Stop Nail Biting » Self-help

You Can Stop Nail Biting – Don’t Give Up

Stubbs Nomore — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:08:07 +0000

Learning to Stop Nail Biting Is a Process

I don’t know anyone who was able to stop nail biting the first time they tried. It just doesn’t happen that way. You know what I’m talking about. In a moment of unguarded weakness, you chew off all or some of your nails in a few minutes. This can be devastating as you realize you just wrecked weeks or months of hard work to get your nails growing out.

The main thing is to not give up on yourself.

You are not a bad person, or a weak person. You have a bad disorder that causes you to fidget and release nervousness or boredom by biting your nails and pulling on your cuticles. You did not wish this situation on yourself. By reading this, you know you have the desire to stop nailbiting.

The thing you need to realize is that you can relapse and have a biting fit. It doesn’t mean you have to give up. You can start again and have success. I know, for me, it’s been tough sometimes to even care enough to get going again. But, I have found some ways to help get me going in the right direction again. The first thing is to take a few deep breaths, maybe do some meditating to release the anxiety over feeling like you failed yourself again.

Failure is only for quitters.

You just had a setback. You can get back on track to stop nailbitng right now. Once you have calmed yourself from the realization you have had a setback, do these things:

Get a good set of Cuticle and Hangnail Snippers and carefully trim away any hangnails or ragged cuticles.
Use a quality Ceramic Pocket File to smooth out your nails – all of them – even the ones you might not have bitten or chewed.
Use the file to smooth the cuticles that were damaged in the process.
Put some polysprorin on any open sores on your cuticles – this cuts down on potential staph infections.
Use a bandage for a couple of days if you need. It’s better to be embarrassed by bandage than having others looking at your unsightly nails.
Get some polish or nail hardener or ridge filler, or all three on your nails. The hardener will help keep the chewed softened tips from becoming targets for new biting episodes.
Start moisturizing your cuticles twice a day. I heartily recommend Nailtiques Nail Moisturizer. It’s the best I’ve found.
Forgive yourself for your relapse and move on with resolve to do better next time.
Vow to take better care of yourself, including your fingernails.

These things work for me. If you want more ideas and help like this, read my book, How to Stop Nail Biting. It’s available on Amazon.com and as the How to Stop Nail Biting – Kindle version.

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Stop Nail Biting Habits – Use Willpower, Products

Stubbs Nomore — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 06:43:53 +0000

Nail biting can be conquered.

Control-It! 3 Jar ~ 21 Day Fingernail Biting Treatment OMEGA3 Extra Strength, this doctor recommended cream heals cuticles, unlike polish that drys cuticles, STRONGEST SUCCESS RATE Available">However, to learn how to stop nail biting is never easy for those who have had a lifelong affliction to this most unwanted habit. It arguably is one of the toughest habits to break. There are so many things that go into nail biting. It is not a simple process of chewing on a fingernail or puling on a cuticle.

Nail biting involves an elaborate process that is most done in a subconscious state of mind. You don't think about it when you brush your hair from your forehead, or scratch a minor itch somewhere, you just do it without giving any full thought to the action. The same is true for the involved process of doing visual and tactile inspections by nail biters.

Nail Biting Is a Ritual. You Need Rituals to Learn How to Stop Nail Biting

Many non-nail biters will look at their nails consciously to admire them, or check for potential grooming needs that will be done later in private. They do this with no urge to remove a hangnail or correct a jagged fingernail, which is what happens when a nail biter looks at or feels his or her nail. That is the preparation that stimulates the brain into a desirous action.

I believe there is some kind of chemical reaction in the brain. Not unlike anticipating something pleasurable about to happen. Addicts are known to experience pre-high symptoms, lovers are known to have a quickened pulse and heightenend feelings of sensuality before any physical activity takes place.

You can put cigarettes and alcohol out of sight, you can stay away from most other temptations while you build your will power, but your fingers are always with you. As such, it's tougher to beat than any non-nail biter could ever imagine.

