I know I appreciated this! I'm constantly starting and stopping and have found most of the things you have, except I haven't tried carrying nail supplies around. Great suggestions.
A follow-up/ sister suggestion that people might find helpful.ladyfalconJanuary 12 2010, 10:33:56 UTC
I am not a nail-biter, but I am a cuticle-picker, -tearer, -chewer, what have you. Over the years I seem to have grown out of my onetime sister-habit of nail-peeling, only to have the cuticle thing get worse. So now I have fairly healthy nails of some length most of the time, surrounded by red, sore, or bleeding skin
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Re: A follow-up/ sister suggestion that people might find helpful.ethernightJanuary 12 2010, 17:29:13 UTC
I am a worry at my cuticles as well, and a big chunk of what I wrote was geared toward that. In fact, I managed to stop biting my nails years before I was able to leave the surrounding bits of skin alone
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Re: A follow-up/ sister suggestion that people might find helpful.ladyfalconJanuary 12 2010, 18:03:38 UTC
I can't take credit for the cleverness - I got it out of some research I did on the problem, in a spate of feeling like I was the only one on Earth with this compulsion, or at least, with this compulsion to this degree (I frankly don't know how I've managed to avoid infection and/or damaging my nail's growth permanently). That being said, it's definitely true that the checking, at least for me, is the only part I can (sometimes) control. Once I know where a hangnail is it will bother me for hours until I do something to fix it. But I can consciously think about keeping my hands on the steering wheel/keyboard/desk whatever.
I also find it a lot easier to stop in the summer, when clothes are silky and brief and less likely to catch on rough skin in the simple process of wearing them.
In any case, thanks for writing up your tips! I think that this "stop vs. quit" mentality is a very realistic one, and addressing the problem through realism is a lot more helpful than those people who just tell you to "leave it alone".
I'm sorry that this is working out to be hard for you.
Up through when we worked together I had been a life-long nail biter. I often bled and had painful rips of skin, etc. I decided at some point that I had enough of that and I stopped without a relapse. It was amazingly easy for me. Given the difficulty I've had with other things like quitting smoking, I don't think this is a general difference in my makeup or anything. Just for some reason this one was easy.
It was hard many years ago. Happily at this point deciding to stop is a piece of cake--which is why I decided to share my method.
I treat nail biting very much like I do smoking. It is a pressure release valve that can be used in break-glass-in-case-of-emergency levels of stress. So when I say that I have stopped many times, it is not due to "falling off the wagon," but rather having decided for some brief period of my life, I prefer having bloody nails to to not.
That's pretty amazing that you had such an easy time stopping. Of all the nail biters I've talked to, I've never heard that before.
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I also find it a lot easier to stop in the summer, when clothes are silky and brief and less likely to catch on rough skin in the simple process of wearing them.
In any case, thanks for writing up your tips! I think that this "stop vs. quit" mentality is a very realistic one, and addressing the problem through realism is a lot more helpful than those people who just tell you to "leave it alone".
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That's also the only person I have ever encountered with the same, "I don't quit, I stop" philosophy that I have about smoking.
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Up through when we worked together I had been a life-long nail biter. I often bled and had painful rips of skin, etc. I decided at some point that I had enough of that and I stopped without a relapse. It was amazingly easy for me. Given the difficulty I've had with other things like quitting smoking, I don't think this is a general difference in my makeup or anything. Just for some reason this one was easy.
So sadly I have no advice. Good luck.
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I treat nail biting very much like I do smoking. It is a pressure release valve that can be used in break-glass-in-case-of-emergency levels of stress. So when I say that I have stopped many times, it is not due to "falling off the wagon," but rather having decided for some brief period of my life, I prefer having bloody nails to to not.
That's pretty amazing that you had such an easy time stopping. Of all the nail biters I've talked to, I've never heard that before.
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