Published on 12, July, 2020
i have been biting my nails since i was a child (i’m now 20) and am fairly sure i do it as a form of stimming/self soothing, it’s bad to the point that if i go to bite my nails and there isn’t anything to get a hold of i get frustrated, upset, and distressed.
i’ve found that using a tangle to keep my hands busy works most of the time as i don’t really like to have stubby bitten down nails but recently even redirecting myself doesn’t stop me … i’m very aware that it’s gross and not exactly pleasant but i’m not sure what else i can do to try and stop myself.
wondering whether it’s less of a hands thing and more of a chewing/biting stim? not sure if that makes any sense.
is anyone else a chronic nail biter due to autism … is this a common thing?
I bit my nails for years, right up until I was about 25. I still pick at (and occasionally bite) the skin around them.
Ultimately I found that painting them helped because if I did give in and bite them I just got a mouthful of nail polish chips and so the satisfaction of nail-biting was gone. Perhaps not a solution for everyone but it did work for me! It was definitely a sensation/stim thing for me, looking back, so perhaps it is an autistic thing (for some of us, at least).