To stop nail biting, you need to train yourself to recognize your biting habits and then you need to train yourself to use alternative behavior patterns so you can overcome the powerful urges to groom your nails and cuticles by biting and pulling instead of using proper implements in private in a a manicure salon. That is what I teach in my book, How to Stop Nail Biting

To Stop Nail Biting You Start with Desire to Quit. Then You Need Nail Grooming Products to Help You Stay On Track

The first thing you start with is the desire. You have to have a plan and a fall back plan too. You get all that in my book. Additionally, you need the proper nail grooming tools to help you. To begin with, you might need some help from a product like Control-It! 3 Jar ~ 21 Day Fingernail Biting Treatment OMEGA3 Extra Strength. This doctor recommended cream heals cuticles, unlike polish that drys cuticles, STRONGEST SUCCESS RATE Available.

You also need some hardener polish, even the guys. Some argue it dries the nails and it might. I argue having stronger nails, especially at the tips is more important than moisture in the early going. If you can keep from chipping your newly growing nails, you avoid wanting to get after the break, tear, jag or what have you that will trigger a biting sequence.

Quimica Alemana Nail Hardener is a popular and affordable option. And guys, you can smudge the polish as it dries to matte it a bit. If you are concerned about your vanity or masculinity, think about how crappy your nails look now. This is a minor tradeoff for a few weeks to get your nails back in shape and lower your biting recurrences in the process.

To Quit Nail Biting, You Must Have and Use the Proper Nail Grooming Tools

Minimally the other tools you need are clippers, nippers and a good file. I recommend Tweezerman Stainless Steel Squeeze and Snip: Cuticle and Hangnail Snipper It is easy to carry in pocket, purse or briefcase. Use it to carefully and cleanly trim your cuticles whenever you notice something not smooth. Don't get aggressive or over snip and cause sores or more damage.

For clippers, just about any will do. If you want something more of a better quality than you find in the drugstore, try the Tweezerman Folding Nail Clipper. I have found the Tweezerman brand to offer consistently great value and high quality products. That is why I also like the Tweezerman Ceramic Folding Pocket File. It is a little bulky as its only drawback. An alternative is the Two Piece Men's Nail Kit in Black Leather Case. It contains a file and clipper in a nice case.

Commit to Quit Nail Biting Today.

Then commit to use tools like these to help you conquer the habit. For the most help, get my book so you can start learning techniques you can use anywhere in any situation to help you thwart nail biting temptations. This is especially helpful weeks or months later when your nails are grown, your guard is down, and a triggering event takes place.

Nailbiting – It May Not Be An Addiction…

Stubbs Nomore — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:19:40 +0000

While nailbiting is not officially an addiction, just ask anyone afflicted by the problem if it does not feel like one when it comes to trying to quit the habit. For many, it is harder to kick than losing weight or quitting smoking permanently.

The problem is partly because you are always in close proximity to your nails. You cannot quit hanging around them, the things you do, such as subconsciously feel for imperfections that trigger your nailbiting urges, never completely go away. I do not think you need to know the reason why you bite your nails. That information will not help you quit.

What you do need to know is what events and pre-biting rituals lead to biting. When you find your finger in your mouth, it is easy to work on your will power and try to use it to keep from continuing. It is more difficult to understand what you do that sent the signal to your brain to start the biting session.

You could find being bored or still watching television is a time when you attack your nail and cuticles. That is a nervous habit. Once you are aware, you can take measures to alleviate the situation. You can get something in your hands to fidget with such as prayer beads, a slinky, a tension ball, a tennis ball or anything else to replace the need to use your nails and cuticles to relieve whatever anxiety, boredom or tension is triggering you to bite and pull.

You also need to know what you do to both visually and manually inspect your nails. How often do you find yourself looking at your hand? You may not realize it, but you are looking for something that needs grooming. You do the same thing when your fingers rub against or around each other as you search for that hangnail or ragged tip just begging to be cleaned up.

