Biting nails

Hey, i just wondered, has anyone in here stopped biting their nails? I’m seriously “addicted” to it, can’t stop. I can say to myself: “This hurts, it makes your fingers look lige s**** and you bleed from your nails”, and swear to myself that i’ll never bite them again, but the next day, i will just think “what the hell”, and bite them anyways, knowing that it will hurt and bleed later.
Damn, i hate myself, i have a very weak self-discipline :smile: Has anyone in here succesfully stopped biting their nails, what techniques did you use?
Just interested :smile:

I have :content: , I’m not really sure how I did it. I just slowly stopped doing it and after a few months I had stopped completely. For some reason I can break a bad habit if I decide to do it. But it usually takes a few months before I have completely stopped.

Hehe, ok, i don’t think i’d be able to do that. I’ve tried to stop several times, heck, i’ve even tried taking St. Johns Wort every day for 2 months, because it is a mild anti-depressant and can treat mild OCD… Didn’t work :sad:

I also have other bad habits; i have a bad habit of making small knots in my hair, so tight the only way i can get them out is to rip out the hair… Resulting in a bald spot if i don’t get my hair cut down to about 1-2 cm regularly… I’m weird, i know it :smile:

Have you tried that stuff you put on you fingure nails to make them taste bad? It’s comes in a little bottle and you put it on like nail polish. I’m not sure about where you are, but my local pharmacy sell’s it over the counter. I’ve never had a nail biting problem and I’ve never tried the stuff, so I don’t know how well it works. I suppose it make’s them taste bitter. I’m not sure though.

Good luck.

Yeah, tried that too :smile: Got used to the taste, bit the nail polish off, and continued biting my nails. Also, everything you eath with your fingers will taste bitter, so you’ll eventually get used to having the taste in your mouth all the time.

Hehe, ulrik_tr! That gave me a laugh. I don’t bite my nails but it’s just like any other addicting habit–it’s addicting! You could try some sort of positive reinforcement like, “I will let myself watch an extra hour of tv or go on LD4All longer if I stop this habit for one day.” You have to find something that works for you and stick with it.

Yeah, you might wanna work on the knot-tying thing as well. It’s hard to get over compulsions, I know. I have my own wacky syllable obsession-compulsion and it’s very hard to get over. I rationalize and just keep on doing it like you said you do.

It may sound funny, but you could do little things like wearing gloves (at home, of course) so you’re not tempted or carry around a shoe lace with you to tie in knots instead of your hair. They sound dumb, but I bet some psychologists would suggest this kind of thing.

*Oh, one more wacky idea: You could imagine that the whole world is watching your every move (kind of like the Truman Show) so you feel obligated to refrain from your habits until you get to the point where they are no longer habits.

Good luck! From one fellow semi-OCDer to another, I feel for you.

Some psychologists may suggest dancing around a fire naked at full moon… they’re wierd. :tongue:

Hmm, that was actually a pretty good idea :smile: I’ve noticed that when i sit on some grass, i will make knots in that too, just the same way as i make knots in my hair, LOL :smile: Don’t know about the gloves though, i think i would bite through them… Actually, if i wear a patch on my finger, i usually bite through it in a couple of minutes… I have bit through the wire of my headphones twice too :smile:
Oh, yeah, and sometimes i bite the skin off a 1x2 cm spot on my hand too… Looks nasty, hurts like hell the next day. This i only do when i’m very stressed.

Damn, when i look at this, i start looking like a bit insane really :smile:

R3m0t: Hey! Haven’t tried THAT yet :wink:

ROFL!!! True, some are definitely out there.

ulrik_tr, have you looked on the web for ideas about breaking such habits? It’s good that you realize they’re a problem but now I’m kind of worried since you mentioned the last bit.

People do all sorts of weird things so it’s not abnormal, but the fact that they’re slightly masochistic is a little scary.

I’ll say a prayer for you! (*Note: I’m not religious.)

:wink:

Gah! I just bit a nail seconds before seeing this topic. I didn’t even notice I was doing it until I read the topic title.

Anyway, I don’t see what’s so wrong about biting nails. Nature’s way of keeping your fingernails short. Uh, I think? :tongue:

Buy a pasifier.

Seriously - suck on that and you can’t bite your nails. :cool: simple cheap and effective. Though you might wanna settle for wearing gloves in public :wink:

I can just imagine someone getting hooked on THAT and then fighting the urge to whip it out in public. (That didn’t sound right. . .oh well.)

Humm… I have. Just a couple weeks ago I decided that I would stop for good. I hate having ugly nails, I never bit them until they bled but They were always chopped up. I still sort of bite on them but I don’t bite them off which is a good improvment! I tried the nail polish stuff but it was so strong that if my nail brushed across something I was eating the food would taste like it :eek: I just went the self disipline way, but I don’t think I had the nail biting bug as bad as a LOT of people!