chronic onychophagia

we severe nailbiters are not alone with this habit even if it maybe bordering on OCD ! I also find I just keep biting hoping they will all be exactly the same length so they can all grow together, how silly ! I also bite and pick my toenails, sometimes so badly I can't put shoes on for a few days
I would like to, be in contact with others with this habit, please email me

sometimes i use a knife or clippers, and i also bite all the skin around my fingers. i also have calus's all over my hands that i chew on. is there medication for this

Oh my goodness, I never realized until earlier this evening that my nail biting was actually a disorder. I was reading a community on LiveJournal and someone made a post about a disorder called trichotillomania, which is pulling your hair out. I realized that I have a nagging urge to constantly tweeze my eyebrows and I often pull at my eyelashes so much that I end up with small bald spots. I also have caught myself tweezing hair on my thighs, which seems to cause me to break out.

Then I started thinking about this whole nail biting problem, obviously onychophagia. I remember being yelled at when I was taking ballet class when I was 3 1/2 years old, and I was sent to bed with Tobasco sauce on my fingers to keep me from biting my nails, and also from sucking my thumb, which I had an issue with until I was more than 10 years old. It wasn't until I stopped sucking my thumb that I started tearing away at my cuticles, as well as my nails.

I was told by a dermatologist when I was 18 that I was fortunate to have ANY fingernails at all, considering the infections I had at the base of the nail bed.

I'm 24 years old now and I still suffer. I have been told to stop chewing my nails by friends, and even found myself saying "I'm not biting my nails" and immediately realizing that my finger was *in fact* in my mouth. So often I do not even realize that I'm biting.

I wore acrylic nails for several years, until recently when I got a serious case of being lazy and I stopped wearing them (I did them myself). I started using this stuff called Nail Magic, which can be found in a royal purple box at Sally Beauty Supply. It has helped my hereditary (and still worsened by my constant gnawing) weak, brittle, peeling nails to grow strong so it is MUCH harder for me to actually bite through them. I find that I still rip them off and bite at them to make them smooth when they do break, at which point I end up tearing them down to horrible lengths.

I also gnaw at my cuticles something fierce. The solution that I have found is applying a hand cream, one that absorbs quickly, like Palmer's Concentrated Cocoa Butter Cream (Walmart) and then applying a Liquid Bandage over the affected cuticle area. If you put on the two coats like it suggests, it creates a smooth layer over the dry, pointy, prickly hangnails that get caught on all my clothes and hair, which make me crazy until I bite or pick them off. The next morning (I do this at night), the liquid bandage is lifting around the skin that isn't damaged. I find pleasure in picking at the liquid bandage, instead of my damaged skin, and thereby get the relief that picking and gnawing gives me. The nice part is the liquid bandage won't just peel off like a bandaid, it will still cling to the damaged skin, so I often have enough time for the skin to actually heal! The liquid bandage won't last for more than a day or two, especially with washing your hands, so applying the hand cream to aid in healing, and then the liquid bandage helps SO much.

I don't remember to use the liquid bandage all the time, especially when I become stressed or busy, I'll often skip it at bed time, talking myself into believing that it will take FAR too much time and I need to get to sleep. The same for skipping on the Nail Magic. So my nails and cuticles will often fall into old habits, which I have yet to successfully break for any period of time. However the liquid bandage is almost unnoticeable, besides being slightly shiny or once it starts to peel in multiple areas, so I don't feel quite so bad about my hands now.

I also have caught myself constantly running my fingers through my scalp, looking for deposits of hair product. I've got several large, painful scabs in my scalp where I just can't seem to leave them alone until they heal. The same problem is for blemishes on my face, I can't leave my face alone. I actually think now that I am actually CAUSING the blemishes because I don't leave my face alone.

