I am a recovering nail biter.  It’s been a long and arduous road, one that I haven’t been particularly proud of, and yet, here I am, on the other side, with about 6 months of fingernails under my belt.  I became conscious of my “problem” as a young child as my parents and grandparents swatted my hands away from my face, put hot sauce on my fingertips, and bribed me with money and toys to stop.  Alas, none of these techniques worked and I now have a strangely high tolerance for all kinds of hot sauces.

I liked to tear the nails off, which would often break the skin on the top of my fingers, making them red and sensitive.  Nice huh?  It gets even better.  I would also gnaw at the skin around my cuticles, often making them bleed.  Is this unpleasant to read?  I’m sure it was really disgusting for other people to see, perfectly normal for me, though I probably would have been grossed out if I saw someone else’s hands like that.

I did have a few fleeting moments of “white” at the end of my fingernails.  The first time happened while I was recovering from back surgery in the hospital.  They had me on morphine and I could barely see straight or formulate sentences…thus, I must not have been conscious enough to put hand to mouth.  Therefore, I “woke up” with these scraggly fingernails that I was very proud of and fascinated with.

The second time was in preparation for my wedding.  I was expecting an onslaught of eyes on my hands due to wedding ring fascination.  My ring is unconventional, and I figured I shouldn’t offend people, or gross them out for that matter, with my unkempt hands.  So, I was diligent.  I got manicure after manicure hoping to create some semblance of a “passable” hand.

Then, about 6 months ago, I was watching a DVD on EFT where a young boy, probably 6 or 7, talked about tapping on his problem of biting his nails.  It worked!  He was shy, not an “actor” and quite matter-of-fact about this turnaround.  I was STUNNED!  I pressed pause and began what I hoped would be a new era.  A grown-up, white on the end of her fingernails, Erin.  I tapped on it for about 2 minutes, took a deep breath, and felt great.  I had no idea what kind of effect this would have.  My fingernails didn’t grow that minute after all.