Biters Anonymous

I need help

Its been a serious issue for me since i was 3 im currently 17 its been a habit that ive never been able to manage i suffer from nervous problem and i deal terribly with stress i tried soo many things to quit but i just cant this habit has made me realize what a true addiction is and now im trying every to break it

This is my second attemp at quiting but its a very compulsive habit and its gotten to the point where my fingers hurt from bitting them soo much i bite and rip them to point where they bleed bad aside from looking absoluty hideous the pain i get from grabbing things or any pressure on my nail get worse by the day

This entry may sound complainy and annoying but i just want help. Be forewarned though. I am sorry

Hey I'm 16 and have always been biting my nails, both my finger and toe nails. Yes i know its disgusting to bite your toe nails. It is that bad. My family has problems with all different kinds of addictions that have made me hate a lot of bad things like drugs and alcohol because i see how bad my personal addiction is an i am terrified to go down this road with something else. I want to get off this road! It's ugly and may have caused me to have surgery on my jaw. I get under my ever short nails and rip them off no matter how painful. Because of how i bite i use to pop my jaw out of place, more or less, and that made my cartilage be permanently slipped out of place when my mouth was closed, up until i had it surgically fixed. Problem is my addiction is still there and now if i bite down to hard or move it weirdly i can press again a nerve and mess up my face.

Now you know my problem. Here is what I've tried in the past to get rid of it:
Hoof stop nail-biting polish stuff (i got use to it because i felt that need to bite),
fake nails (bit them off),
hit my hand when had urge to bite (need to bite overcame my own will),
obsessive self manicuring (always would find a place that the tools couldn't get but my teeth could),
gloves (just bugged me and made me need to bite),
and probably something else that i have forgotten.

I know i have to make it where my wish to quit biting is stronger but i bite all the time, when I'm on the computer completely enthralled in something, when I'm reading a great book, when i bored watching TV, when I'm stressed, when I'm nervous, when I'm trying on clothes that don't fit anymore, when I'm studying for a test, while I'm taking said test, while I'm learning something new in class, when I'm thinking about the fact that i have no idea where to go to college or what i want to do, when I'm thinking about doing an interview for college and them seeing my ugly nails and denying me for it. So as you see there's very few times of the day i do not bite. I don't know what to do about it anymore i really have no idea.

Help?

Hey guys. So I have the same story as all of you. Lifetime nail biter. When I got braces, I would use the metal to rip my skin. I have chewed through nail polish, no-bite polish, acrylic nails, etc. I get a feeling in my nails that calls to me. I'm pretty sure its an oral fixation, and it manifested in nail biting instead of drinking or smoking.

I have finally *fingers crossed* stopped biting. I am 6 weeks in from my last bite. I joined the community to give other nail biters some hope. I remember hearing other people tell me their way of stopping, and wishing I could do it.  I NEVER thought I would quit.

My fiance proposed last December, and I realized that soon(ish) I would have children. I have always promised myself that I would defeat this horrible addiction before I had children. I can not bare the thought of passing it on to a child.

So I didn't have any special technique, hot sauce on the fingers, metal caps or special formulas. I just kept my eye on the prize, and forced myself to remain conscious of the fact that I'm doing it. Day by day. Minute by minute. It sucked. But I am so happy I pushed though the little part of my brain that screams "BITE THEM, RIP THEM OFF!"

I really hope the best for all you out there thinking "I wish that was me, but I will never defeat this." You can! If I can, You can!! You just need to find a reason, something that means enough to you, that you will stick with it. You have to want it more than you want your addiction.

Keep up the good fight !

