July 14, 2025 • 17 mins
Do you bite your fingernails or know someone who does? Why do we do this weird, self-destructive thing? What can we do to stop it? We quickly explore the conditions under which we bite our fingernails and some strategies for reducing the frequency of this habit. Tell us your experiences with nail biting (info@wwdwwdpodcast.com; @wwdwwdpodcast.bsky.social)
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Links:
- https://www.news-medical.net/health/The-Psychology-Behind-Nail-Biting.aspx
- https://health.clevelandclinic.org/nail-biting-when-does-it-go-too-far
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3004689/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Why We Do what we Do. Welcome
to Why We Do what we Do?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Mini.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm your host Abraham and I'm Shane. We are a
psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans and
non human animals do, and sometimes we talk about the
habits that we do that we maybe wish that we
wouldn't do so much because they kind of suck in
our bad.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Yeah, and so today we're gonna cover nail biting, which
is something that I do often.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, same, same, It is going to be some personal
journey going on here during this small discussion, which if
you're joining us for the first time and you hear
me say Mini, and you're like, I thought this was
called why we do what we do, not why we
do what we do? Mini, It's because we do these
short form episodes once a week in which we do
(01:00):
quick dive into a topic, get in there, explain it
to the best of our ability, and then get out
and let you go on about your day and your
week until our full length episode, which will come out
on Wednesday. Because we released like that, like clockwork, so dependable.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
We is, yes, yes, we is.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
But yeah, if you're joining us for the first time, welcome.
We are happy to have you here. If you like
what you hear in this episode today and would like
to support us, you can pick up some merch from
our merch store. Join us over on Patreon. We'll get
extra content. Leave a rating and a review like subscribe,
tell a friend, and I'll talk more about those at
the end of this discussion. I think that's about it
(01:37):
before we dive into our topic. Unless I'm forgetting anything.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
No, I think that covers it. I think we can
get right into.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
It, all right, let's do this rock and roll, all right.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
So, if you are not familiar with what nail biting is,
nail biting refers to the act of putting your fingers
in your disgusting mouth and chewing on your nails with
the skin around your nails.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Some people consider it gross. I do it. You probably
do it too.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
I do it.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Abraham and I both do it. As a matter of fact,
I know I've had this habit for as long as
I can remember. Yeah, and this will be maybe TMI
for some folks, but I learned that when I was
younger and I was breastfeeding, I would scratch my mother
and so she would give me a blanket to hold
onto while I was breastfeeding, and I would like twist
on the blanket and like manipulate the blanket in my hands.
And that led to a habit that created, like I
(02:17):
twist my pillowcase corners until they come off. Wow, And
I do that, Like I do this all the time.
So like I'm always kind of like playing with my
skin around my nails or like my nails themselves. Like,
so I I have maybe a larger habit. That's maybe
you know, this isn't therapy, but I have a larger habit.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I should probably look at.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
My story is weirdly similar to yours. My mom would
also she didn't tell me I scratched, but she would
give me a little fuzzy things to manipulate with my hands.
And anyway, I also I don't twist much, but I
do manipulate the life out of like a like a
soda can. If I drink like a sparkling water or
something that can, ye, I'll like just mess with the
(02:54):
luminium on it for some reason. Yeah, So I do
still manipulate quite a bit. And I think part of
my learning to drum and now I drum on everything
has distracted my hands to doing that.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Interesting, we have similar stories there and the nail biting,
and yes, I'm similar also picking up my nails and
the skin around my nails. It's really bad. Yeah, And
the problem for people when they do this, it can
range from just minor pruning, so you sort of will
shape your nails after a bad clipping up through things
that are more severe and actually look like self harm,
which could be removing your nails entirely or peeling back
(03:27):
a lot of skin around that area around your nails.
Mine is not that I'm not removing my nails, but
there's a lot of damage to the skin around my nails.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah. No, me too.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I have like no fingertips, yeah, like the very tips.
My fingers are like a big callus.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
I was thinking about this too as I was putting
this together, I was like, where did I learn to
bite my nails? Because nobody in my family bites their nails.