Learn to groom your hands and nails properly. Use plenty of high quality hand lotion, keep proper nail implements near you at all times. These things will help. For some, knowing and practicing this is all it will take to quit. For others, the process will be more difficult and you will need more help. My book, How to Stop Nail Biting, can help. You can get it on Amazon.com for about $15. It is a quick read with useful solid advice to help you learn to conquer your nail biting habit.

If You Don’t Take Care, Your Bitten Nails Will Show It

Stubbs Nomore — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:29:34 +0000

Here is a simple truth about growing out your bitten nails and gnawed cuticles. Even if you manage to stop biting your nails for a period of time, you are vulnerable to relapsing for many reasons. One of the primary reasons is you haven’t taken the necessary steps to learn how to take of your nails. Or, you haven’t taken the necesssary steps to make taking care of your nails.

What I mean is if you aren’t taking time to proper groom your nails and cuticles with lotions, files, polish, hardeners, et cetera, it’s only a matter of time before you succumb to your old habit and all your hard work will be for ought. If you think about the inordinate amount of time and energy you put into biting your nails and the tremendous effort you went through in the process of learning how to stop nail biting, it’s just a shame you didn’t follow. Lack of follow through and real dedication to quitting are what puts people right back on the habit chewing their nails and pulling their cuticles until they are once again embarrassed for anyone to see them.

Don’t let this happen to you. If you have read my book, you know I give you plenty of suggestions for stopping nail biting and for proper nail care and maintenance afterwards. No one can help you, but yourself. The thing is, you are all you need to quit nail biting. So get started and keep after it. You are not going to reverse a lifelong habit in a few days. It may take repeated tries. But, you can do it. Good luck!

No Short Term Solutions to Stop Nail Biting

Stubbs Nomore — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:45:06 +0000

When it comes to nail biting, there are no “quick fixes” or easy short term solutions to help you learn how to quit your deeply ingrained fingernail biting habit. It’s easy enough to fall prey to those kinds of claims because for most nail biters they have suffered through repeated periods where they quit for a while then started again.

That repeated failure is the case should be enough to tell you there aren’t any easy ways to change one of the hardest of all habits to break. Just by the fact your fingers, hands, nail and cuticles remain always within sight, touch and feel adds a very difficult degree to quitting your nail biting habit. The bottom line is simple. You have to want to quit more than you want to chew your nails. If any part of you is not ready to make this kind of committment, you are setting up to fail.

Besides just summoning the will power and determination to quit, you need an effective reliable plan that takes you well beyond the first stage of reversing your lifelong nail biting habits. Think about it. Weeks after you have quit and have long stopped using the nasty tasting polish, or have had the effects of some other kinds of avoidance therapy wear off, you are still vulnerable to returning to your nail biting habits. It is then you need the deep self-administered training to fall back upon. You can’t wait to get home to polish your nails, or excuse yourself to go leave so you can quiet your nerves and steel your resolve.

You have to have a program that works to avert your nail biting or cuticle pulling habits available to you at all times. In other words, it has to be avoidance techniques that can be done under any circumstances in any situation. That way you have a great chance of keeping your newly grown nails intact. On the other hand, if you don’t have such a strong system to fall back upon, you are likely to cave in and start your habit all over again.

You know once you get started with the habit even a little bit, the odds you are going to become dismayed and give in to do more damage run high. That is why most nail biters who fail to keep up their new non-nail biting habits fails. One thing leads to another and once good looking nails look bitten to the shame of the nail biter.

You may be able to come up with your own solution for how to handle learning how to stop nail biting for good. If you do, that’s great. If you want to try what I found to work for me and others, then get my book, How to Stop Nail Biting. For the cost of one nice lunch, it will give you the outlook, tools, techniques and confidence to quit nail biting for good. It’s easy to read and understand. You can finish it in one evening and get started on your learning new ways to effectively fight back one of the most difficult of all habits to break.

