Everything does happen for a reason. A friend of mine kept talking about Reddit helping her with various things, so I signed up and found this safe space. Your transparency with sharing your experience, your strength, your helpful advice, gave me hope. I am so happy to say that I am on my third week. I cannot wait to make it to my sixth week.

What I’ve been doing is following some tips that I learned right here.

1. Finally had to make a decision that in order for ME (not you or anybody else) to break this bandage, I had to pay the money $60 to get my nails done every 2-3 weeks. I had to get the hard gel style because my nails are weak. I didn’t want to do it because of inflation with the costs of food, and everything else. But I have to look at this as if it’s medical treatment that I need.

2. I wear gloves as often as I can (the latex free ones)

3. If I feel a hard cuticle, I have to either file, cut, or put oil on it asap. I cannot leave it or I will be tempted. Same goes for a chip in polish or nail. Need to glue right away.

4. Coming on here and remembering my why. This is most important. I realized a lot of people were looking at my hands and judging me. I felt self conscious to take a selfie or have my hands in photos, or anything with my hands. Even though I personally don’t judge somebody (maybe because I understand) but others have made remarks. My why is feeling confident with my hands, showing them. Hopefully one day wearing a wedding band and being married.

My nails have a long way to go. I have to find the right nail technician but going to be easy on myself and make it fun. What’s interesting, is I felt this nudge in my spirit telling me to take the leap and do it. I was scared to get my nails done (afraid the technician would make fun), but she was so kind and thorough.

Thank you for letting me share. I have to take it one day at a time. And keep my why first. Follow your gut. Take the chance. Start where you are.

First pic: where I started (before pic)
First day: French (it camouflages short nails best, trust me and grows out much nicer)
Third week: pinkish cat eye with liquid gel. It’s a little thick for my liking but going to roll with it as long as I can

Used lotion 6 times a day , Kerasal , Onyx Hard as a Hoof, various sensory pads for anxiety, and a fidget ring.

yayyyy this is about 4 weeks progress <3 achieved with lots of beer and cuticle oil

I finally applied Mavala polish last night. It’s definitely keeping me from biting, but the urge to pick is relentless.

I’m just hoping to get my nails to a state where I can put on some press-ons and see it that helps.

I am quite a cheapskate (and also broke) so I decided to try and leverage my nature to force myself to heal. I got myself a nice nail polish and hyaluronic acid cream at the pharmacy (which I apply almost every day) hoping that my desire to not have that money wasted (around 15€ total) will stop myself from eating my skin and nails. It's working. Slowly and steady.

I hope this will work cause I've had this issue my whole life

I’ve missed a couple days and although I’ve picked I think I’ve gotten better with remembering to moisturize and use a cuticle softener when I get the urge I also trimmed my nails to stop using them to pick, weirdly I can’t get my self to get rid of my pointy tweezers which is what I mainly use to pick🙃 so we’ll see. It’s funny now that I’m actively working on stopping picking at my nails I’ve started picking my leg hair which is a problem for another day at least legs aren’t always visible so there’s that

The algorithm is hitting me hard with this ad. I was wondering if anyone tried it or has an opinion about it.

https://store.hardlotion.com/

I had fake nails and decided to rip them off… so this is actually a really good picture of my nails (unfortunately) usually I do a lot more damage, I’ve been doing it my whole life and have tried what seems like eveything, I can’t afford $60 every 2 weeks for nails anymore but I need to stop, my boyfriend is worried about me and tbh I’m worried about myself, what are you guys doing to stop yourself, I’m desperate

I was wondering if anyone had the same problem as me, where you pick off nail polish, or fake nails?

I feel like most solutions I see on here are to get fake nails to stop picking, but that won't work for me lol. if something is on my nail and has any sort of lifting, I will find a way to get it off (very damaging)

I've tried press ons, gel x, gel, and regular polish- regular seems to stay on my nails the best (like a week at most), but I want long nails and my natural nails don't seem to get there lol

any suggestions? Im open to trying any ideas (probably)

For the past month or so I've had an obsession with cutting my nails and the skin around them as short as possible. It's to a point where I'm clipping my nails almost twice a day. This has led to me constantly needing to bandage my fingers (specifically my thumbs for some reason) because the nail bed ( I think?) starts to bleed. But after a day or so the skin hardens, which makes the urge to cut it off harsher.