And then I realized, oh, my dad does. My dad
bites his nails, so I watched him do it. And
then one time when I was younger, my mom was
clipping my nails and actually accidentally hurt me, like clip
the skin because I moved or something, and so she
was afraid to clip my nails with a nail clipper,
so she would she would bite my nails to clip
(04:05):
my nails. When I was really young. I remember that
until I was old enough to keep my hand steady
and do it myself.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
So it was like one of those things where I'm like, oh,
I know where this comes from. I can like trace
my roots back like I can do like a twenty
three a meter my fingernail biting behavior.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
You know, I actually know where mine comes from. Different
different onset for mine. But let's uh, let's get on
topic here. If it share No, no, no, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I was, We'll figure it out.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
No, I think it was good.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
So anika phagia I always have a hard time with
these words that we like to put a bunch of
Greek and Latin together. Yeah, anika phasia or a meetsophagia
whatever is a type of self grooming that includes biting
both your fingernails and your toenails. So this is a
thing that people do fingernails and toenails, which can lead
to infection. So like, if you're biting your nails and
you're causing self harm, you're opening wounds, you're doing that.
(04:53):
They it can cause some problems, and it can also
be considered an indicator for other mental health statuses, which
we'll talk about. But nail biting itself doesn't actually meet
a diagnostic criterion. It's usually maybe a symptom of something
larger or something something different. But that's kind of what
was going on here. It's like, we're talking about chewing
your fingernails, chewing your toenails and what that might include.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
So let's just get right into it. Why does this
thing happen? Why do we even bite our pickaud or
to our nails? From an evolutionary perspective, doesn't make much sense.
I mean, we can't really think of a reason. But
we're also not evolutionary biologists, so we don't necessarily know.
I will say that I think one thing is it
is fairly common for all not all, but like a
(05:37):
lot of species who have a part of their body
that grows really fast, particularly if you think of like claws, fingernails, hair, Yeah,
to trim it back as it grows. So animals have
claws will often scratch at things, and that kind of
at the end of it will help sort of keep
it at length if you will, so they're not growing
into these harsh circles. Sure, beavers will chew on wood apparently,
(05:59):
as I understand it, that helps grind their teeth back
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Their teeth.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, there are some horses. I believe that wild horses
that when they chew grass, their teeth essentially will grow
and definitely and so chewing grass helps keep their teeth
at a manageable sort of length. So I think there
is some precedent for when you have a part of
your body that grows fast to try and grind it
back a little bit, or have a way of pruning
it back a little bit. But there are some things
(06:24):
that we also know specifically that might be unique to
humans as far as their reasons for biting their nails.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Yeah, so humans might buite their nails for because they're
nervous and it's self soothing behavior. Maybe they're having an
emotional response and again they're self soothing. They've got anxiety
related to imperfect nails. And this comes up with folks
that might identify as having OCD, a certain type of
OCD in a certain type of compulsion there. Yeah, people
do it because they're bored. People do it because they imitate.
There's lots of reasons why so. People do it because
(06:52):
they like the way it feels, they like the way
it tastes, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So you might see that come up a little bit too.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
We also know that many folks who bite their nails
do it without thinking about it or even realizing they're
doing it. Sometimes they might do it to self soothe
they get attention from others, while others might do it
instead of aggressing against someone else, so like they are
feeling worked up, but rather than act on that, they
are sort of like biting their own nails instead. Then
(07:19):
think of there's actually quite a few instances of people
who will do some form of self restraint when they
are otherwise upset or agitated, which might look like squeezing
themselves very tight, or biting their hand or biting their fingernails.
So there is an element of like giving yourself something
to do when you're at a sort of heightened state,
if you will. And so this is an opportunity for
(07:41):
you to find something to do while we run an ad.
