Im 18, and have been struggling with this since before I can remember, but the last few years its not only been nails and the bits around it, when Iāve widdled them down I move on to the skin on the very tips of my fingers, I do this until it bleeds sometimes and leave a red mark thatās incredibly sensitive to everything, temperature, touch, and most of all anxiety.
Nail biting isnāt my only ābitingā problem, Iāve been addicted to gum/biting my lips since before the nails. I still bite the inside of my lips but never as bad as I used too, I used to go until real bleeding all around the inner parts of my mouth. And even if I have gum I chew on my nails. I do it unconsciously at this point, when Iām nervous, which is all the time as I have terrible social anxiety. When Iām thinking, for example a test or playing a strategy game. Or just when doing nothing, watching a show or whatnot. I think it may have grown into an oral fixation of sorts but I need help. The fact itās unconscious makes me completely forget about even doing it.
The most Iāve ever gone was 5 days during a festival I attended, that was the first time in my life that my nails didnāt have dents or missing parts, and within that 5 days I could even see the white part of the nail, and not the nail bed. But that was a few years ago and it didnāt stop me. Even writing this I accidentally just nibbled on the tip of my thumb like L from death note. But mines not edgy, it starts to hurt. I believe the tips of all my common biting fingers, thumbs, indexes, have scar tissue instead of normal skin now due to how much Iāve done this.