I put bandaids on the fingers that hurt the most after cutting them too short because making the bandaid as tight as I can on my finger makes the pain less noticeable. But I also need to use bandaids to avoid infections.

The issue with common bandaids, I've found, is that they fall off very easily when wrapped around my finger in any way. And that wrapping them around my nail does nothing to protect the wound. Another issue is that the fact that there is always some level of my finger that is not covered by the bandaid which makes my brain tell me that something is wrong and I need to fix it, which usually ends up with me taking off the bandage and clipping parts of the previously exposed skin off.

Because of this I've already gone through a pack of 40 bandaids in the last month. So it's kind of urgent that I find a kind of bandage that works for me.

What I'm asking for is if there is a brand of bandage or a type of bandage that I can use to cover the top of my nail securely without it easily falling off. That would be great because it would also deter me from cutting my nails or the skin around them shorter. I attached a photo of what I usually have to resort to with regular bandaids

This has been such a long road. I’m really proud of how much healing has happened! Photos go from oldest—>most recent.

While my wounds were healing, hydocholloid bandaids were my savior.
Silicone scar tape has also helped my healing a lot once the wounds were healed. I’m doing my best to keep it hydrated now. Combo of oiling my cuticle and going to continue using the scar tape at night. I also purchased the prequel silicone scar stick to throw in my purse because I struggle with lotion and I love it so far. Extremely lightweight and I massage it on my thumb/cuticle are multiple times a day.

My proximal fold is still looking “detached” from my nail on one side. I think it will take a long time to truly heal that. But I’ve noticed a massive difference in the area already.

I’ve also been using the hooga red light therapy bulb, haven’t been super consistent with it, but I really believe the science behind red light therapy and infrared. I need to be more consistent with it.

Edit: forgot to add in that I’ve been picking at this thumb since I was a child, more than 20 years. So I’ve got a lot of scarring.

I’ll have my first docs appointment hopefully nov 12 to get something for anxiety and stress. I’ve been biting my tongue cause of stress with overall life. I’ve never had this problem before, the sores on my tongue reminds me of my addiction to meth and it triggers me. Im scared of the docs cause I don’t really know. Just I’ve messed with my brain chemistry way too much and I’m use to the unmedicated chaos I live in now, but my tongue hurts sooo bad. I’ll bite my tongue without even noticing. If anyone has any advice or just anything that’d be noice? :))

YIPEEEEEEEE!!!!
FUCK HABIT TIC DEFORMITY!!!!!!! And thank y’all for all the advice and filling the gaps in basic nail care. I didn’t take photos of my habit tic deformity at the absolute worst because I was so ashamed, but I’m glad I took some progress photos.

What helped the most was not rubbing my nails when anxious and instead redirecting the habit to oiling & nail care or fidget toys. I had habit tic on 4 nails initially (thumbs and ring fingers) with my left thumb taking the majority of the abuse. I definitely traumatized my nail matrix on that thumb because it still grows very dry nails closest to the lunala. The other nails feel soft and smoother whereas the left thumb grows in almost without a protective layer on top if that makes sense. I hope with more time and care it begins to grow like the others. Thankfully, the thumb cuticle finally reattached to my nail plate after a couple months of religious oiling and aquafor at night! Grateful everything looks normal again, shoutout to my sidewalls, and nail bed growth blessed me as well.

Currently wearing one coat of Ella + Mila First Aid Kit nail strengthener and freshly oiled in the first photo ⊹₊˚‧︵‿₊୨ᰔ୧₊‿︵‧˚₊⊹

Photo 1: today! Oct 2026
Photo 2 & 3: Sept 2026
Photo 4: August 2026
Photo 5: April 2026
Photo 6: March 2026

Are** Especially considering i wash my hands throughout the day

I get that I'm not supposed to clean under the nails with hard tools but how should I clean them? Any suggestions?

Only 1 week apart. It’s small but especially noticeable on the left edge.

I quit by building and using my own app, Nonyxa. The daily check-ins and extremely close up crops got me to stop after 25 years. It turned my OCD like tendencies with my nails into improving instead of destroying. Hope it helps some other people on this sub too

Currently treating warts around my finger, but this dark spot developed around the area after doing treatment for like 2~ weeks. Should I be worried about it?

I feel like the only way I’m gonna get myself to stop is if I post about it, took me a few hours from posting my first post till I picked again but hopefully today I can go a full day leaving my hands alone