Everyone has bad habits. They range from person to person. Each individual desires to break bad habits, yet they can never seem to find something that has put an end to that habit. For me, one of my worst habits was biting my nails and picking at the skin around my nails. I know that it sounds super gross, but it was something I just started doing around the age of 12, and I couldn’t seem to stop. When I first started picking at my fingers, it was a way for me to draw my attention away from the stresses of the world. I would only focus on my fingers when I would pick at them. I did not pay attention to anything else; it was just me and my fingers. It gave me something to focus on that I could control, and it allowed my mind to wander away from the stress that I was feeling. After a few years of picking my fingers, the reason for the habit did not seem to be rooted in stress relief. I would pick at my fingers even when I wasn’t stressed. In my mind, I knew that my habit was much more serious than I could have ever imagined.
Soon, the habit began to take over my life. I would pick at my fingers multiple times a day, at pretty much any location I was at, from my house, to my school, and even at my church. I told individuals around me to call me out when they saw me picking at my fingers. I would sit on my hands to try to stop myself from picking at my fingers. Nothing seemed to work. Even when people called me out, and even when I sat on my hands, I still found a way to pick at my fingers. I just could not stop.
At the height of the bad habit, my fingers were a mess. The skin surrounding the nail was so beat up and would sometimes even bleed. I felt embarrassed to hold other people’s hands and for them to see my hands. My nails had no length to them. I would bite the nails down to the bottom. I did not want to participate in any activity that required close examination of my fingers. The biggest thing that I did not want to participate in was getting my nails done professionally. I knew that the people doing my nails would scrutinize my fingers and be disgusted by what they saw. When I did get my nails painted professionally, the person painting my nails would always make a negative comment about my fingers. I did not like to go to the nail salon when I had the finger picking and nail biting habit. When I got my nails painted by myself, my mom, or a friend, however, I did sort of stop picking at them because they were painted and looked pretty. When the nails began to chip, however, I would take the nail polish right off and start back up with my bad habit.
At this point, I knew that I needed help. I wanted to end this bad habit so badly, yet nothing seemed to help 100% of the time. Painting my nails sort of helped combat the bad habit, but I was using nail polish that would chip very easily. Hypothetically, I knew that painting my nails would somehow help combat the bad habit, but I needed something better and stronger than regular nail polish. That is when I turned to gel nail polish, and it has basically saved my life.
When I got gel nail polish put onto my nails for the first time, it was a new and interesting experience. I did not know what I was getting myself into, but I knew from friends that gel nail polish doesn’t chip like regular nail polish. It can stay on for weeks and look nearly flawless. I knew that the gel nail polish would be more expensive than the regular nail polish, but my mom and I agreed that it would be a good investment to help combat my bad habit. My mom wanted me to break the habit just as much, if not more, than I wanted to!
After getting the gel nail polish on, I knew that it was the key to ending my bad habit. My nails were growing, the nail polish was staying on, and I was driven not to pick at my fingers, because the nails themselves looked so good. I did not want to ruin the way that my nails were looked. I finally found a solution to help combat my bad habit of biting my nails and picking at my fingers. Hopefully one day, I will be able to have no nail polish on my fingers and still not fall back into the bad habit. I know that day is not in the near future, but I know that one day it will happen. I am so thankful to have found gel nail polish because without it, my nails would be so little, my fingers would look disgusting, and I would be so embarrassed to show my hands to anyone. Now my nails are growing, there are no scars on my fingers, and I love to show others my nails. Take that, nail biting and finger picking! I combatted you, and now my hands look amazing.
For all of those who struggle with a bad habit, I know that it can be hard to find a solution, but it is possible. I know that the habit may last years, and I know that it is hard to combat. It took me years to figure out the right solution to combatting my bad habit, but after a lot of trial and tribulation, I found what I needed to beat my bad habit. My advice to anyone battling a bad habit is to take a deep breath, be patient, and know that the right combatter is out there to take down your bad habit. It is going to take time, but it will so be worth it.