Perhaps during the AD you were chewing your nails. I know,
I was no I wasn't. But let's continue on where
we left off as it relates to nail biting behaviors.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, so I mentioned this earlier.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Some other people may do this because it's part of
a set of behaviors related to OCD or perfectionism, Like
they don't like the way their nail is shaped, they
don't like the way it looks, so they kind of
trim it down, they chew it up, and there's maybe
or like hanging skin around and nail, so you might
see that a little bit. So there's lots of reasons
why humans do this. But have no fear because if
you're worried about doing this, if you are somebody who
(08:23):
is a nail bier who has this quote unquote habitual
behavior and you're struggling with this and you're concerned, there
are ways that you can stop, and here are just
a couple of them.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
One thing that you can do is because often what
might be happening in some of these situations that there
is some mental health situation that you were dealing with,
which is not going to be true for everyone who
bites their nails, by the way, but for those of
you for whom that is the case, you could go
to therapy that might help you sort out some psychological
issues and causes for nail biting triggers and urges. That
(08:52):
could even include some things like habit reversal. And I
guess to be fair, like there are people who help
in the space of behavior change even when you don't
have like an underline mental health condition. That that's perfectly
reasonable to want to change your behavior in a way
that's more valuable for you and not also have an
underlying mental health condition. That's fine. Like, there are people
(09:14):
who like wish they had better self control around sweets,
And it's not like they can't control themselves, they just
wish they were better at it, and so they might
enroll the help of someone like a therapist to help
get them into performing in like a pattern that is
more adaptable for the lifestyle they like to have, or
someone who wants exercise more. Again, it's not like being
sedentary is pathological inherently anyway. Those are just some things
(09:38):
I think as far as there is one strategy for
things you can do.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah, another one is practicing like actual self care and
relaxation during your day to day. You can do some
things like mindfulness practice you can do things like eating enough,
getting enough sleep, monitoring the stimulants you take, because sometimes
people might do that when they're over stimulated, they're feeling
like you know, like for me, if I am, I
know that when I'm overstimulated, I'll start tapping my foot
(10:01):
more or I'll start fidgeting more. So I'll start doing
that and noticing I'll engage in some of these behaviors
like that. So that may be something going on. And
if you're kind of attending to your basic needs, it
may alleviate the need to chew your nails.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Fair enough, you can find a social support buddy, someone
who will hold you accountable and I help identify and
pinpoint when you are biting on your nails or manipulating
your nails, which feeds into like an overall other strategy.
I'm gonna get you here in a moment, but yeah,
this one, I think you want to be make sure
that the expectations are really clear, because I've done this
(10:33):
and found it horrifically unworkable. Because the person when I
was like, hey, I'm trying to quit butting my nails,
and they decided that what that meant is they need
to be like physically block me from biting my nails
or doing anything to them, and I really did not
like that. Yeah, so having expectations set can be an
(10:53):
important aspect of this if you are going to enroll
someone else, which could be really helpful, but know what
both of you expect from that contract.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Sure that makes sense. You can also apply a nail
biting deterrent polish to your nails, and this is actually
something that I've seen for thumb sucking as well. Yeah,
this is something that's like a little bit more I
don't want to say invasive, but like it can be
kind of unpleasant because the nail polish is bitter tasting
and it's gonna remind you that you don't want to
bite your nails all that much. You're gonna put your
finger in your mouth and you're gonna go like, you're
(11:22):
gonna think it's gross. So, but that is something that
is often used in this type of thing where maybe
somebody's putting their hands or their fingers into their mouth
for different things, thumb sucking, nail biting, you know, stuff
like that.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Unfortunately, some people will work through the bitter taste, so
this is not a session for everyone. But but it
might help. Yeah, at the very least, there's something called
the picture comparison procedure referencing Craig twenty ten, where the
interventionists and listed asocial support to compare images of non
nail bitten hands to their current hands. They could sort
(11:55):
of see the relation between what things look like when
you are treating them well and when you were eating
your fingers. Yeah, and that also had an incentive procedure
in place in which for an absence of biting you
would receive some reward. For those of you behavior analyst
nerds out there, this is a dro YEP or differential
(12:15):
reinforcement of other behaviors type procedure. In this the results
showed that the person biting the nails went from sixteen
episodes per day to less than two per day within
a two month period.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, so the rates dropped pretty rapidly. With that, it
was a dro with a token economy in place, so
like they earned tokens every time they didn't bite their
nails in an hour long period, so like it was
a for a full hour was their session, and it
was successful.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
It seemed so cool.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
So when I was first learning about behavior change procedures,
I decided to put in a bunch of contingencies for myself,
but for me to be making database decisions and determine
whether or not my behavior change procedures were working for myself.
