how do you stop biting your nails?

I'm in the same boat: the only thing I do is keep them short, so there's little to tempt me. I'm afraid I'll be biting them for the rest of my life, though.

Overcoming any habit is hard man. Best way is to stay busy all day so you think about it less. I also did a punishment/reward system. If you give in to your habit you have to take something away as punishment. I was able to stop cracking my knuckles years back doing this.

Mind over matter. I did the same when I was younger I did and now, I have a nice set of nails that I manicure myself about once a week..

you could use those nail-bite creams some people put on their kids... its an odorless cream you apply on your your nails that will leave a fucking bitter taste when you bite your nails.

Buff your nails. They will be so pristine that you wont want to bite them.

This works for me sometimes

 

I've been biting my nails since I was a kid. I went through a brief phase where I was able to not, but I've just come to accept that I'm probably going to be doing this for the rest of my life...not the worst bad habit in the world.

My Dad does this all the time and it drives my Mom craaaaaazzzy. I think it's strange... what I mean is I don't understand why one would bite his nails. If you want them shorter, just cut them...aren't they all rough and jagged if you bite them? What is the appeal or compulsion to do so? And I am asking seriously b/cI don't know why my Dad does it either & he actually doesn't have a reason that he can articulate.

Hey guys I've been biting my nails since I was a toddler and stopped a few years ago at the age of around 19, I went on a trip and found out that I stopped needing to bite them after I came back.

Since then I've noticed I only bite when my nails are weak or need trimming because of rough edges, keeping the nails filed and clean will prevent the need from trying to 'fix' them through biting (which only makes things worse and potentially painful if you go deep enough).

The only way is to stop biting them for about 2 weeks, keep them nice and filed and you should be ok, as of now my nails look good but I still want to bite them (usually out of boredom) and designate my thumb and index fingers if I have to bite. If I get the nail rough enough and I'm too lazy to find a filer, then that fingernail is probably screwed.

It's probably rooted in insecurity or vanity (or both).

I'm going Tony Robbins on you now, but your habit will continue as long as you don't have the motivation to stop. Wanting to quit is not a final decision, rather, your thoughts and perspectives on this habit must change -- drastically. You should arrive to a point at which even the thought alone would make you sick.

The only useful question is: why don't you have the motivation?

After fighting this habit for 27 years I finally used hypnosis and stopped immediately.

I used a hypnosis recording designed to stop the urge to bite my nails. Recorded by Bonetti-something. I listened to the recording on my ipod before bed every night for a week or so and then went to sleep.

Haven't bitten my nails since.