To ask if u bite your nails, or used to. How did u stop.

[Alwayssearching]

I always have done it and worse when wound up etc.
To the point they bleed., from cuticle to tip they are 1cm.so very unsightly and yuk

Tried the varnish, fouls tasting stuff. Fidnt work. And would want to use now because of touching the babys items.

I'm getting married next year so I need them to be nice.. Each day I try to stop, my brain thinks ah one more day wont hurt.. Like starting a diet lol
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And above all else. Its a horrible disgusting vile habit..

I used nail wraps on mine to stop me biting them (wasn’t that easy to bite through them) was amazing how quickly they grew. I do now need to always have a wrap or nail polish on though or they break.

I found keeping them painted worked because the smooth feel of the polish reminded me not to chew. I also used the sally Hansen miracle grow stuff because it makes them grow faster and so they start to look nice which is a good motivator! Once they are a bit longer you can also stick on fake nails that aren't chewable which helps a lot.

I read about all the germs that live under your nails and started to realise I was getting a scratchy throat every time I bit them (no idea if this was my brain playing tricks!).

Someone above suggested having one nail that you bite. I soon realised how awful it looked and that was enough to make me stop. I do still pick them when I'm stressed out, so if possible pre-wedding (!) try to keep stress down!

Buy some nice varnishes. File them into neat edges so there's no tempting bits to pick. Realise how satisfying it is to be able to scratch with nails.

And if all that fails, I stuck on fakes for a while to let mine grow a bit underneath. I just needed a boost at the start! But don't keep them on for ages because they ruin your already-weak nails.

Oh and biotin supplements will help them get stronger quicker.

Good luck!

I used to almost chew my fingers off in my teens. My mum made me use that foul-tasting varnish but I got used to the taste and still chomped away.

How did I stop? Chewing gum! You don't feel like chewing if you're already chewing (if that makes sense), and there's nothing grosser than a piece of fingernail caught up in the gum while trying to chew it.

Sacrificing Chewing some nails while growing the rest also helped - having one or two unsightly nails among the nice ones put me off wanting to ruin them.

In your case, I think this is important...
"I'm getting married next year so I need them to be nice."

As with any bad habit (or even addiction), changing your mindset massively helps. Turn that "need" into a "want". By telling yourself you need to do something, it can feel like a chore; however, wanting to do it turns it into a goal or reward. So tell yourself: "I'm getting married next year so I want them to be nice." You can do it!

Spray deodorant on them. Tastes so foul you can't bite them!

It was the germs think with me too. I'd been told there were more germs under your nails than under a toilet seat. And you'd never lick that!

Stop working.

When on school hols my nails grow, unbitten. The moment I'm back at work..

Like with all habits you need to reorder your brain and create a new reward centre for NOT doing the habit.

You could use a combination of the ‘flick a rubber band’ approach whenever you start to put a hand to your mouth (but more often the nail biting follows a period of checking you nails so flick the band when you start to inspect hands/nails) and then create a mental reward (think about something really nice) for not biting.

This doesn’t require willpower as you’re retaining your brain and getting rid of the enjoyment that biting gives you.

I stopped biting my little finger nail on both hands and was allowed to chew all the others. When my little finger nail grew I then did the same for the next finger until I could only chew my thumb nails.

My nails looked so good I just wanted to stop chewing my thumb nails also and haven't gone back in 20+ years of being a non-finger-nail-biter

Just the thought of what's lurking underneath my fingernails was enough to do it for me and yes, I do wash my hands regularly.

Thank you.
They are too short to clip or file.
Not allowed false ones for work and tbh they wouldn't stick

I started working in a nursing home. No way were my nails coming near my mouth ever again!

Haha. That's a huge step lol..
My nails are so short that there's not much to room for germs lol.. Well obviously there is.
I've gone and got a clear varnish. As they're so short that color would look stupid then my thinking is. When I feel the need to bite. I will peel the varnish instead..

I started always wearing nail polish. And learnt to do quite complicated nail art. Time-consuming, difficult nail art. If I bit, it would all fall off and get in my mouth and my "beautiful" creation would be ruined!

I did end up switching to biting the skin around the edges of my nails but that's preferable to nailbiting imo.

Acrylics can be applied to v.short nails, however, they can leave the nails weak and thin, so even after they’ve grown you have long nails for a short while before they break - very disheartening, but then again, no specific strengtheners were applied despite being so obviously weak.
Be prepared to invest in them with strengtheners and treatments, have the ‘sacrificial’ nail as others suggested. Have a pic of them at their shortest and sorest to remind yourself what you don’t want to go back to.
Good luck!

I was asked to be a bridesmaid and I wanted nice nails like the other girls. It was a real motivator and I hope your wedding will do the same for you. I did find it difficult at first and when I was stressed they'd get bitten but 4 years on it doesn't register with me anymore and I love having pretty nails.

I always used to bite mine, now I don't until they break or get flaky (unfortunately that happens a lot as they are quite weak). Then I nibble them straight. I'd like to try the gel nails but don't the nails have to be a certain length first?

I broke my arm and couldn't reach the nails on that hand, and didn't want the other hand to look different. So stopped and never when back to it when cast was off.

Got pregnant (amazing nail growing hormones) and went on maternity leave from a very stressful job.

My nails suddenly went from chewed stumps to almost passable nails. They were still really prone to breaking though so I had to have nail scissors handy everywhere to tidy them up straightaway otherwise I would get the temptation to nibble to try and 'straighten' them out.

Went back to work and started to chew again but nowhere near as bad because I was keeping them tidy with the nail scissors wherever possible.

Echt, exactly the same for me too ... started biting again when I thought of going back at the end of the holidays.

I had hypnosis a year ago ... it didn't last. I managed to stop biting them long enough for them to look decent (i.e. not horrible) for my wedding three weeks ago, but they are back to bitten shortness again now.

I started getting gel manicures. They only needed to be long enough to file an edge - and the nail techs did a fantastic job when I had v short nails.

I got pale colours to start off with, then switched to glitter topcoat on its own, no colour. It took a year or so, to be honest, but they’ve nothing on now and I haven’t bitten for months.

See my user name.

This actually happened to me. One day last June I was sitting at the computer absent-mindedly biting my thumb nail when a small chip broke off a bottom tooth. I had a panicky feeling that bits were in fact falling off me.

Visited the dentist a few days later. She repaired the tooth.

This incident stopped a life-long habit of biting my nails, overnight. It was worth breaking a tooth to get the shift in attitude. Nothing else had worked. I will still peel at an occasional hangnail using fingers, not teeth, but only in winter when I get dry skin.

My nails are very good now. My nails and surrounding finger skin used to be a mess.

You may think breaking a tooth is a bit too extreme. So my advice would be to keep them painted with nail polish and as soon as you have any growth at all, use a nail file and clippers and not teeth to trim them. I used to wonder about hypnotherapy. Good luck with it.

Probably not much help-I used to bite my nails as a teenager, and broke myself by chewing the ends of my longish hair instead. I found it easier to break myself of that.