How To Quit Biting Your Nails

[woodwardiocom]

-There are about ten million subjects on which I shouldn't give advice, but there are a few where I actually know something. Might as well use my LJ to preserve what I pretentiously call "wisdom".

-Up through college I was a persistent nail-biter. It was disgusting -- ragged-edged nails with bits of blood at the ends, yech. So I found a way to quit. This technique works best for people who don't paint their nails regularly.

1) Go to the pharmacy, and buy clear nail polish and about half-a-dozen nail clippers.

2) Have one nail-clipper everyplace you spend significant time -- by your bed, in your desk, etc.

3) When you go to bite your nails, you probably always start with the same nail, and only move on if that one is already whittled down to the cuticle. (For me it was index finger, left hand.) Every morning, paint that one fingernail with the clear polish. This way, whenever you unconsciousy start nibbling, you'll immediately notice when you get a mouthful of polish.

4) Whenever this happens, or whenever your nails are long enough that you notice 'em, immediately reach for the ever-present nail-clippers, and trim all ten of them as short as you find comfortable. Don't forget to file off the rough spots.

5) Eventually, you won't be biting your nails anymore. You can stop using the polish now. To keep from backsliding, make sure you always have the clippers around.

Comments

[tcb.livejournal.com]

I'll have to give that one a try. I've tried various over the years.

unfortunately, reason doesn't seem to be much good, which is what my latest attempts have been..

"you know you don't want to do that..," I say to myself.. as I bite anyway.

[archangelbeth]

I had to stop one nail at a time. (Left thumb, right thumb, then pinkie to index left. Then pinkie to middle right. I still bite the right index nail, because sometimes I need a nail-down-to-the-quick, like for contacts.) Now I have to get them as long as they can be before they break... I use a nail file to get rid of the jaggies I will otherwise gnaw at till the nail is down to the quick.

But I seem to be stable, if I can keep the jaggies from getting nibbled at.

ceo

[ceo]

I also used to be a persistent nail-biter. Then, after one particularly intense weekend, I realized that for the entire time, I had not once been unoccupied enough for that habit to kick in, and my nails had actually grown to some degree. I decided to see how long I could keep that going, and as it turned out it knocked me out of the pattern enough that I was able to quite more or less completely. Now I only bite them if they're long enough to annoy me and I don't have clippers handy, but it's not habitual anymore.

The weekend in question was the first Arisia.