How do I stop biting my nails? Willpower hasn’t worked and smearing my fingers with hot sauce is impractical for keyboard reasons. What else can I do? I’ve thought of buying gloves, but I’m worried about diminished typing speed and a sensory issue where my fingernails and wool don’t get along well. Options?
The thing about filing is not that your nails are too long. For some people the trigger for biting their nails is that they notice a piece of a nail sticking up far enough to be bitten. If they file the nails as short as they bite them, but completely even, then that trigger never happens, so they stop biting their nails.
Pretty much substitute filing for biting, because that looks nicer and is easier to modulate into something that does make sense.
How do I stop biting my nails? Willpower hasn’t worked and smearing my fingers with hot sauce is impractical for keyboard reasons. What else can I do? I’ve thought of buying gloves, but I’m worried about diminished typing speed and a sensory issue where my fingernails and wool don’t get along well. Options?
You could try something like http://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Finger-Gloves-Versatile-Coverage/dp/B0002NYPGU as well. (May be too warm for regular use, though.)
Does it help if you just cut and file your nails really short?
Have you tried using nail polish instead of hot sauce?
My teeth already keep them really short, actually shorter than is aesthetically advisable.
Nail polish is an interesting counter-incentive to putting my nails in my mouth, no so much for the taste, but for the toxicity. I may try that.
The thing about filing is not that your nails are too long. For some people the trigger for biting their nails is that they notice a piece of a nail sticking up far enough to be bitten. If they file the nails as short as they bite them, but completely even, then that trigger never happens, so they stop biting their nails.
Pretty much substitute filing for biting, because that looks nicer and is easier to modulate into something that does make sense.
I believe there is a transparent nail polish explicitly made to teach people not to bite their nails—it tastes horrible, by design.