Do you think having bitten nails is like an advertisment, that your not confident

[JennyTals]

You’re
What do you think ?

No, I’d say it’s an indicator that the person experiences stress or anxiety, which is totally different from having or being confident.

I bite my nails because I really dislike the white bit of the nail. Especially when it's uneven and I'm too lazy to be filing them continually.

I can stop biting my nails whenever but I hate the feeling of them when they're too long (which is normal size for most people!).

The nail biters I know are all anxious. They can stop but if their stress flares up they find it soothing to bite their nails again

Not necessarily. Can just be down to boredom.

All of the nail bitters I know suffer with anxiety, so that would be my assumption (rightly or wrongly).

No, I bit my nails until I was about 15.

I've always been confident, but it just became a habit.

I feel this about myself, my natural nails are horrible and I feel shame about them. I do feel it's like an advert of my insecurity. So I have my nails done every couple of weeks and it makes me feel more confident.
I'm glad previous replies don't agree.

I don't notice people's nails so no idea

No, I'm pretty confident. I'm just a natural fidget and something of a neurovore.

No, more an advertisment of their poor personal hygiene. It's disgusting.

I am quite anxious, but I think I just bite my nails because I enjoy it. I don’t stop doing it when I’m less anxious.

Teen DD is a nail biter and is self confident and very rarely anxious. She's just a fidget, and now it's a habit ☹️

Nail biting is usually linked to anxiety and confident people are generally less anxious the unconfident ones.

I used to bite my nails when I was a kid, and would twiddle my hair constantly too, much to my parents' annoyance.

I have, many decades later, discovered that I have autism. So no, I don't think you can look at people's bitten nails and make an assumption that it is anxiety or shyness, or a lack of confidence.

I bite my nails, I’m neither un confident nor anxious. I do have ADHD though and I’ve read it’s linked to that.

It’s the fidgety people in general. I bit them when I am sat down if I am not doing something else with my hands. I can grow them but have to be crafting or something so I don’t have to sit still.

I don't think so, it can be a self-soothing behaviour, but I bit my nails for 30 years, it just became habitual, as I was reading a book or watching television, I didn't really notice I was doing it. I'm the least stressed or anxious person you could meet.

I gave up about five years ago, just stopped one day, I'm not sure why, but it wasn't correlated to anything that was happening in my life or associated stress levels.

It's a stim. It might be an indicator you should go and get assessed for autism or adhd.

I still twiddle my hair! It's very soothing.

I'm NT to the best of my knowledge, it just appears I indulge in self-soothing behaviours, (see also, smoking!).

I'm also not lacking in confidence!

All 4 of us siblings are nail biters. I've always been anxious but my siblings aren't at all, they are all confident, good looking, good jobs, successful relationships, happy childhoods. I think it's genetic for us.

I've managed to stop but the 3 of them have awful bitten nails still.

I have fairly good nails, but I do suffer with anxiety a bit and I'm not the most confident of women, so I don't think your theory holds water.

Nah, I bite my nails because I have ADHD, I'm very confident in myself

I have autism and one of my big problems is nail biting and a skin picking disorder. It look horrendous and I frequently get really bad infections. One job I had a few years ago I had to leave as customers complained (a cafe)

I was talking about this with dh the other day ,back in the 70s it wasn't unusual at all to have bitten nails. When ds was about 7 I only knew one little girl who bit her nails but she was very anxious so I associate it with that.

I was a biter as a child, as an adult I have really long natural nails but I have to be careful not to snag them or the temptation to bite them all off comes flooding back. I always carry a nail file in my bag and I have a baby's nail clipper on my keyring too on case I break a nail.

I like having long nails as my hands look like my grandmother's and my Aunt's and they were/ are very glamorous. Unfortunately that's where the family resemblance stops 😉