Can anyone give me good tips on how to stop biting my nails?

Answer 1

Dip them in vinegar every once in a while, or paint nasty polish on them. Good luck on your habit! :)

Answer 2

the icky tasting stuff sucks. I've tried it. It gets in all your food somehow, not that you eat with your fingers, but you can always taste it. Yuck.

nail biting is a symptom of something going on mentally. You should ask your doctor to be referred to a mental health specialist where you may find out you have Obsessive Compulsive disorder, depression or good old ADHD. I have ADHD, have been medicated for a few months and stopped biting my nails. People with a tendancy toward bad habits like nail biting, smoking etc... usually have a 'nervous' disorder like the above that is very treatable. So, don't just treat the symptom with yucky tasting stuff - treat the root cause. See a psychiatrist or your GP and you will be on your way.

I did start to moisturize my hands often with Urea cream, it is very moisturizing and stops the calloused hardness of your fingers from becoming picky. Once the nails started growing a lot of the hangnails etc. went away with moisturization. cheers! and good luck.

if your nails are really short and your nail bed small, once they start growing your calloused fingers may crack as the nail bed expands and the nail grows over the fingertips more. You will need a very moisturizing cream as this is uncomfortable, but they heal fast.

Answer 3

I have tried everything -- gross tasting polish, covering them with fake tips, having manicures, etc. and nothing seems to work on this decades old habit. My hands are horrid! I am able to let 6-8 of the nails grow and bite just one or two...but inevitably when one snags, I start to chew on it too. So, also always have a file to keep you from picking at them. Good luck. I've basically given up and expect to do this the rest of my life.

Answer 4

I have a couple of tips for you.

1. There are a lot of nail polish manfacturers who make a bitter tasting polish (clear colour) that you paint on your fingers. If you go to bite your nails, you'll get a terrible taste.

2. Take good care of your nails. Paint them a nice colour if you can. You'll be less inclined to chew them if you are proud of them.

3. File your nails frequently. Keep them at a short, even level to begin with before you stop biting them. Once you kick your habit, grow them longer.

Good luck!

Answer 5

One way is to dip your fingers in neem/ bitter gourd juice twice a day, so that the bitter taste retains on the nails. But this is not quite that effective.

Another method which I've found more effective is to use nail enamel. Paint your nails with colorless, clear base nail paint everyday so that, as you bite it, your mouth fills with the disgusting enamel and slowly you stop putting your fingers in your mouth to avoid the enamel. Worked very well wit me.

Good luck!! Hope it works for you!

Answer 6

i've been biting mine since i was four. and now i am 16... i also picked at my toenails. it took a while, but first, i let my toenails grow out... and i noticed how pretty they look. then i tried with my fingers.. it wasnt as easy. so i let one nail grow at a time, while i continued to bit the others. when i noticed how pretty one nail was... i left it alone, and stop biting a second nail... and just continued

it might sound weird... but hey, it broke my habit of 13 years

Answer 7

A girl I know bit her fingernails until she was twenty, when she fell down a flight of steps. Sadly, she had to have all of her front teeth out, and have dentures fitted. They are not sharp enough to bite nails with, now she has beautiful finger nails, and beautiful even, whiter than white teeth. Every cloud has a silver lining!

Answer 8

What I would do is have tips put on your own nails and they look so so good you won't want to bite them off but there not cheap.good luck.

Answer 9

I think I might be able to help each other could you please drop me an email as im doing a project on stress and nail biting if you are interested to help.

Thanks peter

Answer 10

Keep busy, when i get bored i find myself biting my nails. Grab a bit of bluetack to keep your fingers busy.

Answer 11

they make special kind of nail polish that tastes gross so when you bite it then you will spit it out and hopefully not bite anymore. also when you are in the privacy of your own home you can put thin gloves on. the gloves make it to where you cant bite them and the thin makes it to where you wont over heat and your skin can breathe.