New Book Teaches How to Stop Nail Biting Permanently

Stubbs Nomore — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:55:00 +0000

We are thrilled and proud to announce How to Stop Nail Biting has just been published as a paperback. You can find it at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. It is also available to retailers through Ingram.

Here is a copy of the PRWEB press release on Tuesday:

Learn How to Stop Nail Biting Permanently

If nail biting were a disease, it would be an epidemic. An estimated 11 million adults* in the U.S are faced with this problem. Although not officially an addiction, anyone so afflicted will attest that it is a hard habit to break. “How to Stop Nail Biting” is a new book which offers chronic nail biters an effective method by which to gain mastery over an entrenched and embarrassing habit.

Scottsdale, AZ (PRWEB) March 31, 2009 — Nail biters now have a comprehensive system to help them stop finger nail biting permanently. “How to Stop Nail Biting” provides a systematic approach to alleviating this problem. It starts with the premise that success comes when the desire to quit nail biting is greater than the need to continue. Readers progress through exercises designed to help them permanently reverse their deeply ingrained nail biting habits.

The learning starts with the recognition of near subconscious pre-nail biting rituals, followed by rehearsing techniques designed to help one avoid, and be distracted from, nail biting temptations as they occur. The unique method outlined in the book trains nail biters to control their biting urges with techniques they can use anywhere, anytime and under any circumstances. A proper nail care routine is also included as a crucial and integral part of the process.

Many who attempt to quit have failed because they found no help from nail biting polish and other nail biting treatments after quitting initially. It is in the long term that nail biters are most vulnerable to relapsing when an unexpected biting trigger occurs. In a few unguarded minutes, they can wreck weeks of abstinence, and psychologically undermine ongoing efforts to maintain self-restraint.

Nail biters will find the system they learn from “How to Stop Nail Biting” provides a permanent nail biting cure that puts an end to this debilitating habit. They will learn to enjoy long-lasting results by gaining confidence in their ability to maintain their newfound non-biting behavior. And when nail biters begin to enjoy the appearance of their hands and nails, this strongly reinforces their ability to sustain their new non-biting lifestyle.

In a nod to the stigma attached to nail biting, the book’s anonymous author uses the pen name, Stubbs Nomore. When he became serious about quitting, he could find no long-term cure for nail biting and became determined to create a system for himself. Through trial and error, he developed the methodical progressive methods taught in the book. The result is a book with easy-to-follow instructions that anyone who is serious about quitting can use to rid themselves of the nail biting habit once and for all

The book can be purchased at Amazon.com, BN.com and other e-bookstores. Booksellers will find it listed with Ingram. Bold Star Communications is a publishing and marketing communications company. It provides publishing services and marketing consulting for artists, authors and small businesses

*Operant learning (R-S) principles applied to nail-biting.
McClanahan TM. Psychol Rep. 1995 Oct;77(2):507-14.
PMID: 8559875 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE

Britney Spears Wants to Stop Nail Biting

Stubbs Nomore — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:46:00 +0000

Britney Spears’ Nail-Biting Resolution December 29th, 2008

Britney Spears is determined to stick to her New Year resolution – she wants to quit chewing her fingernails in 2009.

The Womanizer superstar hates biting her nails, and longs for manicured and attractive hands. But the singer insists there is a valid reason her dirty habit – she can’t stop worrying.

She says, “Next year, I have to learn to stop biting my nails! I would like to stop worrying so much, because I worry all the time. And to learn how to be happier, just in general. I have to learn to take things not so seriously.” However Spears doesn’t hold out much hope of sticking to her 2009 promise – because she’s never kept a resolution yet. She adds, “I end up breaking them. It’s hard.

Now just imagine. Here is someone almost constantly in the public eye. A person with millions in the bank and she is still plagued by the nail biting habit. If she has this problem and can’t get rid of it, you have to realize how difficult is to quit nail biting.

