonna stop biting my nails."

2 days later I stopped biting the nails off. 1 month down the line where i am right now. I occasionally bite the nails but i stop right away. I am actually forced to cut my nails with a nail cutter for the first time in 17 years.

By biting them i mean put my teeth on the nail and then biting down but before I atually bite through i stop.

^^Best suggestion on this thread^^

Short of putting something that tastes bad on your fingers, mental enforcement may be the key. Mental enforcement can be very effective on a lot of things. When you start nail biting, think "stop" several times over. A friend of mine had a kid that kept wetting the bed and there was no physical reason for it. I told the kid to think "stop" and "wake up" over and over again when ever he went to the restroom to urinate. It stopped shortly there after. My conjecture was he needed to use the restroom and was dreaming about it. The icing on that cake is most of us do not remember our dreams.

The mind can be a screwed up thing. When you start nail biting it is likely something that you initiate on a subconscious level; stop yourself and tell your sub conscious who is boss.