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If 2020 has taught us anything, its a crash course inproper hand hygiene.

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Youll find those tips below.

But before we get into that, lets run through a few basics, shall we?

Why do people bite their nails?

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AsSELF previously reported, its not entirely clear why some people have BFRDs, but there are known triggers.

You may be triggered by certain thoughts or beliefs (these are called cognitive triggers).

Even certain places might make your nail nibbling more prevalent (these are called setting triggers).

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Is nail biting actually that bad?

Biting your fingernails can also potentially damage your teeth, according to the Mayo Clinic.

All of that means its best to keep your fingernails out of your mouth.

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So, how to do that you may wonder?

There are things you might do to help you stop biting your nails.

The tips from theAmerican Academy of Dermatology Association(AADA) are a great place to start.

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They offer a mix of practical strategies as well as mental exercises that can help you.

The AADA also explains that nail biting might be a sign of emotional or psychological distress.

Heres what happened when Emily Rekstis tried to break her nail-biting habit.

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Instead, I went for aDIY solutionthat served the same purpose.

Keeping that in mind, I decided to give it a try.

Simply putno, it did not work and for many different reasons.

First, it was hard to keep the salt on the nails.

It was fine if I was justwatching TVor reading.

It just felt kind of sloppy and weird to have my fingers covered in salt.

After removing some there was still the faintest hint of salt left behind.

However, this didnt really bother me.

Which brings me to another reason it didnt really work.

I bought a jar of jalapeno slices and rubbed the juice all over my cuticles and nail beds.

I do not have an allergy to peppers, so I went for it.

I was veryVERYcareful not to rub my eyes afterward.

My hand would pull out of my mouth immediately.

The shock of a spicy jalapeno is not something youre used to tasting without other food.

But the real reason I can’t recommend this one, is the sheer ickiness factor.

If I thought the salt felt dirty, this felt even dirtier.

My fingers felt sticky and stinky after Id rubbed a pepper all over them.

Even if I just kept it to the nail, the juices would drip all over my fingers.

It felt like I needed to wash my hands after, because, honestly, I did!

But then that would defeat the purpose of using the jalapeno.

Unfortunately, this means my cuticles are sore and often bleeding.

I was hoping that I was one of those some people she was talking about.

I found myself becoming obsessive about keeping my cuticles clean and precise.

Id whip out the scissors at any momentand placeif I noticed an issue.

The scissors did keep my hands out of my mouth.

But it did not help with my quest for stronger, longer, healthier nails and cuticles.

In fact, my cuticles looked even worse after this hack.

The idea here was to substitute a different nervous habit for the one I was trying to break.

Unlike the salt and jalapeno, this hack occupied my hands with something other than biting my nails.

It’s basically an alternative behavior, explains Shah.

There isnt too much to say about this one because it simply did not work.

However, my immediate reaction was to put my nails in my mouth, not go to my wrist.

Ways to break bad habits are strengthening your willpower through exercises likemindfulness and meditation," she says.

Tapping into my emotional response could help me resist the pull of my ingrained behavior.

Surprisingly, this trick seemed to work best.

Since I really dont want to bite my nails, I stopped when I noticed what I was doing.

Its hard to say if this would always work, though.

Thats where the other hacks like salt and jalapeno come in.

The lesson: When it comes to nail biting, mindfulness helps.

These hacks didnt help much more than my mom applying anti-biting polish when I was younger.

Will I be rubbing salt or jalapenos on my nails again?

No, definitely not.

So that’s what I’m going to focus on.

At least for the moment.