Like I said, I just realized this a few hours ago tonight. I know where the need to bite and pick comes from, though. My father was horribly abusive and living in a home with constant death threats (both verbal and physical), as well as constant physical, emotional and mental abuse from him is where this stems, it has to be. He also made daily "routine examinations" of my pubescent face and would wrench my neck and head in ways that were uncomfortable and painful as he groomed my skin for me. Sometimes it lasted for hours. I lived with him and my Mom (who suffered the abuse as well) from birth until I was 18, when I had him arrested. Whenever I am stressed, I find that I tear my fingertips to shreds. I find that when I'm bored, I end up in the bathroom, sitting on the counter with my feet in the sink, scouring my face less than 6 inches from the mirror for imperfections. The only way that I can ever get down is to keep telling myself to STOP and GET DOWN like I'm talking to my cat when she's on the kitchen table. Often I can't just say it sternly in my head, I have to say it out loud to myself, calling myself by name, and then I am able to stop and walk away.

I have always felt like I just didn't have the discipline to kick this bad habit. I think that now that I know that its a disorder, I'll have the motivation to hopefully kick this once and for all. I hope that this has been helpful to everyone, as your stories were very helpful to me.

I TOO SUFFER FROM THESE PROBLEMS. I WAS DIAGNOSED IN THE FALL OF 2000 WITH PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA...SO THAT IS JUST SETTING ME UP FOR ISSUES. BUT I GUESS SINCE I WAS ABOUT FIVE OR SIX I BIT MY NAILS. BUT NOW AT THE AGE OF 27 IT'S HORRIBLE. I HAVE PRETTY MUCH NO NAILS. I KEEP MY TOE NAILS VERY SHORT...SOMETIMES I BITE THEM...OH YEAH I EAT THE NAIL PIECES TOO. WEIRD BUT TRUE. NOW I PICK AT MY SKIN WHICH IS DERMATILLOMANIA. IT'S VERY BAD. MY LEGS ARE COVERED WITH SCABS AND SUCH. I PICK AT MY SCALP TOO. I ALSO FIND IT SOOTHING TO PULL AT MY EYE LASHES AND MY EYE BROWS...ACTUALLY I'M MISSING PART OF MY LEFT EYEBROW. I'M TRYING TO LET MY EYEBROWS GROW BACK IN FROM MY PULLING THEM AND OVER PLUCKING. I ALSO LIKE TO PULL THE HAIR AROUND THE AREA NEAR MY FACE, ABOVE MY EARS...YOU KNOW THAT LITTLE BIT OF HAIR? I JUST HATE INPERFECTIONS ON MY BODY...BUT ALAS...MY BODY IS COVERED IN THEM...NO NAILS...SCABS...MISSING PARTS OF EYEBROW...


WELL, IT WAS NICE TO READ OTHER LETTERS WITH PEOPLE DEALING WITH ISSUES LIKE MINE...

~SHASTA

i too have bitten my nails ever since i can remember. I never thought i was good enough for anything or anyone, my homelife was and is a constant battle trying to merge to families together. my parents divorced when i was about 8, which i suppose is why i do it. everyone asks me "why dont you just stop?" but i actually feel like i will bite them forever. the other day my friend asked me what was wrong with my fingers.

Also, i thought i must be the only one who has a "weird urge" or feeling that my nails are imperfect so if i push at the cuticle around the side of my nail, or if i just bite off this one jagged peice of nail then it will look better, but i know that its just making it worse. Its almost like anorexia or something.

Nail polish, normal and the bad tasting stuff do nothing to stop me. Hot sauce, soap, snapping elastic bands... ive tried it all.

About 4 years ago, my nail biting go so bad that i started to pull out my hair on the top of my head. (trichotillomania) I figured i mustve been the only one that would actually pull out hair one by one for pleasure until i googled it. I had an acutal bald spot about the size of a quarter, and id pin my hair in such a way to hide it. The hair pulling kept on for a year or more, but i managed to finally get contol of it because i wanted my pretty hair back again. I'll still catch myself pulling out a hair or two when im under stress or in a fight, but thats as far as it will go.

