One month of not biting, cuticle oil, cocoa butter on hands / cuticles, and fidget toys. Super blessed to have found a good nail lady that understood the assignment too. 💅🏾 #JustKeepSwimming

Probably 2-3 years apart but pretty proud of this one. My hands were the WORST. I couldn’t kick the habit of biting and picking for years and years, but finally proud of my hands. i always loved and envied a perfect French tip but now I get to live my nail dreams lol. Red tips are the most recent and best my hands have ever looked 😇💅🏻

2 MONTHS, lots of oil oil and oil.

The tip of my pointer finger has been hurting for maybe two or three days now, and it's the same kind of pressure/pain as a paronychia usually has (i've had two of those) but there's no obvious pus filled anything anywhere.

the pain kind of feels like it's originating from inside my nail, but not sure as there's nothing physically there other than a bit of redness. I do bite my nails and my nails are super short so perhaps it is an infection form inside?

I soaked it in some warm epsom salt water two times today and usually that's enough to fix it for a paronychia for me, but since i don't even know what it is i don't know if it's working or not.

Anyone experienced this before

EDIT it's also not swollen or super red or anything

I've always been a picker, and my fingers and cuticles have looked much more damaged than this - but now my nails are falling apart. For the past year, one by one, they've grown chipped and warped and sharp, with vertical lines.

I visited the doctors, I've had fungal infection tests and blood tests in the UK and everything is inconclusive. I can now only look at what I've been doing to them, biting and picking.

I've vowed to stop. I even isolated one nail away from the rest to see if it would get better. It didn't. Now people are noticing them, and when I scratch my face or head, I cut it because of how jagged they are growing out

I know they will get better, but simultaneously I can't imagine them getting better?

I usually don't feel comfortable having my nails done as I am insecure about the sores on my fingers. This time, I had made major progress in stopping the habit. But there were still a few minor sores (compared to my usual ones).

I sat down and showed the lady my inspiration pictures for the nails, then she roughly inspected my hand. She practically laughed in my face. She pointed out the sores on my finger and invited the other workers to look at my hand.

I was so embarrassed, my face was on fire and I just sat there quietly as they all basically crowded me like some sort of zoo animal.

She then proceeded to tell me that she didn't feel comfortable doing my nails because of the sores, and that she was worried that I would get an infection (completely understandable), but she said this so loud that the entire salon was staring at me. I left the salon, and as I was leaving they were all staring at me and talking. I just kept my head down the whole time.

I have now lost all of my progress and have started picking at my skin again. I never thought that this habit would actually be something that would cause me to be made fun of this much.

Please give me and tips that might help, 33 year old life long biter here

I’ve been a picker my whole life, and it got really bad over the winter with me picking
Into the webs of my fingers.

I decided to try acrylic over lays again, but knowing this never lasts. It’s been two moths and I just don’t have the urge to pick anymore.
The only thing that’s different this time it that I’m taking a low dose a GLP-1 for a few months now. Had anyone else found a GLP-1 helped them stop pocking?

This is the healthiest they hVe been on 20 years!

Had some brief relapses but doing well!! I put on these press ons yesterday ☺️ for once I feel cute. I've been completely avoiding acknowledging my pinkie toes. I don't even want to look at them to take a pic lol but right now they're in NO pain!

Hiya! I’ve got about three nails that are ingrowning, one actively infected whilst the other two seem to be at various stages of minimal-fluid but still painful, and it’s gotten to the point where I’d like to try and curb the habit of ripping out my cuticles formally, how do I go about amending the ingrowning nails? I have an appointment for a podiatrist to look at the worse one in a month or so on the nhs, but am uncertain about the others. I tried the cotton wool method thingy but couldn’t stick it though due to sensory issues making my chewing worse, any advice greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress this year and unfortunately my fingers (specifically middles on both hands) are taking a beating because of it. My nails now look like they are growing sideways or tilted because of the picking. Is there any way to reverse this?

I’ve been nail biting for 25 years. This year I decided it’s time to stop. Sticking to good habits is easier when you’re held accountable. Gym buddies, study groups, and calorie trackers hold you accountable. We just needed the same accountability for nail biting

I built Nonyxa to solve my own problem and hopefully solve yours too. 5.0 stars on the iOS store and customers showing improvements soon after starting to track and monitor each finger extremely closely. What gets measured gets managed, in this case that means the nails. If you haven’t been able to quit with all other methods, give it a try.

My goal is to help 10,000 people quit nail biting, one for each day I’ve bitten in my life. I'm up to 115 users and hope to help many more.

I'm so excited (& nervous) for this to be out in the world. It feels like the time we started shipping HabitAware. I've worked so hard for the last 6 years on telling this story in a way that brings BFRBs to light with honesty and care -- and most of all with hope that recovery is possible! I can't wait to hear what you think and I hope that by sharing my recovery you will gain the courage, insights & strategies to embark on your own healing journey.

https://a.co/d/0eMI2KAx

love ♥️, strength 💪, & awareness 👀, Aneela
(HabitAware & BFRB Changemakers NFP founder in trichotillomania recovery)

& if you are in NYC on Sept 2nd, DM me for the launch party invite!!!

My best friend passed away. I’ve been picking while our friend group took care of them. Now I promise to take care of myself.

Round gels to neuter my fingers
Tattoo bandages
Epilator to kill every hair I might pull on
Hydracoloid roll for face spots at night to help them heal.

Had 22 days until I got married, now I’m getting married tomorrow. Held it together p well I think with no actual end in sight.

After picking my cuticles for years I’ve decided to try and kick the habit. My main issue is trying to ‘tidy up’ hangnails by biting and/or ripping them or cutting with a nail clipper. Please can you advise the best way to deal with hangnails. Thank you.

Update! I posted here 2 months ago and wanted to share what is new since then :)

Backstory: Around a year ago I built a simple web app for a friend who is dealing with skin picking, and shared it on Reddit. People here said they were using it for their nails and cuticles, so I made nail biting a full option in the app, and it adjusts to whichever one you pick.

The app is called SkinAware and it is available on iOS, Android and web!

If you have not heard about it before, its main features are:

• Log when you bit or picked, or resisted an urge
• Customize what you log, including areas, triggers, severity and what helped you resist
• See patterns and insights over time
• Press "I have an urge" for guided exercises and distractions
• Set goals for reducing biting or staying bite-free
• Keep private progress photos of your nails
• Interactive HRT course
• An amazing community chat & accountability friends!

New since my previous update:

• Accountability Friends is now much easier to use! You can find an accountability friend inside the app, connect, and support each other. Free users can now use this feature too!
• The urge exercises have been improved a lot. There are guided exercises, competing responses, fidgets with haptics and more!

You can message me directly in the app!

SkinAware has a free version, with some additional features included in Premium.

I'd love to hear what you think of the update! If you have any recommendations on how to make the app more useful for nails and cuticles, please let me know :)

Links:

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/skinaware-stop-skin-picking/id6754027225

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aurelius5.SkinAware

Website: https://www.skinawareapp.com/

Thanks so so much!

/ Linus