Self-harm.
I have bit my nails for as long as I can remember. Ten years ago I did however stop for a period of about 18 months. Don't know why I had the willpower then but it happend.

Unfortunately I ended up with a face full of scratches as I was not used to having sharp nails. I also managed to scratch my genitals more times than I wish to remember.

I eventually decided that nice nails were no use if I looked like Edward Scissorhands and so started to bite them again.

I even wore nail varnish for a while - Woo!
( girlinthehole, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:21, 19 replies)

Ah...
A fellow nail-biter.

I don't know what it is, I just can't stop.
Quitting drugs, smoking and drinking was easy by comparison.

EDIT: I have since un-quit drinking.
( Cawl, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:23, closed)

I don't bite my nails
I bite the skin around my thumbs. They're a mess at the minute.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:24, closed)

Don't bite my nails
but I have a habit of chewing the inside of my cheeks (the ones on my face, I'm not a bloody contortionist!), and like CHCB, the skin around my nails gets the odd nibble.
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Thu 29 May 2008, 14:26, closed)

Ah yes...
The skin around my nails tends to get collateral damage.
( Cawl, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:27, closed)

biosculpt!
ok, it's expensive (£70 a pop in knightsbridge near me, but cheaper oop north) but it's impossible to chip or scratch, looks great on long or short nails, and generally is teh shit!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:27, closed)

^ I assume
that's £70 for both hands?

She says casually, more likely to spend the £70 on books than nail stuff.
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Thu 29 May 2008, 14:29, closed)

I did like having nice nails.....
I used to hold my pint glass in a very lady-like way when they were long.
( girlinthehole, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:29, closed)

My mum's a chronic nail-biter
and so when I bit my nails when I was young she was worried - I grew out of though.

Come my wedding, she decided to get false nails. No, not the normal tacky stuff you can glue on yourself, these were actually false nails they layer up on top of your fingernail so they're really part of you - they last about three to four months and are thick enough not to chip. She's now taken to wearing them all the time, it's rather disturbing actually, especially as they get all kinds of dirt trapped underneath them, and as she isn't used to having long nails they don't get cleaned that often.
( Hampster Squared has stuff at www.tilla.co.uk, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:29, closed)

yeah, I used to.
My mother made me wear "stop 'n' grow", but I just developed a liking for the taste and bit them more than ever.

I've managed to cure that now. I masturbate instead to take my mind of it ;)
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:30, closed)

@Bob
It appears from the original post that BGB has tried that, but ended up with fanny damage.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:31, closed)

yay, it's not just me
Why is it so hard not to bite nails?

I'm ashamed of mine, they're so tatty and short and horrid, yet I keep doing it!
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:32, closed)

Nail biting
I've done it for as long as I can remember. I recall an attempt by a primary school teacher to determine the cause (must have been on a psychology course) by asking if I was trying to harm myself and did I not like myself.

That was my first memorable WTF?!?!? moment.
(Greencloud Wanted to go fishing on, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:38, closed)

Everybody knows it's an oral fixation.
What's the first thing babies do after their born? They stick their hands in their mouth. After that we stick anything we can in there. Pens, fags, fingers and if were lucky, somebody elses body parts.


@Kaol - still attached to the body of course.
( girlinthehole, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:43, closed)

Until I filed them this morning
my nails were almost an inch long. Completely natural.

If I'd known that there were this many nail biters out there I would have offered them up to the highest bidder rather than attacking them with an emery board.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Thu 29 May 2008, 14:43, closed)

No no no!
You can't bite someone else's nails!

It's against the Nail Biting Code!

Wrong, just wrong!
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:47, closed)

I somehow
managed to quit 3 years ago for about 6 months. Back on it though :P I also gnaw the skin off my fingertips..... they're so used to it that if I don't it loosens and starts falling off on it's own.
( baw__bag contains traces of nuts on, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:48, closed)

@ Mrs Liveinbin
An inch long over the end of your finger?

Bloody hell!

I usually have longish nails - although, come to think of it they're not that long because of the climbing...and all the typing - despite the common old fashioned image of secretaries having long nails (I'm not a secretary btw, but I do a huge amount of typing), long nails get in the way of typing...well, they do for me.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:55, closed)

I have this weird thing
where the skin under my nails joins the nail further forward than most people, so I can't bite them that far back without it hurting like hell

as a result and coupled with the incredible healthiness, my nails tend to look like I've had a manicure where they paint the white strip on the end (French manicure perhaps?)

this is not the case.

kind of annoying as I like to keep the nails short for playing the guitar
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 29 May 2008, 14:59, closed)

@ Chickenlady
Well not quite and inch. More like 3/4 really.
Yes over the end of my fingers.
I have really strong nails and do nothing to look after them.
They've always been this strong, in fact when I was a baby my mum had to cut them every day as they grew so quickly.
I've got so used to them that I can't manage without them.
I get asked if their fake all the time, in fact one woman asked me once and when I said they were real she replied 'Well you can't do much housework then'.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Thu 29 May 2008, 15:10, closed)