It's hard to tell when it started, but its easy to see the results. Ragged, war-torn nails bound to snag and scratch everything they make contact with. Sometimes I look in the mirror and see strange scratches on my face, thinking I may have been attacked by angry cats in my sleep. A serrated middle finger suddenly makes contact with my thumb, and I know.
In and around 2008 my nail biting was so out of control that I started talking about it with others. "What could I do to curb this horrible habit of mine?" My boss at the time also suffered from this "bad habit" and gave me a bottle of No Bite nail polish. You paint it on your nails, and the next time you stick a finger in your mouth, you taste shit. It works, and the polish lasts for almost a week, depending on how much of it you eat.
Of course, you have to keep up the habit of painting it on. After a few weeks I stopped using it of course, and resumed my nail chomping, much to my mouths delight of course. It always feels quite good to relapse on a bad habit too.
I used to assume that my nail biting habit was the product of stress, nervous energy, anxiety about my day or whatever.
I google it....
I wasn't surprised to see that there is a wikipedia page specifically on nail biting. Wikipedia calls it "an impulse control disorder in the DSM-IV-R while the ICD-10 classifies it as "other specified behavioural and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence"
That sounds horribly serious. After reading that, and the section about "behavioral treatments" I could easily imagine a life filled with visits to nail biting specialists, various physicians and psychologist, medications, treatment regimens, and support groups, all in the name of eliminating my "impulse control disorder"
It's true that I'm periodically concerned about it, and wouldn't mind quitting.... but... I dont care that much.
I went for another google....
Over at ezinearticles they're a little more kind on the subject. They say that "millions of people" bite their nails, ( which I KNEW ) and that it's mainly from "boredom, stress, or worries." They also mention that "people with higher levels of intelligence" start chewing on their nails earlier. I like the sound of that, and I suddenly feel.... almost proud...... of my habit. I do this because I'm of a higher intelligence.... yeah...
Perhaps my nail biting is, in reality, a quite sophisticated thing. Much like: smoking pipes, sipping scotch, and..... such....
The most effective solution to biting my nails, I've found so far, is simply to keep my nails as short as possible, thereby drastically reducing my teethes ability to grab ahold of anything to mangle.
I dated a girl once who told me my nails were way too short, and that I should keep them longer. So for her, I decided to give them a grow-out. It was a catastrophe. I chewed them into long disgusting sculptures of horror. I quickly went back to keeping them short.
In addition to biting my nails, I have another habit that involves biting. I use my teeth to pull out small hairs from my hands and fingers. I once googled this too just to make sure I wasn't alone in this odd sort of thing. I'm not of course. google it.
RadioLab ( podcast ) did an episode on stress, and they mentioned something interesting. "Biting and chewing is a natural way to relieve stress, and can be an effective way of lowering it". So I guess I can just look at it that way. I'm lowering my stress. Biting my nails is actually helping me. To quit would be unhealthy and would drive me to more..... harmful habits. Like smoking. Besides, if you quit too many "bad habits" you just end up with nothing to do during all those lulls in life. Instead of a quick moment to do something harmless and slightly destructive, you're just left with... boredom. And everyone knows what boredom leads to...
Bad habits.
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