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I bite my nails and am proud of it. My mom forwarded me this article so I would stop. I am 25 and am looking forward to another two decades of not having cuticles.

My dad is a lifelong nail biter.

As a young child, I briefly bit my nails. Around age 11, no longer bit my nails but started pulling my hair, leaving bald spots. I have often wondered if the nails and hair are the same problem expressed differently.

I would sometimes go on pulling jags, but could never identify a specific trigger.

Throughout my life, everything I tried failed to stop my hair pulling, but as I entered menopause, it effectively ceased. And I don't bite my nails, but my dad still does.

Another sibling went through a brief period of pulling out eyelashes. Less immediately apparent than either nail biting or hair pulling.

I think there's a genetic element in some cases.

Brian, please don't dumb down your show with these types of segments.

This is so gross I shut it off and tuned in a different station.

(a) I'm adopted, have no idea what my nature was like ... but my nurture was not a nail biter.

(b) Robert, TRY the nail clipper trick ... but you MUST carry it with you and have it accessible at all times ... let the ARTIST part of you _want_ to appreciate nice hands ... get a good hand lotion that smells appealing ... maybe one of those gardening ones for cuticles ... makes your nails feel good. To succeed at stopping, I think one needs to make the habit CONSCIOUS ... then the new habit can eventually become unconscious. If you are an organist worth your salt, I am sure you can change this habit ... think of it as a new piece of music to play ... you learn it bit by bit.

I'm almost 40 and was never able to stop biting my nails until I started taking guitar lessons a little while ago. You have to maintain your nails to play decently and that was the only thing that got me to be more aware of this habit. I'm not completely cured but I'm more conscious of it and can almost control it.

I'm a freelance musician, which means that I have to hustle every day to line up the next gig. I have always bitten my nails since childhood, with one exception: when I came home from a three-month tour as a keyboardist with a show in Europe in '94, I realized that I had stopped biting my nails! I think that the reason is that I was relaxed. My responsibilities were limited during the tour. As long as I showed up for showtime to play in the orchestra pit, not only was the rest of my time completely my own, but there was nothing I could do from abroad to line up work back at home -- so I stopped worrying about it. This was before everybody had a cell phone.

Robert, :->

I used to bite my nails when I was much younger. I guess this had to do with some sort of anxiety, because I have some issues with managing anxiety now, in my 20's.

However, I stopped biting my nails in High School...or Middle school actually. I had a friend who would bite his nails til they bled and started to get disgusted with the habit.

Also, I took up drumming and it seemed to give me something to do with my hands. Now I need to work on the real bad habit...procrastination!

I have thought, as one here mentioned, going to have my hands manicured but I'm so embarrassed to show my nails even to the manicurists, they may, like David, say ewwwwwwwww, even though I don't put them in my hiney-hole. LOLOLOLOL.

My 20 yr old son started biting his nails when he was about 4 years old. The pediatrician said "I'm 40 and still bite my nails. Pick and choose your battles."
My son still bites them and I don't worry about it.

Dear Nail Biters,

Please do whatever it takes--therapy, rubber bands, bitter apple--to stop. Being around a nail biter is revolting. It's like being around a chronic nose picker. A filthy habit.

Best of luck,

Maggie

David you must be kidding.

I'm sixty-two and embarrassed to death about that most disgusting habit I have, nail-biting. I have tried so hard to stop and have failed. It's most embarrassing when I'm asked what I do, I tell people I am an organist and immediately put my hands behind my back because the first thing they do after my announcement is to look at my hands. No one in my family bites nails. My dad only bit his one pinky nail while watching tense moments on TV baseball games and boxing (1950s) but only that one nail. I don't know if that influenced me, when he'd yell, "GET YOUR FINGERS OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!" I'd reply, "you bite your nail!"

I bit my nails as a child -- til about the age of 16. After that I had a series of jobs -- on an oil tanker, in a lumber yard -- that made my hands so dirty that I lost the habit. So the solution is to get your hands really dirty.

Did the caller really just say, "Hiney-hole"? Ewwwwwwwww!

I used to bite my nails then I started getting manicures. My nails grew nicely and I didn't want to bite them anymore. That and the nail polish tastes nasty.

Long, long ago (in my 20's) ... I used to chew my nails ... and I felt it didn't look good professionally ... so ... I started carrying around a nail clipper, and then, INSTEAD OF chewing my nails, I clipped them ... even if it was down to the quick. Eventually, I didn't need to do that any more, it took about 6 months ... and now, 30 years late, I still don't chew my nails, except very rarely.

I find substituting a GOOD habit for a bad one, satisfies the "habit" need and stops the bad action.

Count me in the crowd of biters, but neither of my parents were. Hmmm...

I just can't stop... the nasty-tasting nail covering just made my biting taste nasty.

When I am not under stress (but relaxing and not using my hands - at a movie etc.) it gets worse!

Help!!!

How so very interesting!