Its a nail bitter

I bite my finger nails. I used to bite them constantly, always chewing them down or picking at them when they were to short to bite. Its a tough habit to break. I was forced to when I lived in Tanzania because if I bit my fingernails it would probably, and almost certainly did, get me sick. I carried nail clippers with me almost all the time over there so when I got bored I could just clip them and throw them on the floor. I cant do that here. Although chewing on my fingernails here wont get me sick with a bacteria and put me bedridden for a week, it is a habit that I would like to break.

I finally made a conscious effort to stop biting my nails about a month or so ago. Its tough to do especially because of the things, or rather times, that make me bite my fingernails. It seems to be both a bored habit and a nervous habit. I bite my nails most often when watching tv. My hands are idle and I am just sitting relaxing with nothing else to do. So I bite my fingers ferociously. I am also a fan of one of the best/most hated college basketball programs in the country. I watch nearly every Duke Blue Devil basketball game I can. If I dont watch it live I try to catch the replay online or at least analyze the box score. Good thing they win a lot because when they are losing, my urges to bite my fingers are at its worst. I have had a couple of bad days in the last couple weeks watching them lose. My fingers bare the brunt of that damage. The other instance when I bite off my finger nails is when I am sitting in class. Something about sitting staring at a computer screen or at a 70 slide powerpoint makes my mind numb. So naturally I give my self something to do by carefully checking my fingernails to see if there is any part that can be chewed off. Occasionally, there is nothing extra so I bite off a piece that causes my fingers to bleed. Yes it WAS that bad.

Turns out, If you actually want to halt a hard to break habit it can be done. Now instead of biting my fingernails in class I pick at them slowly and chew gum. I also write and highlight excessively. If I feel the urge to bite my fingernails I pick at them or go up and grab a clippers so there is nothing to bite. I do bite them every once in a while but I keep it short. Having fingernails again is weird. I actually dont remember when this habit started or what having fingernails actually feels like. So I hope I can check the fingernail biting habit off the list and move on to the next bad habit to break.