2 months progress…I finally succeeded after biting for 17 years!
While I’ve made progress of trying to quit in the past, I always ended up biting after two weeks or so. Want some things I learned so that it can help others! My tips are not very conventional but it’s what worked for me so maybe it’ll help u out!
- Finding a positive goal to stop
It seems kind of an obvious step, but in the past my main reason to stop was because I felt shame and embarrassment of having short nails. So when I ended up giving in and biting, it was because i had the mindset of “I don’t care, the satisfaction of biting outweighs the embarrassment/shame I feel.” Changing this mindset and putting a goal helped me a lot more than I thought. I love art, so seeing shorts/pictures of cute gel nails made me want to grow my nails out. This gave me a stronger motivation to commit to not biting.
- Gel polish
For me gel polish was what worked because I liked the smooth soft feeling of the polish, and it deterred me from biting because the texture didn’t “feel right”. I used colored gel polish but they sell clear ones/nude tones for ppl who want something more plain. I also felt less of an urge to bite after finding out how fun it is to paint my own nails.
- Filing nails
This is rlly important! Filing my nails into a rounded thin shape helped me while my nails were growing. In the past, when my nails got slightly long, I felt an urge to bite cuz it felt like it was “hanging out” of my finger in a square shape. Filing it instead of using nail clippers also gave me less of an urge because i never had to see a loose nail (which is kinda triggering for me)
- Replacing the habit
For me I had to find something to replace the satisfaction I got from biting my nails. This ended up being peeling the gel polish from my nails. It’s def not the healthiest advice but for me, it was way better than actually biting my nails, and it was also easier to stop peeling the polish after I got better at nail art.
- lasting at least one month
I’ve heard that to break a habit, you’ve got to at least last one month, and I feel like it’s true based on my experience. After a month passed, the urge to bite passed. Sometimes I still get it briefly but seeing how pretty my nails look nail helps a lot for me to stop.
- save every finger
I tried the technique of only biting one or two fingers as a way of quitting slowly, but it only made me want to but the rest even MORE. I would highly reccomend that if u are gonna quit, do not bite any of them. If u rlly have to, bite ur toenails or something 😭🙏
I never thought id actually be able to quit but here I am!! Just want to say it’s definitely possible to start quitting on any random day, and that starting now is better than later! You got this!!