Nailbiting: A Quick Retrospective (This Is Gross)

1/5/25

Biting your nails is a common habit. Less commonly, it becomes an actual problem. Rarely, it becomes something that takes over your life and affects your ability to do simple tasks.

I used to have a problem.

How far would you bite your nails? Maybe just down to the nail bed? Further? It’s possible to go further, with enough willpower. I used to regularly bite my nails until they bled. All 10. It hurt! It hurt quite a bit. And then I’d keep going.

I can’t remember when this problem started, so I can only assume I’d been this way my whole life. Just chowing down on my nails like candy, the satisfaction of the crunch against my teeth at odds with shooting pains down my fingers. Peeling off the top layers of my nails and then tearing right out from the cuticle, feeling it unlodge from under your skin. You know how that feels? I recall it feeling like pressing a bruise, sorta. My fingers feel uncomfortable from the contact with my keyboard just remembering this feeling. How on earth did I manage to do that every other day?

This section is horribly unsanitary. Please don’t search up the things in here if you don’t want to see, y’know, all that.

I would get teeny blood smears on my school work when writing. Some days it would be difficult to hold pens and pencils. I couldn’t dream of peeling stickers off their backings properly. At one point, I was biting the skin around my nails so bad, warts started to grow around them. I think I had three around one cuticle alone. Those motherfuckers spread like wildfire. Got some on my knuckles, too.

I think the most extreme point of this was when I bit one of my fingernails down to the point where at least half the nail bed was fully exposed and swollen. Ouch. And I kept biting at it! Why the fuck did I do that! How did I do that?

And the way mutilated nails grow back… it’s sorta interesting, actually. You know how the nail bed gets lumpy (because it is, after all, flesh) and the first thin layers have to grow right over them so there’s dips and curves on the nail surface? And how they just sort themselves out eventually? Real strange.

One of the weirdest things about this, in my personal and very humble opinion, is that no adults really did anything about it? Not for a while, at least. It was mentioned casually by most, occasionally with a tone of concern, but it took a while for any action to be taken. My mum got me some wart-remover-liquid-thing that burned my normal skin as well as one of those anti-biting polishes that are supposed to taste bad. Only the wart remover worked, and even then it took a long time to do anything.

To this day, I have no idea why I bit my nails so much, nor do I know why I haven’t been able to fully stop. I’m much better now, sure, but still. I have some vague theories which probably don’t fit well into a little post about nail biting, but that’s all.

Like most nail biters, I went through a few phases of wanting to quit before any actual success. God, what ages were they? It must’ve been at least since I was 10, this shit got annoying fast. Ultimately, my most successful attempt at cutting this habit out was when I was 15, give or take.

First, let’s talk about what doesn’t work. Clear nail polish was pretty much useless, I have no idea why anyone suggests it. What is it even supposed to do? The nail looks and feels pretty much exactly the same as before.

Bitter polishes are good in theory, but… maybe I’m gross, whatever, but do they really taste that bad? I think I only ever tried one, so it could be that this specific one isn’t great. If you’ve had this habit for long enough, no taste repels you from the high-class delicacy of keratin slithers mixed with your own blood.

Jokes aside, you get used to it.

Wrapping things around your fingertips is just impractical. I tried with little plasters once, and it’s impossible to do anything. Writing, using your phone, doing anything in the bathroom - the inconvenience outweighs any possible benefits of the wrappings, and so you quickly do the logical thing of removing them. Back to square one.

Cutting your nails… Why does that advice exist? So there’s ‘nothing to bite’? I don’t believe for a second that whoever popularised this has ever dealt with this problem. Surely, most of the people who are so desperate to stop biting their nails have nothing left to cut off anyway, so what use would this be? Perhaps this is for those with already manicured nails who don’t want to ruin them, as opposed to those whose nails are already ruined.

In the end, a few specific things worked out for me. Frustratingly, the most effective thing was to have an actual tangible reason to stop. I know, it’s the ‘just believe in yourself’ method, but listen. Maybe you want your nails up to a specific length? Maybe you want to be able to paint them in a particular colour? Figure out a goal, one that can be seen and measured, and then keep checking yourself so that you reach it. For me, I wanted to be able to scratch an animal on the head with my nails. That’s… it. After a lifetime of biting, that of all things was what got me to stop. Giving a cat a real good scratch around the back of the head.

I still remember how proud of myself I was when I first noticed my being able to do that.

Clear polish didn’t do anything for me, but coloured polish did. I used black, but anything works. It’s also fun to pick at, and while it doesn’t scratch the same metaphorical itch as biting your nails does, it can serve as a slight distraction. Just make sure it’s a colour you like.

Saving at least one nail unbitten can help for motivation, as you can see how well that nail grows out compared to the rest. I had no idea that my nails were supposed to be, like, strong, until I let my thumbs grow. It’s practical, if nothing else, to have at least one nail that can open soda cans and peel stickers.

Once my nails were finally able to grow out, I was shocked by how hard I had to work to maintain them. Not only did I have to swat my hands away from my mouth every hour, but I had to keep my nails short lest my mind misidentify them as chew toys.

You know how much effort it takes to keep your nails groomed?

I sure as fuck didn’t!

Nobody ever taught me, nor did I have to teach myself, to trim and file my own nails, since they were already so short. I would’ve been 15 when I had to start regularly filing my nails, snipping the cuticle so I wouldn’t bite that instead, etc. - and it still annoys me that I have to keep doing that! And then they grow out again and I have to refile them and make sure they don’t break or get dirt underneath or start scratching me in my sleep. Sisyphean task.

The benefits of having nails that aren’t throbbing whenever I hold things, however, is more than worth the hassle.

Have you ever tried a glass nail file? They get the job done much faster than emery boards and are a one-time investment. I’ve had the same one for years and, even though I did snap it in half that one time, it works just as well as it did the day I bought it. It too is black.

…I don’t know what the point of this is, other than writing for the sake of writing. Biting your nails is weird, usually has weird causes, and leads to weird problems. I already said that I don't know why I bit(e) my nails, but I would like to have a definitive reason some day. I like my nails now, and even though I’m not perfect and I do still bite them from time to time, they’re much more practical this way. If even one person makes another attempt to quit because of this, I’ll be happy.