This is like I'm an underground psychology learning about this
for the first time. I'm all excited to try and
stop biting manails and so this sure, I was collecting
(13:01):
data on my nail biting and during baseline, my nail
biting dropped to zero. And it was just because recording
data about my own behavior brought my awareness to that
behavior and ended up reducing the amount of biting that
I was doing, which goes back to as we mentioned
the habit reversal thing that is one of sometimes the
(13:22):
only critical element of habit reversal is just awareness training. Yeah,
not for everyone and not for all circumstances, but like
that was what all it took for me. And then
years later I started to pick up the habit again.
I once again started tracking my own behavior and it
once again dropped off to zero. It was like that effective,
simply to track my own behavior, my nail biting went
(13:43):
all the way down to zero. That was my anecdotal experience.
I'm not saying that's going to work for everybody, but
it is a very like low cost, low intrusive intervention.
I just carry out a little like little tiny notebooks
in my pocket and whenever i'd bite man nails, I'd
pull it out and I'd tally and that was it.
That was all I did. Yeah, and so I had this.
This has worked incredibly incredibly well for me over the time. Yeah,
(14:06):
And so if people want to try and let me
know how it goes, feel free. Like I said, I
feel like I don't usually want to spense specific advice
like that on our podcast, but that one's like, what's
the harm? Who are you hurting here?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, it's not like an intervention.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
It's like just collecting data and then that itself serves
as an intervention by accident.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Yeah. Yeah. So and I'm not saying this is going
to work. It might not, but it did work for me.
So I'm just that was my experience with it.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
But love that.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Do you have any any specific strategies that really worked
for you.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Nope. I still bite my nails. I still do it
every day.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
I have learned that I have a threshold, so at
some point in time when my finger's hurt. I moved
to a different finger, so like that's I guess maybe
that's my thing is like I just move across my
fingers because I bite all of my fingers and all
of them so it's really mostly not my nails, though,
it's the skin around my nails.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Mine's the same.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Yeah, yeah, so that's that's my issue. I haven't really
figured out a solution. I noticed that I go a
long periods without it, but I do it pretty.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Much all day. Okay, so I haven't really looked at
how to fix that.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Mine is pretty much concentrated on my thumbs. The rest
of it. My fingers might get some of it, but
my thumbs really take the brunt of the abuse. Your
poor thumbs, My poor thumbs, so which you know those
are important. I don't know. I should not, that should
not be so mean to my thumbs.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
But all right, did a whole episode on that.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
We did do a whole episode on thumbs. All right, Well,
that was fun rambling sort of a discussion here, but
I think we're a good point to close out this one. Yeah,
nail biting generally not the greatest thing for you. There
are some reasons that we do it and some things
that you can do about it. And hopefully you got
something useful out of this. But is there anything else
(15:40):
you'd like to add or that I forgot before we
wrap up?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
No, I think that covers it all right.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
As I mentioned at the top, if you want to
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(16:04):
our supporters who are supporting us financially over on Patreon,
and we really appreciate all of you and all of
them who do that. In addition, you can reach out
to us directly tell me your experiences with nail biting
by emailing us at info at wwdwwdpodcast dot com. And
we look forward to hearing from people, so please feel
free to reach out. Well you really enjoy it. Thank
(16:25):
you so much to my team of people without whom
I could not make this podcast happen. Thank you for
your notes today, Shane, and for recording with me today anytime.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, thank you for having.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Me, and of course thank you all for listening. All right,
I think that's about it. We're good to hop off
this one.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I think we are all right. This is Abraham's Shane.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Why We Do What We Do Mini is out.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Bye. You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
You can learn more about this and other episodes by
going to wwdwwdpodcast dot com.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Thanks for listening, and we hope you have an awesome
day
You're listening to Why We Do what we Do. Welcome
to Why We Do what we Do?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Mini.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm your host Abraham and I'm Shane. We are a
psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans and
non human animals do, and sometimes we talk about the
habits that we do that we maybe wish that we
wouldn't do so much because they kind of suck in
our bad.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Yeah, and so today we're gonna cover nail biting, which
is something that I do often.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, same, same, It is going to be some personal
journey going on here during this small discussion, which if
you're joining us for the first time and you hear
me say Mini, and you're like, I thought this was
called why we do what we do, not why we
do what we do? Mini, It's because we do these
short form episodes once a week in which we do
(01:00):
quick dive into a topic, get in there, explain it
to the best of our ability, and then get out
and let you go on about your day and your
week until our full length episode, which will come out
on Wednesday. Because we released like that, like clockwork, so dependable.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
We is, yes, yes, we is.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
But yeah, if you're joining us for the first time, welcome.
