Saw this subreddit more or less 6 months ago in april. Got out of a bad mental state back then and my nails were suffering under it. Wanted to change this habit i picked up like 10 years ago so i no longer had to hide my fingers or be ashamed of them.

Like many with this behaviour, nail polish with aversive taste doesn’t help. Also being told to just stop or whatever isn’t realistic.

What worked for me was making a conscious decision to want to stop. At the beginning i wore cotton gloves at home, which was the only place where i was biting them. With those gloves i no longer could unconsciously do what i did for so long. Also i worked on the underlying issues, which are in my case being able to deal better with stress or find different coping mechanisms. Also important to try and fix the underlying issues causing the stress.

Putting colourful nail polish on once their a bit grown is helpful, cause it may trigger u less to bite them. Was at least the case for me.

Sending out love to everybody struggling, it gets easier, all love.

I’m excited to see some growth and progress, I’ve been growing my nails out and then relapsing for as long as I can remember, but this is my first time getting them done professionally. Honestly, part of my motivation to do so is so I can convince myself that I paid a lot and therefore I shouldn’t ruin the expensive manicure. I’m excited to se where this journey takes me.

hi everyone, I had been a nail biter/ picker for all my life until roughly a year ago. I got really into nail polish and decided I wanted healthy nails. With determination, I stopped biting and picking at my nails and started taking better care of them!

My nails on my non dominant hand hadn’t had any major chips or breaks in 6 months and were pretty long for my standards! I still had a lot of progress to make but I was proud of them and myself.

Last night I was in a very stressful hours long situation regarding the safety of a family member where I was the primary responsible party. Just due to sheer stress I completely ruined my nails and bit them/ picked them all off 😭 I didn’t even realize what I was doing until it was already done. they’re SO short and damaged and jagged and peeling and layered. And even a bit sore from where the nail bed was disrupted. All my months of progress gone in an hour!

Everyone is safe and sound now, which is what’s most important. But in the aftermath I can’t help but be so devastated about my nails 😭 it’s going to take months just to grow out the damage so that they can be healthy before I try growing them long again. I was just having so much fun giving myself manicures with my long pretty nails!

It feels a bit silly to be so sad over them, especially when something much more serious happened, but I was hoping some of yall would understand! I would really appreciate any words of encouragement 💚

It is fair to say that I have had my share of ups and downs for years
What has helped lately getting regular nail appointments
I started with short acrylic extensions
Then switched to BIAB
Several nails have pinged off and I relapsed and bit those ones but just went back today and really happy with how they are looking!