I can sympathize with her. More than 5% of adults have the same problem of nail biting. If it were a medical condition, it would be an epidemic. The problem with trying to quit is that no matter what one does, it is temporary. That is, all the methods and products out there focus on getting you to stop. But, the real problem occurs days or weeks later when your guard is down and a trigger moment puts you defenselessly in biting mode. I figured out a way to stop for good by coming up with techniques that don’t require products like bad tasting polish or hypnotism. They can be used anywhere anytime under any circumstantces. You can learn how I did it on my Web site: www.howtostopnailbiting.com. Good luck to Britney and every other less famous nail biter just trying to get rid of a habit that is really hard to break.

My Story: How I Taught Myself to Stop Nail Biting

Stubbs Nomore — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:12:00 +0000

I just published details on my personal story regarding how to stop nail biting. It is never easy under the best of circumstances. For some of us, it seems like we are doomed to live with this nasty bad habit and to never be able to break it.

Personally, I don’t believe that is the case. I believe if you want to quit permanently, you can. But you need the right tools and techniques. Up until now, I never found any way that would help me in the long run. Sure, there are many ways to quit nail biting in the short run, but none of them help you days, weeks or months later when the urges come back. That is problem. How do you keep from relapsing? When I figured that out. I finally defeated this lifelong bad habit.

You can get more details when you read My Story on my Web site. It is a site that offers my unconditionally guaranteed book. I am proud of the book and confident if you follow its advice you will quit nail biting for good. Even if you don’t buy the book, it will help your own quest to learn how to stop nail biting once and for all.

Cure for Nail Biting – an informative blog post

Stubbs Nomore — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:10:00 +0000

I came across an interesting blog post today. It offers some valuable insight into nail biting. Go there and you will also find it gives some useful straightforward advice on ways to stop nail biting. That is what this blog is all about and we are always happy to provide readers any tips or links that can help them.

The post is titled Cure for Nail Biting. Check it out, I think you will find it worth the time to read.

Abstinence in Nail Biting

Stubbs Nomore — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:47:00 +0000

Nail biting is not considered an addiction.

Due to the recent unfortunate news about actor David Duchovny’s stint in rehab for sex addiction, I read most professionals don’t think sex addiction as clinical addiction as with alcohol or drugs. They also do not consider gambling an addiction. According to these professionals, sex and gambling are compulsive behavioral problems, as is nail biting.

Try telling anyone afflicted with these problems, whether nail biting, gambling or sex and they will tell you they don’t care what the professionals say, it’s a problem as hard to quit as most addictions. Treatment for all of these problems comes down to a person finding a way to stay clean, or use abstinence as a way to deal with them.

To just quit nail biting is just not that easy for most

Now, if it were just as easy to do as it is to say things would be hunky dory. But, if you are reading this because you have one of those problems, (I’m assuming most would be because of nail biting issues), then you know to stop nail biting is one of the biggest personal challenges you face in your life. To someone who does not have the habit, they can’t imagine such a statement to be true. But, for nail biters reality says it is.

Abstinence is hard enough when you can get rid of the cigarettes or booze and avoid going where people use them. But, as you noticed a million times while biting, your fingers are for the purposes of abstinence inconveniently attached to your hands. My ebook, How to Stop Nail Biting, addresses the problem with methods you can use to get a grip, stop biting, refocus, relax and distract your temptation to bite.

How badly you are affected determines what kind of work and program you need to quit

There are plenty of people who quit on their own using some little method like keeping a file handy. I think those people are mildly addicted to biting. Just as with alcohol or cigarettes, some folks give it up rather easily while others suffer mightily and never make it on their own.

It’s your problem. You own it. You have to come to an understanding with yourself how deeply ingrained it is in you. When you do that, you can begin to lay the groundwork to put together a program of rehabbing your fingers through abstinence and care. If you can manage it, you will enjoy being proud of your hands like never before.