If you know anyone that is a nail biter, then you know that it is one of the hardest habits to quit. Take it from me – it's one of the worst things ever. I have been a chronic nail biter for most of my life and I have tried almost everything I could think of to stop with nothing working.
Not only is the habit annoying, but it is also pretty gross if you think about it. Having your fingers in your mouth all the time and then touching everything around you is a pretty nasty thing to do. But if you are anything like me, then you know that sometimes you don't even know that you're doing it. It's one of those absent minded things that happens to occur when you're bored, thinking, stressed or scared. Unfortunately, I would do it constantly when I was bored or watching a movie. Sometimes it would get so bad that I would bite them down to the point where there was no white left on my nails and there were even days where it hurt to even touch things because my fingers were so sensitive. There was finally one day, a month ago that I realized it was getting a little ridiculous. I finally decided that I should stop because it was getting to be a habit that was too much.
Luckily, for just about 3 weeks now, I have not bitten my nails once. A feat that I haven't ever been able do before and I am very excited about this. I wanted to be able to give all those out there who might be suffering with the same problem to be able to read what worked for me so maybe it will help them as well!!
Nail Polish
The thing that helped me the most was constantly painting my nails. Whether it was a weird wacky color, or just clear. It made it so I didn't see the white of my nails so I wouldn't have the stress of "needing" to bite it off. It also made it so if I did bite my nails then I would have nail polish in my teeth which is gross and it would also give my secrets away. But for some reason, painting them every other day made it so I wouldn't want to bite them. Not to mention the disgusting nail polish remover taste. That also helped. And if for some reason I needed to do something with my fingers, I could peel the nail polish off which would take my mind off of biting. All in all, that was the thing that helped the most.
A Small Knick Knack to Play With
Another thing that I would do is keep silly putty, a stress ball or something else in my bag at all times so I could play with that during a movie or when I wanted to bite my nails to make sure that I would keep my fingers out of my mouth. It worked really well and I would make sure that it was something that I wouldn't want to put my fingers in my mouth after words as well.
Reward System
This one helped me the most because I have a very guilty conscious so it was very helpful. I would give myself a little reward or just the satisfaction of making it this far was good enough for me. And since it's been nearly 3 weeks, then it is apparently working very well!
I'm really working on going for a long time with this while continuing using the three things that work best for me. Hopefully it works for you too! This journey will be a long one but hopefully it will be extremely rewarding in the end!