We are happy to have you here. If you like
what you hear in this episode today and would like
to support us, you can pick up some merch from
our merch store. Join us over on Patreon. We'll get
extra content. Leave a rating and a review like subscribe,
tell a friend, and I'll talk more about those at
the end of this discussion. I think that's about it
(01:37):
before we dive into our topic. Unless I'm forgetting anything.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
No, I think that covers it. I think we can
get right into.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
It, all right, let's do this rock and roll, all right.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
So, if you are not familiar with what nail biting is,
nail biting refers to the act of putting your fingers
in your disgusting mouth and chewing on your nails with
the skin around your nails.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Some people consider it gross. I do it. You probably
do it too.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
I do it.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Abraham and I both do it. As a matter of fact,
I know I've had this habit for as long as
I can remember. Yeah, and this will be maybe TMI
for some folks, but I learned that when I was
younger and I was breastfeeding, I would scratch my mother
and so she would give me a blanket to hold
onto while I was breastfeeding, and I would like twist
on the blanket and like manipulate the blanket in my hands.
And that led to a habit that created, like I
(02:17):
twist my pillowcase corners until they come off. Wow, And
I do that, Like I do this all the time.
So like I'm always kind of like playing with my
skin around my nails or like my nails themselves. Like,
so I I have maybe a larger habit. That's maybe
you know, this isn't therapy, but I have a larger habit.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I should probably look at.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
My story is weirdly similar to yours. My mom would
also she didn't tell me I scratched, but she would
give me a little fuzzy things to manipulate with my hands.
And anyway, I also I don't twist much, but I
do manipulate the life out of like a like a
soda can. If I drink like a sparkling water or
something that can, ye, I'll like just mess with the
(02:54):
luminium on it for some reason. Yeah, So I do
still manipulate quite a bit. And I think part of
my learning to drum and now I drum on everything
has distracted my hands to doing that.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Interesting, we have similar stories there and the nail biting,
and yes, I'm similar also picking up my nails and
the skin around my nails. It's really bad. Yeah, And
the problem for people when they do this, it can
range from just minor pruning, so you sort of will
shape your nails after a bad clipping up through things
that are more severe and actually look like self harm,
which could be removing your nails entirely or peeling back
(03:27):
a lot of skin around that area around your nails.
Mine is not that I'm not removing my nails, but
there's a lot of damage to the skin around my nails.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah. No, me too.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I have like no fingertips, yeah, like the very tips.
My fingers are like a big callus.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
I was thinking about this too as I was putting
this together, I was like, where did I learn to
bite my nails? Because nobody in my family bites their nails.
