Does biting nails indicate anxiety?

Yes, that and nervousness. I pick my nails (not bite) because I am nervous and anxious. I have been doing it for several years.

A person who always bites his/her nails is called Chronic Onychophagia. A person bites their nails when they are nervous, stressed, hungry or bored and this is very subconscious because nail bitting starts as a child but as we grow up this nervous condition is triggered back and to cure nail bitting. Finding the nervous condition is the only way to satiate it. A lot of nail bitting is linked to a physical, emotional or mental disorders. Nail biters will know that when they face stress or boredom, their hands subconsciously go to their mouth and they start biting it without realizing they actually are.

While nail biting can be a symptom of anxiety, it is not a criteria that you must fulfill to become anxious. There could be a myriad of reasons why someone bites their nails. I know of some friends who bites their nails because it is just a habit to them already; if they don't do it they will feel awkward (possibly a symptom of obsessive compulsive behaviour?). Some others need to have their teeth chewing on something continuously, and the most convenient thing that they can get their hands (or more accurately, teeth ) on would be their fingernails. There's nothing wrong with biting your fingernails, but in the long term it might hurt the structure and appearance of your fingernails, so I would advise to abstain from biting your fingernails if you could help it. Happy myLotting!