Nail Biter Blues
Good or bad, a habit is hard to break. It’s like an “itch” that you just have to scratch, and if you don’t it will feel as if your whole world would end. When I try to resist this urge it is just too overwhelming. From the day we are born we are taught to keep our hands out of our mouths; even with the stern warning and the frightening promise of disease and bacteria infesting the inner proximities of our mouths, we develop this awful habit. Biting ones nails is a hard habit to overcome and has consequences.
It is easy to pick out who bites their nails in a crowd. They are usually the ones with very short jagged like looking crevices around the outer nub of their fingers; they are the ones who can’t scratch that itch they have on their back, and ask their friend to do so for them. Trying to scratch without nails is like a declawed cat trying to work its way out of a plastic bag.
A huge problem nail bitters have is opening containers. A common phrase we sometimes hear is, “Hey can someone help me, I don’t have any nails?” Why is it that on a hot summer day, us nail bitters dunk our hands into the bottom of a freezing ice chest, slosh our hands around the blanketed icy surface, in search of that cool perfect coke to satisfy our thirst; but are met with the upmost disappointment when we find that we cannot reach the tip of our finger between the tab and the can to pry it open? This would not be a problem if only we had the extra quarter of an inch most people have. There are times we are struck for hours trying to open a plastic bag, or trying to untie things or untangle objects; the tips of our fingers are useless. Using our teeth helps but it simply doesn’t have the advantages nails do.
Perhaps the toughest part in biting ones nails doesn’t have to do with your nails at all, so to speak. There are many times when I indulge myself in spicy jalapeño flavored foods that pack a punch! However, this taste can catch you off guard if you’re not prepared. The bottom line is that our hands are exposed to a lot of different things, and a nail biter should know that whatever he touches will potentially end up in his mouth. People that bite their nails should undoubtedly wash their hands more than people that don’t. Biting your nails is a risky business; it could land you in the Nurse’s Office or even the Emergency Room if you’re not careful.
Nail biting is a tough habit to break, and you can’t exactly buy a certain “patch” for it. There is no easy way out rather than the unrelenting struggle to control ones teeth and the continuous twitching of one’s fingers. Though it’s not as big as other bad habits and can seem pretty adolescent and harmless, it does take a toll and does make life harder.