My only advice to others who suffer from nail biting or trichotillomania, having suffered (suffering) from both myself is sheer determination. Thats all you can do. I have yet to overcome my nail biting, but i know i could do it if i tried hard enough. I quit once for a month but i couldnt help but relapse. Im a like a smoker lol. No laughing matter though, good luck to you guys : )

HI, I have been searching online for this subject. I am no longer young (almost 59) I bit my nails until my late 20s, then because I was ashamed of how my fingernails looked,I just stopped. I have had nervous disorders all of my life, some mild others quite severe. I am now on various medications such as anti depressants. When younger,I could not bite my fingernails short enough so I used a nail clipper or razor, yes that's right razor. By cutting at the edge or side of a fingernail at a different angle, I found that I could then tear a strip off much easier and lower than ever. I get immense pleasure and pain during this and I really enjoy the feeling for days after, it's almost sexual for want of a better description. In recent times I have begun fantasizing about this again, even though I haven't cut (not bitten) my fingernails for about 30 years. When I think that my fingernails are 'too long' or uneven I just about go crazy and get my wife to 'trim' as deep as she will go. I am scared that this yearning will take a hold yet once again and I am eager for suggestions.

I am a chronic onychophagist and admit that I enjoy biting my nails. I bit my fingernails and toe nails as a child, but stopped the toe nail biting in my early 20s when I was no longer flexible enough to do it. The habit is unsanitary, but I bit my nails the whole time I was in India, Africa, and the Orient. No one reading this should think I am an emotional wreck because I am a family and career man who has a happy life. My point is that it is better not to bite ones nails, but anyone who does should not feel ashamed. The habit is mainstream, and at most a very miniscule problem.

I'm 54 , just attended an N.L.P. course and made to think of Eggplant every time I have the desire. I hate Eggplant and won't go near it it makes me sick. Also I imagine myself as Paul Kelly [for you Aussies] trying to do his stuff with nails like mine. I'm going off Paul Kelly and even ready to accept Eggplant into my diet even though my wife disguises it in the dish as much as she can. I'm back on Stop and Grow which is more palatable than Eggplant. Help. I'm getting to old for this!!!

I surprise myself by saying it, but this is the first time I've ever researched this -- and I've been biting my nails since I was about 7. I'm now 38. Like many of you, I've tried the works -- bitter stuff on the nails, willpower, rubber band going Snap on the wrist whenever I bite, shame, guilt, bleeding, hiding, etc. Nothing positive ever sticks.

I was doing some reading recently and two things stood out. One: The idea that you cannot break or reverse a habit unless and until you develop that habit's opposite. Merely fighting the urge to look at your nails (and thus bite) isn't enough; at some point you're going to look. You'd have to work on an opposite habit -- for example, every time you look at them, say, "My nails look great," and move on.

The second idea is a form of self-hypnosis. You write down, each day, a goal you want to achieve. The act of writing this puts out a message to the universe (I know, very squishy and Deepak Chopratastic) and to yourself your intentions, which become solidified through repitition of the words. Tell yourself that's what you want and that you're going to get it.

I'm looking forward to making these work. I believe that if you know it can work, it can and will. Good luck and thanks for reading.

Hi All,

Please don't feel alone in this. Both me and my sister chew our fingernails and cuticles down to bloody messes. For years we picked the skin off the bottoms of our feet, too, and didn't know the other was doing it. When we finally talked to our mom about it, we found out that our maternal grandmother did it for years and years.

We have tried some antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, nail flavoring stuff... I have peeled the skin off the bottoms of my feet so bad that it hurts to walk for days and days. I almost always eat the skin or the nails, too, which I know is completely disgusting and repulsive to someone else.

Neither of us have any idea how to stop. It can be when we are nervous, or at ease, bored, or upset.

There was a short time when things were good, about 6 months, then I lapsed back into it. My psychiatrist just tells me to wear gloves, but I can't type at work when I do that, plus it causes lots of questions to be asked.

I don't know what to do with myself.