And then I realized, oh, my dad does. My dad
bites his nails, so I watched him do it. And
then one time when I was younger, my mom was
clipping my nails and actually accidentally hurt me, like clip
the skin because I moved or something, and so she
was afraid to clip my nails with a nail clipper,
so she would she would bite my nails to clip
(04:05):
my nails. When I was really young. I remember that
until I was old enough to keep my hand steady
and do it myself.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
So it was like one of those things where I'm like, oh,
I know where this comes from. I can like trace
my roots back like I can do like a twenty
three a meter my fingernail biting behavior.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
You know, I actually know where mine comes from. Different
different onset for mine. But let's uh, let's get on
topic here. If it share No, no, no, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I was, We'll figure it out.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
No, I think it was good.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
So anika phagia I always have a hard time with
these words that we like to put a bunch of
Greek and Latin together. Yeah, anika phasia or a meetsophagia
whatever is a type of self grooming that includes biting
both your fingernails and your toenails. So this is a
thing that people do fingernails and toenails, which can lead
to infection. So like, if you're biting your nails and
you're causing self harm, you're opening wounds, you're doing that.
(04:53):
They it can cause some problems, and it can also
be considered an indicator for other mental health statuses, which
we'll talk about. But nail biting itself doesn't actually meet
a diagnostic criterion. It's usually maybe a symptom of something
larger or something something different. But that's kind of what
was going on here. It's like, we're talking about chewing
your fingernails, chewing your toenails and what that might include.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
So let's just get right into it. Why does this
thing happen? Why do we even bite our pickaud or
to our nails? From an evolutionary perspective, doesn't make much sense.
I mean, we can't really think of a reason. But
we're also not evolutionary biologists, so we don't necessarily know.
I will say that I think one thing is it
is fairly common for all not all, but like a
(05:37):
lot of species who have a part of their body
that grows really fast, particularly if you think of like claws, fingernails, hair, Yeah,
to trim it back as it grows. So animals have
claws will often scratch at things, and that kind of
at the end of it will help sort of keep
it at length if you will, so they're not growing
into these harsh circles. Sure, beavers will chew on wood apparently,
(05:59):
as I understand it, that helps grind their teeth back
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Their teeth.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, there are some horses. I believe that wild horses
that when they chew grass, their teeth essentially will grow
and definitely and so chewing grass helps keep their teeth
at a manageable sort of length. So I think there
is some precedent for when you have a part of
your body that grows fast to try and grind it
back a little bit, or have a way of pruning
it back a little bit. But there are some things
(06:24):
that we also know specifically that might be unique to
humans as far as their reasons for biting their nails.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Yeah, so humans might buite their nails for because they're
nervous and it's self soothing behavior. Maybe they're having an
emotional response and again they're self soothing. They've got anxiety
related to imperfect nails. And this comes up with folks
that might identify as having OCD, a certain type of
OCD in a certain type of compulsion there. Yeah, people
do it because they're bored. People do it because they imitate.
There's lots of reasons why so. People do it because
(06:52):
they like the way it feels, they like the way
it tastes, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So you might see that come up a little bit too.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
We also know that many folks who bite their nails
do it without thinking about it or even realizing they're
doing it. Sometimes they might do it to self soothe
they get attention from others, while others might do it
instead of aggressing against someone else, so like they are
feeling worked up, but rather than act on that, they
are sort of like biting their own nails instead. Then
(07:19):
think of there's actually quite a few instances of people
who will do some form of self restraint when they
are otherwise upset or agitated, which might look like squeezing
themselves very tight, or biting their hand or biting their fingernails.
So there is an element of like giving yourself something
to do when you're at a sort of heightened state,
if you will. And so this is an opportunity for
(07:41):
you to find something to do while we run an ad.