I have been biting my nails since I was 4 years old, and I'm 21. I love nail polish, nail care and nail art, but I'm a compulsive nail biter. I've taken ENTIRE nails off of my nail bed on several occasions, wrecking it worse day by day till they were all gone. I've tried to stop but I obsess over biting my nails day and night until I get nervous one day and bite them all off. I have pure-o OCD so I'm sure that has something to do with it. I'm actually pretty good at nail art, I've still always painted my tiny, uneven stubs, but as you can imagine the polish never lasts long as I'm always biting and picking at my nails. I've gotten my nails done, too, but I just can't leave acrylics alone either. I end up biting those till they bend and break, then, since the nails are imperfect, they drive me crazy and I rip them off. Very bad for my nails.
Now, I would LOVE to get my nails done, but if I'm still biting, what a waste of money! And even if I do my own nail art, it'll last 3 days before I wreck it, and that's a waste of time and polish. I'm sick of this stupid habit. For the first time in my life, I have less stress than usual, so I'm seizing this opportunity to work on stopping. Here is my action plan:
-Use No-Bite polish at all times to help me realize when I'm unconsciously biting.
-I tend to bite my nails while
1.Driving. Plan: Tap the wheel instead.
2.Working. Plan: Squeeze stress ball/use stress bendy. Chew gum.
3.Watching TV: Keep a stress bendy near the TV.
4. When I'm outside the house: Wear jewelry to mess with instead. Chew gum
-When I want to bite my nails: Take a deep breath and count to five. 
-Matras:
1. I am not a nail-biter.
2. I want to get my nails done more than I want to bite.
3. I'm done with this. 
4. I've been doing great; don't to wreck my nails. 

I've already gotten started. It's been about 2 weeks and my nails are already much better than they used to be. 
Short-Term goal: Stop biting until July4th. 
Reward: Get my nails done!

Long-Term goal: Stop biting for good.
Reward: Beautiful nails I can do anything with! 

I'm going to check back in with you guys every few days to let you know how it's going. 
Wish me luck, fellow recoverers! --VfangzV

So, here it is.  I've been trying to stop biting my nails since I was a kid.  I did the fakeies, the crappy tasting stuff, mani's... You name it, I did it.

I'm not sure whether or not I'm addicted to biting my nails or if I'm obsessed with having something in my teeth.  I bite my nails, arrange them in my teeth in length order, pick what I call a 'pusher' (the hardest nail in the bunch) and start, for lack of a better term, to weave them through my teeth.  I've been doing this for as long as I can remember and even while I had braces.

I've gotten to the point now where I take my nails out of my mouth and put them into a beer bottle cap to store them so I can use them 'the next time around'.  If I leave a longer one near the back of my mouth, it can make me gag and puke.  I have these stashed all over the house and yet I still bite.  It's a bit crazy.  Anyone else weave?

Hey there!
I just joined this community and I gotta say that it would have been so useful about a year ago!

A little bit about me: I'm 18 years old and I live in Vancouver, Canada. I've bitten my nails ever since I was a little girl. Before I started biting my nails, I use to suck me thumb (as a baby of course) and when my parents got me to stop doing that I guess the next best thing for me was my nails. I use to have HORRIBLE nails. Just absolutely disgusting. They were small and jagged. They would bleed around the edges. They would flake and chip. I could never wear nail polish as a girl. And I wanted to so badly. I guess the only good thing about me biting my nails was that my parents never had to buy nail polish.

I stopped biting my nails about a year ago. I was a part of a wedding ceremony and all of us went out for a day at the spa. We got our nails done. And of course, I had to get acrylic nails. They looked amazing. I think that was the starting point in my little 'success story'.

Last summer, just after the wedding, I went on a trip. And lets just say that the place I went wasn't very clean. Just the lingering thought of putting the fingers that had be all over cabs, buses and park benches in my mouth was enough to keep me from chewing on my nails. Over the 2 months that I was there, my nails began to grow. Once they got a little longer than they normally were, I felt bad about chewing them. Like it would be a waste. So I stopped biting them off. And once I got back to Vancouver, my nails were long. They looked nice. Better than they had in years. The wounds along the edges healed. They stopped, flaking, chipping and cracking. So I splurges on nail polish.

And now I'm a little obsessed with doing my nails. For example, at the moment they're a bright candy apple red with a navy blue french tip. And between the red and the blue, I have a thin line of silver.

