Triggers – End Nail Biting

Nail biting is a dirty habit that many of us know we shouldn't do but take part in anyways. While it's generally looked at as a habit that is triggered by various external forces like stress or anxiety, the truth is that it really depends on the person. Until you get a handle on why you bite your nails you really won't know how to quit for good. Many nail biters are addicted to nail biting just for something to do and to keep their hands busy. While external triggers may cause you to bite nails during certain experiences, many long term nail biters do it automatically and almost subconsciously without reason. Nail Biting Addiction Nail biting has been classified in many ways over the years including as a(n): Oral fixation: Outdated theory no longer pursued.Compulsive habit: It's hard to stop, harder to quit.Reaction to triggers: Such as anxiety, stress, boredom, hunger or anger.Emotional or psychological problems: OCD, depression, etc. Activity to keep your hands busy: You need something to do with your hands and nail biting fits the bill. Modern theories put nail biting down to something either triggered for various reasons like the reasons shown above and situations that we face or something benign: We're bored and just bit our nails "because." While other bad habits have widely available products and ad campaigns to help people deal with their vice - quitting drugs, stopping drinking and cutting out cigarettes comes to mind - nail biting doesn't get the same attention or care. Other than bitter nail polish which won't help if you pick your nails and doesn't address the underlying problem, there isn't much available for nail biters and pickers. Certainly not when you compare it other vices. Masking The Problem Are you addicted to biting nails or is it possible that there is another reason? The root cause(s) is important for you to understand. Many anti nail biting products and strategies simply mask the problem and don't get to the root cause. Case in point: Bitter nail polish: Doesn't work if you only pick your nails like I generally did. If you stop using it, it obviously won't work either and you'll be biting nails again without any progress made. Nail biting gloves: Who is going to walk around with gloves on 24/7? While you might get away with it at home, it'd be hard to work like that unless your job requires gloves. Band-aids: Similar to wearing gloves, wearing band-aids around will look odd and they'll fall off and need to be replaced. Each of these options just masks the problem. While they could work for some people, it's likely they are strategies that you may try once and then just quickly give up on. One Habit To Quit or 10? The thing to remember with nail biting is you have 8 fingernails and 2 thumbnails. You are capable of biting all of them so you have 10 things you need to quit, not one. Every time a band-aid falls off or a glove comes off, you have something to bite, if you haven't addressed the underlying cause. Nail biting may be due to triggers but if you bite and pick your nails every day as many long time nail biters do, you must be getting triggered constantly, no? Otherwise it's possible that your nail biting is due to something else, or a combination of triggers and something else. Nail Biting Satisfaction Long time nail biters know the feeling of satisfaction that we get when we bite our nails. That's at least part of the reason we do it. So the addiction part might be related to how good it feels when we do it and less about the habit itself. Now that I'm a former nail biter, I really don't feel the satisfaction part anymore but I certainly did for a long period of time. For many decades, I had no problem biting and picking nails and dealing with the occasional painful finger for a day or two when I bit it too short. Summary It's possible you are addicted to nail biting but it's also likely you have another reason(s) for doing the habit especially if you're a long term biter. Rather than getting fixated on putting a label on your nail biting, you're better off getting a complete understanding of when and why you do it. Start by writing down your nail biting occurrences in terms of when you do it, why you do it and where you do it. Specifics help because over a few days you'll notice patterns as to where it occurs the most which can help when trying to quit. Also, pay attention to specific behaviors like: Do you bite your nails? Pick your nails? Both? Do you bite one hand or finger(s) more than the other? Check out my popular pages on Nail Biting and Willpower and my Personal Nail Biting Case Study to learn more about how to quit! Are you a toenail biter? Some people are but you tend not to find much online that discusses it so I wrote an article with some thoughts, too.