Have bitten my nails literally as long as I can remember and ooooh man my newly grown fingernails are like THROBBING they’re begging to be bitten aaaaaa
I’ve done pretty well tho I’ve lasted like a week. I had to stop because I was chewing up skin all around the nails and bleeding and shit it had gone on too long. I took before shots to motivate myself to keep going.
I've heard that that nail polish that tastes really bitter helps.
The thing that helped the most with my trichotillomania was that in high school, my English teacher figured out I was a trichster (and either he or his spouse was a recovering one) and would yell my name or do something to surprise me when he noticed me subconsciously picking. So yeah, just have somebody yell at you when you do it subconsciously for a few months.
Problem I had with bitter polish is I'm a nasty goblin who likes bitter things. Didn't bother me at all, but also I ate soap as a child so I'm not surprised.
Just go for the "someone yelling at you" method then
I'm actually helping my fiance with her nails using that technique (at her request). As I said further up, I (mostly) got over mine by carrying a nail file and cuticle clippers with me everywhere, and keeping things smooth so I don't pick at loose skin and rough nails with my teeth
trichotillomania
I didn't know there was a word for that!
Do your best king
I’ve managed to kick most of the habit (minus my pinky nails) with a combination of bitter polish and keeping a nail file around. The polish didn’t work so great because the flavor rubs off on food and shit… Filing is cool though. Heard it’s better for your nails than clipping? And having a “cheat finger” helps. Still working on how to move on from there though (it’s been, idk? A year?).
Yeah, same; got a file and cuticle clipper that fit on my keyring so they were always in my pocket. And, I dont think the cuticle clippers are great to use? But they do so much less damage than chompy teeth. Still occasionally fuck up my nails while driving (hard to file nicely there), but my fingers look fine now, so its managable.
Yep, good file in the pocket keeps me from having any snags that I can act on.
I'm on week 3-4 right now. I'm trying to grow then out for guitar, which is good motivation. If you can put hardening gel on them it helps. Finding something to keep your hands busy will help a lot. Also, remember that the real long-term damage of biting your nails isn't to your nails, it's to your teeth.
I bit my nails till finally my front teeth started to crumble. A corner just came off and now it looks uneven. I have never bitten them again.
Hope you're kidding but yes, nobody ever talks about how your teeth start to crumble if you bite your nails...
I had to chip three teeth this way before I finally stopped biting my nails
Not sure if this is what helped me to kicked the habit, but constantly keeping my nails filed down and working bare handed with disgusting stuff like motor oil and dirty animals really made it easier to stop myself from doing it habitually.
As an unexpected side effect, I basically never bit my nails after getting my tongue pierced. Weird that my life-long struggle with acrylics didn't do it :shrug-outta-hecks:
Yeah I've just kind of accepted it, but it's more sustainable for me than some people because I don't break skin.
I bit my nails up until I was 28, to the extent that I didn't even need to clip them. I decided to quit when I went back to school and I've managed to stop.
Sometimes when I'm stressed old habits return and I bite one, but that's becoming pretty rare and I'm usually able to stop while I can still clip it.
Anyways more power to you! Remember the goal is improvement not perfection!!
I paint them and as long as I can’t see the natural nail color I don’t bit them for some reason. It worked for good 3 months anyway, I just broke down recently bc I lapsed on keeping them painted :/
You need to properly cut your nails on a schedule and paint them with at minimum a clear polish so they don't taste the same.
This will help reduce if not eliminate teeth biting. If you lapse in taking off the clear and cutting your nails yourself, you will lapse in the biting and chewing.
Oh god it’s so hard. I bought bitter nail polish but sometimes even that isn’t enough, and even if I’m not touching my face for some reason the bitterness accumulates on my lower lip and I start tasting it if I just lick my lips
