Nail biting/Trying to quit

I cant actually remember the first time I started to bite my nails. I know it was at a very young age and that it was never relay a problem. I'm not going to go deep into my personal life but needles to say I'm kinda messed up at this stage of life. Poor diet and poor health decision like tobacco and alcohol are a few of my deadly sins. I am a 24 year old male and have finally admitted I have a serious problem biting my nails. I looked on the internet about this and was shocked to find that such a small percentage of people my age still have this habit. I don't actually know exactly what the purpose of this post is, more of a moral back up due to the fact that I don't talk to anyone about this openly.

One thing I find interesting after doing lots of research about nail biting is that most people develop the habit at a very young age. I admit I bit my nails when I was young but not to the extent that I do today. I would say around 18-19 is when I started to bit the skin around my finger nails and only the past year or 2 that I started biting into my nail bed. My fingers use to bleed and hurt a lot but lately the pain has numbed and its a feeling of bliss to bit what little I have left of my nail off. I defiantly don't realize I am biting my nails until the damage has already been done. Only to regret the ugly sight I just created.

I seriously wonder if biting my nails is due to my drinking problem or my addiction to tobacco or if its just boredom. A lot of sites/articles said the first step is to identify your triggers that start the biting. Also I read about retainers and fake nails/gloves. I am currently thinking of just trying to quit cold turkey by taking pics and just looking at the progress. Also replacing my habit with another like stress ball or a ring on my finger to play with(assuming its boredom causing this).


I took some pictures of my nails and decided to post one here to show the how careless I can be...I don't like to show people my nails but I think its the only way. Basically any suggestions or just helpfully comments are appreciated. Thanks for reading this post.