Biting nails/Cracking knuckles

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Does anyone else have a problem with this? I've been doing both since at least 5th grade and I can't seem to stop.

From what people say its probably a form of 'stimming' . I've been trying to divert these energies into something like fingertapping, but five minutes later I'll just be biting my nails away again.

I think there's something wrong with the joints in my fingers because they hurt when I crack them and hurt when I don't crack them, but cracking them provide temporary relief. OTC pain killers are ineffective.

I have that problem too coincidentally, I find that stretching the finger helps some. Just kinda... reach your arm all the way and then sorta... try to reach your finger back behind your hand and you get a good stretch.

I think these pains are caused by constantly cracking the knuckles "...and I base these results on absolutely no evidence whatsoever"

yes, endless nail bitting and knuckle cracking

endless

I bite my nails, but there's no way I'd ever crack my joints - the noise it makes is probably my worst noise in terms of hypersensitivity, if I hear it I feel physically ill and usually end up with my hands over my ears or have to leave the room.

Biting nails: only when they need to be clipped real bad.

Cracking knuckles: constantly, as well as back, neck, ankles, toes and elbows.

I'm 40 and I still bite my nails and surrounding skin compulsively, to the point where I almost always have at least one finger that's red, inflamed and/or bleeding. I had to have surgery once to cut away a severe infection. My mother tried every trick in the book, from scolding to clove oil to bleach. I didn't start cracking my joints until I was in my 20s. Now I can pop almost any joint from my neck to my toes. It relieves the stiffness temporarily, but in the long run it seems that the more you do it the more you need to do it.

*thinks of how he can top that*

Oh, chest! Ever kinda stretch your arms out like people do in the morning and end up cracking your chest? (ribs I think?) Also, over the past year I started cracking my knuckles sideways which is really weird and I don't know why I started doing that.

So I take it that trying to divert your energy from this into other forms of stimming doesn't work?

Yeah, I cracked my chest once, close to the center and also my nose once.

The cracking doesn't take long and I will stop other forms of stimming just to crack things.

Biting my nails!! I have managed to cut back over the years though. Vanity kinda took over. I play with my hair or jewerly more now though. Both my son an I always have are hands in our bangs and we can't cut his hair too short or he can't cope in life.

Last edited by yealc on 18 Aug 2005, 7:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

I never bit my nails, but long nails annoy me. I cut them really short. As for cracking knuckles, I do it all the time. I started doing it when I was about 9, and by now it's really become an addiction. It's great because it's a stim that goes unnoticed in public. When I'm nervous I'll crack them even if they don't need to be cracked. I've been told that I even crack my knuckles when I'm asleep.

I am not sure that biting nails is 'stimming'; I do it very often, as does one of my brothers. I have also had other habits in the past, which I got conditioned out of due to social censure and pressure in the form of teasing and comments. Interestingly, another brother used to 'twirl' his hair at the nape of his neck, but this was when it was far longer and he was far younger.

yep, plus messing with my hair constantly

Ya, the hair-twirling is something I did a lot when I was 3 or 4