Yes, You Can Quit Nail Biting Cold Turkey

Nail biting can be a difficult habit to break permanently because of how easy it is to start at any given time. Given that long term side effects aren’t necessarily noticeable in the short term – or even long term for that matter – we often feel like nail biting is a relatively benign habit.

In fact, many short and long term side effects can be very difficult to see until it’s too late. We might not even realize that side effects that we experience were even caused by nail biting in the first place.

The first thing I learned when beginning to research how to quit nail biting is that there is plenty of advice and information but it can be difficult to find the good stuff that helps you specifically.

And many of the chat rooms and forums may do you more harm than good.

And yes, you can quit nail biting cold turkey despite what you might have read. It takes work but you can do it.

Quit nail biting and ignore the bad advice

As I wrote about earlier, ignoring bad advice on how to quit nail biting is part of a bigger plan:

Ignore bad advice period.

Here at End Nail Biting I’ve tried my best to discuss in great detail my personal story about nail biting and what I’ve learned about why I did it for so long and then at the age of 50, suddenly quit.

Perhaps my story and experience will resonate with you and I certainly hope that it does. When I mention that I’d be skeptical of running out and buying bitter nail polish and cuticle pushers and stuff like that, I’m giving my opinion but based on my personal experience.

Bitter nail polish won’t help if you pick your nails like I did since you’re not putting your fingers in your mouth. And if you do strictly bite your nails and try bitter nail polish, you may just switch to nail picking instead. Or you just stop using the bitter nail polish.

Any cuticle-related product is a waste of time in my opinion because your cuticles generally shouldn’t be cut or trimmed and have nothing to do with nail biting!

If you want to do something productive, learn about nail biting triggers and see which apply to you if any. If they don’t apply to you, perhaps you need to do what I did.

Just quit nail biting.

Yes, you can quit nail biting cold turkey

I did it at age 50 after biting and picking my nails compulsively since about the age of 10 and probably before that. I have a feeling I was biting and picking nails from about the age of 8 or so and perhaps earlier.

I recently read an article that suggested that trying to quit something cold turkey fails 95% of the time. There was no link to research or anything so I’ll assume the number was made up.

Even if it’s accurate, who cares? Quitting nail biting isn’t like quitting alcohol or drugs or gambling. Nail biting doesn’t require you to buy anything. You don’t have to get in your car, drive down the street to a place to pay for something so you can bite your nails. You just do it wherever, whenever. It’s very different from other habits.

In reality, in order to quit nail biting, you just need to do it. Easier said than done, but it’s true.

People quit things cold turkey. It happens and it might happen for you too. Everything in life doesn’t have to be over analyzed and planned out to the nth degree. You do not necessarily need a 12 step plan to quit nail biting, smoking, drinking too much or anything you do that you’d prefer to do less of or quit entirely.

Or maybe you do.

To each their own. The point is that you need to try a strategy or strategies that work for you. When receiving advice to quit nail biting, you really do need to consider the source.

One size does not fit all

I’m loathe to tell you things like don’t try this product to quit nail biting or if you want to quit nail biting, you must do this or you’ll never quit and other universal statements that have no basis in reality. At the end of the day, each person is different and some things will work, some won’t.

I do believe – from personal experience and years of ignoring it – that you do need to understand why you bite and/or pick your nails and get to the root cause. That makes sense.

But when I finally quit nail biting at age 50 cold turkey – I literally just stopped biting and picking them and haven’t started again – I didn’t spend much time thinking about triggers or reasons for nail biting. But I had led myself to believe that I bit my nails due to:

• Stress
• Anxiety
• Boredom
• Habit

And certainly for a long period of time, this was the case. I remember specific cases where I’d start biting my nails upon dealing with something stressful or when feeling anxious and I knew I was doing it. It was a very conscious activity.

But the more I really paid attention to my nail biting habits I realized that I:

• Was actually more of a nail picker than biter.
• Mostly just picked and bit nails out of habit.
• Occasionally picked and bit nails out of boredom.
• Regularly just picked and bit nails because I felt like it.

In reality I really didn’t have any specific triggers anymore. I consciously and subconsciously bit and picked nails whenever I felt like it and even when I didn’t even know I was doing it.

So I stopped doing it.

Quit nail biting and remain a quitter

As I’m typing this, I have not been a nail biter or picker for about 4 months. I feel confident that I’m done with nail biting and nail picking permanently. I don’t even think about it doing it anymore. In doesn’t even register as something I can or should do.

During this time I have experienced occasions where I would have bit or picked nails in the past – instances of anxiety, stress, boredom – but I don’t even think about going back to nail biting. It doesn’t even dawn on me to do it.

I’m starting to become skilled at using nail clippers for the first time in my life and last week when I clipped them too short, I was angry at myself for shortening my nails so much! And my nails are much nicer looking and longer than they were when I was biting and picking them! It’s amazing how after decades of crappy, short, bitten nails that I never thought twice about, I’m now concerned about how they look.

Summary

Rather than listing a number of strategies and things you can try, I decided for this article just to write my thoughts about what I noticed about quitting nail biting. It worked for me and it may work for you too.

I have written a number of pages on this website that discuss ways to quit nail biting, triggers that cause you to bite your nails, how to approach children and toddlers to quit nail biting, damage you can do to your teeth, nail picking and much more.

Please do check out the other articles on this website and see what makes sense for you.