So that's my story. And here are a couple tips:
- Get acrylic nails. But just once. Get them. See how beautiful your nails could be. Believe me, it's worth the $50...
- Don't keep getting the acrylic nails filled. You have to learn to do it yourself. Get them once and let them grow out. By the time they grew out, you probably wont even have the urge to bite.
- Buy pretty nail polishes. If you buy them, you'll wanna use them. And if you use them and they don't look so good, you'll wanna grow you're nails.
- Keep your hands busy. Start knitting! Crochet! Make jewelry! DO SOMETHING!

Here's to hoping to get this community back alive.

I havent bit my nails since July 1st. I take a vitamin everyday and as of right now I no longer have the urger to bite. What other tips do you reccomend?

I have not chewed off my nail in over a month!

Here's how my battling with this started:

I have been chewing my nails as long as I can remember. I would bite them to the point where my fingers would be bleeding. Forget about putting nail polish on them! I had more nail polish on my fingers than on the actual nails when I tried.

Many people have told me to stop biting my nails, but it is a very hard thing to do; especially when I have a habit of putting my fingers near my mouth or my face.

My boyfriend sat me down and we talked about what times I bite my nails the most. I found out that when I'm taking tests or doing anything stressful, when I'm under the most amount of stress--- that's when I'm more prone to biting my nails.

I tried using this stuff called "bite off" which is supposed to make your nails taste yucky if you put them in your mouth. The only problem with that is that I can't eat finger food and ya know, lick off sauces and stuff... so I stopped using that. Then, my boyfriend helped me paint my nails again. I tried very hard to stop biting them. When the least bit of white showed, I was very happy...and yet it was very hard not to chew that white part off.

He constantly reminds me now when I have my fingers in my mouth, and I've been successful in not biting them. I know I'm a dork, but I measured how far my nails have grown, and they've grown 3 mm! They're long enough that I can scratch and long enough that I can paint them without getting my fingers.

I think it takes a lot of will to break a bad habit, but it's definitely possible. This is my third attempt to stop, and so far it's working.

I have been biting my nails since I can remember. Sometimes it gets so bad that my fingers will hurt for weeks until the nail grows back, and then I end up biting them again. I can't stand it anymore, and I really want to quit, but I can't afford to get a manicure a lot and I'm so used to my nails being below the fingertips that having artificial nails that hang over the tips is distracting for work.

I tried painting my nails with nail polish, but after a while, I end up somehow scraping the polish off. So far I have lasted a total of two weeks without biting my nails...then I caved and bit them until they hurt again. I also tried buying the nasty tasting nail polish from the local Walgreen's. That lasted after two coats...then I got back to biting.

I try thinking "When do I bite my nails? When I'm nervous? When I'm bored?" Sometimes I just see little white lines on my nails and bite them off.

I seriously want to stop biting my nails. My boyfriend encourages me not to bite them whenever he can, but we're not around each other enough for me to avoid it all the time. Is there anything I can do?

Hello.I'm Noeshia and I've been biting the skin around my nails and the cuticles off since I watched Titanic.
I have no idea why it started while I was in the theatre,other then I went to bite off a ragged nail on one of my thumbs and ended up biting a crescent moon shape out of the meat of my finger.It's been obsessive since then.My fingertips are thickly callussed and usually sore and red and I'm kinda embarrassed by it.Sometimes I catch myself playing the my-finger-must-be-this-shape-so-let's-trim-it game.Others I notice my hand is in my mouth and I don't remember from when.
Only two people have noticed that I do this.Most think I'm just biting my nails,or they seem to.Maybe they're just in denial that someone would do that.Kindof like the way people are about drunkards,cutters,and addicts I geuss.Anyway,those two people were another girl that did it and the guy I want to be in a relationship with.She didn't understand either,and he said it was almost like I'm hiding something inside of me that I want to let out.That one does have some ring of truth,but I'm not sure it's the whole truth.
If there's anything any of you can tell me I'd appreciate it.I've tried fingernail polish because the taste gets on my fingers,lotions too.But I find myself biting even after I put them on.Sometimes I get really bad headaches from the tastes.
Peace out!