u/Proof_Archer_2052

I am going to try to keep this short and not complicate it

I stopped biting completely and mind you, I'm anemic, and I also have high anxiety. (anemia triggers the urge to chew on non-food items and anxiety causes this as a kind of fidgeting)

Get a small nail filer, quit only for 4 days at once, and like, treat this as a mental workout, you know? how we always start easy

This method has always worked: Stop biting nails for 4 days, clean them nicely whenever you're free, you can take them in between your teeth but IMMEDIATELY chew on something less pleasant. I trained myself to believe nail biting is not fun anymore since I followed my urges with not so exciting things.

Recognise the moments you feel the urge at, for me it was during my chess matches, on a call, or simply at a lecture of MATH especially, I realized that my anxiety peaked at these points. However it can be different for everyone else.

Anyway, after your 4 days are complete, you don't bite all of them down, YOU USE A NAILCUTTER and throw the growth.. No matter how small it is. Just continue this 4 days thing again and again until you forget the 4th days ending and your nail grows beyong. That's when you know you're ready to have nails again!

PLEASE your urge will weaken exponentially over time. It took me only two weeks to stop feeling the strongness in my nail biting urge. file them, or go without biting for more than 4 days, how much ever you can, and then if you bite it off mid days of 4, file the nail and continue the days for other nails.

Talk about it with those you're close with and those who won't judge, and keep posting here, or taking pictures of it.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: think of yourself as a person who has already quit, who's not in the 'process' of quitting. You become who you want to be only when you accept it and act like it, and not put it on a pedestal, as something you gotta achieve.

i really hope this helped someone because no tips or challenges worked for me since middle school, and I was so tired of people saying 'just stop' or apply some bitter thing on my hands or getting them done (extensions) but my religion don't allow that either, so I had my suffering raw and came out rare (it's a steak joke) okay lmk if yall have any questions ab ts