nail biting

[tamirra]

Hi,
im so desperstae to stop biting my finger nails, has anyone any ideas what i can do to stop this nasty habbit, ive done it now for all my life and i need to stop, i love the look of my hands when i have acrylic nails put on and would love them to be my own, please help.

[mrs_overall]

Go to Boots/Superdrug and buy some of the stuff you paint on your nails to stop you biting them. It dries clear but tastes disgusting.
I'm having a senior moment & can't remember the name of the stuff. :(

[Wop/tpo]

Vague memory from long ago that the liquid is called bitter aloes.

[aka pixi]

I agree with mrs overall, the stuff you can buy is disgusting. I cant remember the name either :S

Or you could try to stop the way I did. I had bitten my nails all my life until I had my daughter. After changing her very first nappy no matter how many times I washed my hands they still didnt feel clean enough to put them in my mouth and bite my nails lol Never once bitten them since that day lol

[Richie1976]

I used to bit my fingernail up until I slip a disc in my back. Strange connect I though, but I went and got acupuncture to sort my back out and I also found I stopped biting my nails as well.

So I suggest you slip a disc and get acupunture.

[mrs_overall]

Wop/tpo - my mum used to buy bitter aloe to paint on my thumb in an attempt to stop me sucking it when I was little. This was before most AB'ers were born, so I don't know if you can still buy it.

I think the nail biting stuff is called Stop'n'Grow.

[tamirra]

ive tried it, didnt work, also done hypnotherapy, didnt work, nothing works.

[mattie]

wear gloves

[FoxLee2]

Why didn't you keep on with the acrylic nails?

I have also been a nail biter all my life (in early sixties now -so didn't think I'd ever stop) but my son got married last summer. A few weeks before, I enquired about false nails and the girl said I just about had enough of my own nails but if I could stop biting them for the next few weeks, it would be better. I did try and then had the false nails on, hoping they would stay on for the weekend as the wedding was abroad. It was about 3 weeks before I lost one, had it replaced and just kept going, having different coloured gels, and all the time my own nails were growing away. It took 2 or 3 months and I didn't need the false ones and I received such compliments on them, that I haven't been tempted to bite them again. Sometimes I have artwork done and it still gives me a thrill to see 'my nails'.

Try the false ones again and keep going until your own have grown. You'll be so proud, you won't want to bite them.

[tiggerblue10]

Just think of how dirty biting your finger nails is. When I'm about to eat something I will wash my hands beforehand. People who bite their nails don't think of washing their hands so end up with bacteria in their mouths.

[FoxLee2]

Talk about making sweeping statements tiggerblue - so all people who bite their nails don't wash before eating and thus put bacteria in their mouths. I would say that MOST PEOPLE use cutlery not their fingers to eat - you're in a minority if you do that. (apart from eating a sarnie!)

[888sally888]

I stopped cos a friend looked at my nails with disgust and I was really ashamed.

That was last August and I havent fallen off the wagon yet. My nails were awful - really bitten right down.

I am OK now if they are painted as it stops me biting them plus they look lovely.

[tiggerblue10]

FoxLee - am I not allowed an opinion?

[FoxLee2]

It wasn't so much an opinion, more a statement of fact - based on what?

[tiggerblue10]

It is my OPINION based on what my brother used to do when he was younger. Take it or leave it.

I'm not in the mood for an argument.

[tamirra]

For starters, i am always washing my hands as im a nurse at the hospital, so thats been sorted, if i constantly have acrylic nails on it ruins the only nail i have left, they peel snap off and go discoloured, which looks even worse than having bitten nails.

[tiggerblue10]

Sorry I spoke (wrote) tamirra. I won't darken the doorstep of this thread any longer.

[tamirra]

tiggerblue10 now your just being silly.

[tiggerblue10]

Can't win can I?

[Androcles]

Good idea though Tigger blue - paint your nails with salmonella or compylobacter- you'll never want to bite them again after that!

[FoxLee2]

If that is what you based your 'opinion' on, then I will leave it. How many young boys (nail biters or not) willingly wash their hands before a meal.

Another thought, for those 'with nails', just because you've washed your hands, there could still be all sorts of gunk lurking under the nails - not a problem for nail biters!!