24 replies to this topic

[shimmery-star]

Wear a hair tie or rubber band on your wrist. Whenever you touch your face, snap it so it hurts. I did that to stop my nail biting and it worked.


... No pain, no game!

[Wynne]

I really like the fake nails idea (or you could grow your own out superlong), I'd be too scared of gouging my face to touch it!

Well, my own nails are rather long. It doesn't stop me from habitually touching my face. It is better since I have actually taken notice of how often I do so, and when I'm at work, I TELL my friends to tell me when I'm touching my face. Work is a disgusting place to touch my face. I'm a nurse! AHHHHHHH! It works. They catch me at it, and say, "HEY, you're touching your face!" "Ooops." *hide hands* *sit on hands* They've only had to tell me once in the last few months. So, much better.

But I applied some glue on nails for the fun of it last night, they were highly decorative. They felt so odd that I couldn't touch anything with them. I ended up soaking them all off.

Another thing I noticed while applying the nails: if I got the glue on the pads of my fingers, it made touching my face rather icky feeling, it messes up the nerve conduction and makes one feel like you're touching with a mitten. So you could try a drop of cyanoacrylate glue (super glue!) like used for nail application, on the pad of each finger tip. You'll likely be more interested in scraping that off than touching your face. I sure was. Less face touching, too, afterwards. It really helps.

Wear a hair tie or rubber band on your wrist. Whenever you touch your face, snap it so it hurts. I did that to stop my nail biting and it worked.


... No pain, no game!

Great idea. That's what I did to grow my nails long, too. I never bite them anymore, and haven't for 15 years.

[Elanorci]

Seems like a lot of people have had success with the rubber band/hair tie idea. Hmm..
Glad to hear that so many of you have overcome similar habits! It gives me hope for myself.
Thanks for all the replies.

[Esmo]

You can do 3 things:
1) Concentrate on the task at hand and stay busy.
2) Think less about pimples forming.
3) Use a stress ball or something to play with (Rubix Cube, pen, stress ball, etc.) and you won't have the urge to play with something, ie your face.

#3 helps me from idly touching my face a lot!

[xTCx]

Drawing helps I suppose. Just find something to entertain you. Umm lets see--I suppose keeping your hands in your pockets help. While walking simply carrying something helps alot.

Another idea is to wear mittens or some sort of light gloves. Obviously you would not want to do this now but when winter comes along think about it.