Perhaps during the AD you were chewing your nails. I know,
I was no I wasn't. But let's continue on where
we left off as it relates to nail biting behaviors.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, so I mentioned this earlier.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Some other people may do this because it's part of
a set of behaviors related to OCD or perfectionism, Like
they don't like the way their nail is shaped, they
don't like the way it looks, so they kind of
trim it down, they chew it up, and there's maybe
or like hanging skin around and nail, so you might
see that a little bit. So there's lots of reasons
why humans do this. But have no fear because if
you're worried about doing this, if you are somebody who
(08:23):
is a nail bier who has this quote unquote habitual
behavior and you're struggling with this and you're concerned, there
are ways that you can stop, and here are just
a couple of them.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
One thing that you can do is because often what
might be happening in some of these situations that there
is some mental health situation that you were dealing with,
which is not going to be true for everyone who
bites their nails, by the way, but for those of
you for whom that is the case, you could go
to therapy that might help you sort out some psychological
issues and causes for nail biting triggers and urges. That
(08:52):
could even include some things like habit reversal. And I
guess to be fair, like there are people who help
in the space of behavior change even when you don't
have like an underline mental health condition. That that's perfectly
reasonable to want to change your behavior in a way
that's more valuable for you and not also have an
underlying mental health condition. That's fine. Like, there are people
(09:14):
who like wish they had better self control around sweets,
And it's not like they can't control themselves, they just
wish they were better at it, and so they might
enroll the help of someone like a therapist to help
get them into performing in like a pattern that is
more adaptable for the lifestyle they like to have, or
someone who wants exercise more. Again, it's not like being
sedentary is pathological inherently anyway. Those are just some things
(09:38):
I think as far as there is one strategy for
things you can do.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah, another one is practicing like actual self care and
relaxation during your day to day. You can do some
things like mindfulness practice you can do things like eating enough,
getting enough sleep, monitoring the stimulants you take, because sometimes
people might do that when they're over stimulated, they're feeling
like you know, like for me, if I am, I
know that when I'm overstimulated, I'll start tapping my foot
(10:01):
more or I'll start fidgeting more. So I'll start doing
that and noticing I'll engage in some of these behaviors
like that. So that may be something going on. And
if you're kind of attending to your basic needs, it
may alleviate the need to chew your nails.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Fair enough, you can find a social support buddy, someone
who will hold you accountable and I help identify and
pinpoint when you are biting on your nails or manipulating
your nails, which feeds into like an overall other strategy.
I'm gonna get you here in a moment, but yeah,
this one, I think you want to be make sure
that the expectations are really clear, because I've done this
(10:33):
and found it horrifically unworkable. Because the person when I
was like, hey, I'm trying to quit butting my nails,
and they decided that what that meant is they need
to be like physically block me from biting my nails
or doing anything to them, and I really did not
like that. Yeah, so having expectations set can be an
(10:53):
important aspect of this if you are going to enroll
someone else, which could be really helpful, but know what
both of you expect from that contract.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Sure that makes sense. You can also apply a nail
biting deterrent polish to your nails, and this is actually
something that I've seen for thumb sucking as well. Yeah,
this is something that's like a little bit more I
don't want to say invasive, but like it can be
kind of unpleasant because the nail polish is bitter tasting
and it's gonna remind you that you don't want to
bite your nails all that much. You're gonna put your
finger in your mouth and you're gonna go like, you're
(11:22):
gonna think it's gross. So, but that is something that
is often used in this type of thing where maybe
somebody's putting their hands or their fingers into their mouth
for different things, thumb sucking, nail biting, you know, stuff
like that.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Unfortunately, some people will work through the bitter taste, so
this is not a session for everyone. But but it
might help. Yeah, at the very least, there's something called
the picture comparison procedure referencing Craig twenty ten, where the
interventionists and listed asocial support to compare images of non
nail bitten hands to their current hands. They could sort
(11:55):
of see the relation between what things look like when
you are treating them well and when you were eating
your fingers. Yeah, and that also had an incentive procedure
in place in which for an absence of biting you
would receive some reward. For those of you behavior analyst
nerds out there, this is a dro YEP or differential
(12:15):
reinforcement of other behaviors type procedure. In this the results
showed that the person biting the nails went from sixteen
episodes per day to less than two per day within
a two month period.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, so the rates dropped pretty rapidly. With that, it
was a dro with a token economy in place, so
like they earned tokens every time they didn't bite their
nails in an hour long period, so like it was
a for a full hour was their session, and it
was successful.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
It seemed so cool.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
So when I was first learning about behavior change procedures,
I decided to put in a bunch of contingencies for myself,
but for me to be making database decisions and determine
whether or not my behavior change procedures were working for myself.
