I can't stop biting my nails! This is an awful habit, I've kicked it before, but now it's back. Any ideas?

As a child I was a nail biter. As a teen, I grew long, beautiful nails. At some point I started biting again and resorted to artificial nails. Even after the fake nails, I've been able to remove them and grow natural nails. Of course I was taking prenatal vitamins at the time during pregnancy with my son(s). Now I refuse to go back to artificial nails and I am too embarrassed to go get manicures because my nails are so awful. I chew them down to the point that they are sometimes painful. When I can no longer bite the nail edge, I start to peel layers and bite my cuticles. My nails are in the worst shape of my life. I'm 31 years old and cannot stop this nasty habit.I can't stop biting my nails! This is an awful habit, I've kicked it before, but now it's back. Any ideas?
I am 29 and have had the same problem---I have come to the conclusion that it is a nervous habit that can be caused by stress, anxioty, restlessness, and very often bordem...I have been an on and off again bitter since I was little also. I tried everything too---fake nails, I tried ';NO BITE'; that they sell at walgreens but could not use it because I cook alot. I finally stopped after I got really sick one time---I am a healthy person and think I got sick from putting my nasty hands in my mouth all of the time. After that it was all a mental thing with me ---everytime I went to bit I thought ';OH MY GOD WHERE HAVE YOUR HANDS BEEN'; yuk, discusting, gross, ewwwww....I have gorgeous nails now and don't even think about bitting anymore. I am really surprised I did not cause permanent damage to my nails because I did the same thing you do--bit till I couldn't bit anymore nail then I would peel the nail -God when I think about it I make myself sick it's like self mutilation bleeding and all yuk!


Hope this helps.I can't stop biting my nails! This is an awful habit, I've kicked it before, but now it's back. Any ideas?
My aunt had that problem %26amp; she woudl bite them in her sleep . SO she wore mittens to bed. Or put something nasty on your finger nails like a hot sauce or something so your tounge wont want to touch them !
you can put your nails into the kid stuff where it tastes bad if you try and bit them you could but nail polish on them that helps the growing process
There are nail ';polishes'; out there that taste HORRIBLE for nail biters to kick the habit. Just paint your nails with the terrible tasting polish and you shouldn't want to put them in your mouth... hopefully, after a while, you will forget about biting them alltogether!
Clip them so you don't have much to tempt you to bite. You could also cover you nails with bandages.
Buy clear nail polish and stick some small Pisces of garlic... As soon you start biting your nails you'll taste a nasty flavor
Go to Sally's Beauty Supply and buy Orly nail biter top coat ($3.99) you will kick the habit so fast. that stuff makes your nails taste horrible and you can put it over your polish or on top of artificial nails. Good luck
You are biting you're nails either out of;


-Boredom,


-Nerves,


-Comfort,





Here are some cool tricks to stop the habit.





*A Little Pain:





Keeping a elastic band around the wrist was another trick that was popular. Every time you find you find yourself nibbling... you snap it. As an recovered nail biter, I don't think I like this one.





*A Tennis Ball:





Keeping the hands occupied was another trick that often worked. It seems that if the hands had something to do, the nails were left alone.





*Paint Them Nasty:





There are products still on the market that you paint onto the nails and the nasty taste is supposed to make you quit.





*Chew Gum:





This actually makes sense. If you are busy chewing gum, you are less likely to nibble.





*Keeping Them Polished:





It seems that nails that have been groomed will slow down the urge to bite. It might have something to do with the sudden improvement in the appearance of the nails.








Hope i help.
When I was in college, I took a Behavioral Psychology class. Our project for the semester was to pick some behavior about ourselves that we wanted to change. I chose nail biting.





I had bitten my nails since I was in elementary school.





The first thing you have to do is setup a system of rewards and punishments.





I decided that I would paint my nails and if I bit even one nail, I would have to take all the polish off of all the nails and redo them, causing me to have to spend lots of time to repair the damage.





I was using the Mary Kay nail system at the time and it had like 5 steps to it, so it was really time intensive. It started working and I stopped biting my nails because it was a real pain in the butt to repolish all the nails.





But, what happened was I started a new behavior of chipping the polish off. I used the same logic with that behavior and if I chipped the polish off even one nail, I would have to redo them all.





We learned that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. I broke the habit of biting nails, and then of chipping the polish. This was all accomplished in one month.





To this day, I still do not bite my nails. That experiment was over 15 years ago.





Best of luck.
I'm the same way! it's so embarrassing to have such awful nails. Artificial nails worked for me for a while but eventually I chewed those up too. That 'no bite' nail polish that tastes awful helped me temporarily kick the habit a few years ago. Unfortunatly, im back to my old ways...must be something psychological...
just smear your fingertips with some bitter solution such as neem , a natural bittr tasting plant.When you bite the nail next time your tastebuds will get a rude shock and this nturn will stop your instinct to bite the nails!