This is like I'm an underground psychology learning about this
for the first time. I'm all excited to try and
stop biting manails and so this sure, I was collecting
(13:01):
data on my nail biting and during baseline, my nail
biting dropped to zero. And it was just because recording
data about my own behavior brought my awareness to that
behavior and ended up reducing the amount of biting that
I was doing, which goes back to as we mentioned
the habit reversal thing that is one of sometimes the
(13:22):
only critical element of habit reversal is just awareness training. Yeah,
not for everyone and not for all circumstances, but like
that was what all it took for me. And then
years later I started to pick up the habit again.
I once again started tracking my own behavior and it
once again dropped off to zero. It was like that effective,
simply to track my own behavior, my nail biting went
(13:43):
all the way down to zero. That was my anecdotal experience.
I'm not saying that's going to work for everybody, but
it is a very like low cost, low intrusive intervention.
I just carry out a little like little tiny notebooks
in my pocket and whenever i'd bite man nails, I'd
pull it out and I'd tally and that was it.
That was all I did. Yeah, and so I had this.
This has worked incredibly incredibly well for me over the time. Yeah,
(14:06):
And so if people want to try and let me
know how it goes, feel free. Like I said, I
feel like I don't usually want to spense specific advice
like that on our podcast, but that one's like, what's
the harm? Who are you hurting here?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, it's not like an intervention.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
It's like just collecting data and then that itself serves
as an intervention by accident.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Yeah. Yeah. So and I'm not saying this is going
to work. It might not, but it did work for me.
So I'm just that was my experience with it.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
But love that.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Do you have any any specific strategies that really worked
for you.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Nope. I still bite my nails. I still do it
every day.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
I have learned that I have a threshold, so at
some point in time when my finger's hurt. I moved
to a different finger, so like that's I guess maybe
that's my thing is like I just move across my
fingers because I bite all of my fingers and all
of them so it's really mostly not my nails, though,
it's the skin around my nails.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Mine's the same.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Yeah, yeah, so that's that's my issue. I haven't really
figured out a solution. I noticed that I go a
long periods without it, but I do it pretty.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Much all day. Okay, so I haven't really looked at
how to fix that.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Mine is pretty much concentrated on my thumbs. The rest
of it. My fingers might get some of it, but
my thumbs really take the brunt of the abuse. Your
poor thumbs, My poor thumbs, so which you know those
are important. I don't know. I should not, that should
not be so mean to my thumbs.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
But all right, did a whole episode on that.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
We did do a whole episode on thumbs. All right, Well,
that was fun rambling sort of a discussion here, but
I think we're a good point to close out this one. Yeah,
nail biting generally not the greatest thing for you. There
are some reasons that we do it and some things
that you can do about it. And hopefully you got
something useful out of this. But is there anything else
(15:40):
you'd like to add or that I forgot before we
wrap up?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
No, I think that covers it all right.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
As I mentioned at the top, if you want to
support us, one way you can do that is by
heading over to Patreon. If you do that, you will
get access. Depending on what tier at which you sign up,
you'll get access to things like early episodes, add free episodes, notes,
bonus content, some announcements, sometimes polls. There's also a disc
community that we have over there, and on our full
length episodes, I will read the name of all of
(16:04):
our supporters who are supporting us financially over on Patreon,
and we really appreciate all of you and all of
them who do that. In addition, you can reach out
to us directly tell me your experiences with nail biting
by emailing us at info at wwdwwdpodcast dot com. And
we look forward to hearing from people, so please feel
free to reach out. Well you really enjoy it. Thank
(16:25):
you so much to my team of people without whom
I could not make this podcast happen. Thank you for
your notes today, Shane, and for recording with me today anytime.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, thank you for having.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Me, and of course thank you all for listening. All right,
I think that's about it. We're good to hop off
this one.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I think we are all right. This is Abraham's Shane.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Why We Do What We Do Mini is out.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Bye. You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
You can learn more about this and other episodes by
going to wwdwwdpodcast dot com.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Thanks for listening, and we hope you have an awesome
day
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