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[Kolnukbyne]

Almost all my life I've chewed everything I can. I chewed my finger nails, then my knuckles, pens, pen lids, torn up pieces of cardboard, the neck of my shirts, my sleeves and now I've gone into a phase of chewing toothpicks. And it's not just chewing them it's turned into pulling them to pieces with my teeth, which is probably a fair bit more messy than it sounds.
It has been suggested to me, and I have tried, gum but it doesn't seem to do it for me (I'm not sure if it's the fact I need to buy it, it's not very solid or it just makes my mouth fill with saliva), so it never really lasts long.
So do Bay12 Forum-goers have any advice for me to stop my chewing? It's annoying, destructive and messy.

[Xantalos]

I had the same problem for a while, and the best advice I can give you is to focus on what you're doing, and if you realize you're chewing (because it often starts automatically) just stop and spit whatever it was out. Get people you know to bug you about it as well. Just keep doing that and eventually you'll kick it.
Eventually.

[wierd]

If you dont mind the prospects of using chemical agents, you can also gently spray everything even remotely chewable that really shouldnt be in your mouth with a bittering agent. That way, as soon as it hits your mouth, you will know.

Surprisingly, you can get such agents already in a convenient aerosol can, since they are added to compressed air duster to discourage inhalation abuse of the product.  That stuff is POTENT. (Spray dusting my keyboard from time to time, inadverantly causes overspray when I tip the can, deliveirng the bittering agent in liquid form to the keys. It then rubs off on my fingers when I type, and if I dont wash them before picking up food and eating it, I KNOW.)

Easy peasy-- Take items you dont want to chew, put them in a cup standing vertical, invert the can of duster, and spray the liquid all over them, and then let them dry. All done.

[Xantalos]

See, that would work, but then almost everything s/he owns would have to be sprayed.
Chewers like us (or at least me) would chew ANYTHING.

[Kolnukbyne]

I had the same problem for a while, and the best advice I can give you is to focus on what you're doing, and if you realize you're chewing (because it often starts automatically) just stop and spit whatever it was out. Get people you know to bug you about it as well. Just keep doing that and eventually you'll kick it.
Eventually.

I'll try that. I already have people bugging me about it, but I don't normally stop when I realise I'm doing it.

You don't know how many times a teacher has told me to spit the gum and I have to explain to her that what is in my mouth isn't gum. Nor food. Nor anything edible.
This has happened so much, my classmates already answer that to the teacher automatically when she asks.

This is basically what would happen to me in Highschool.

If you dont mind the prospects of using chemical agents, you can also gently spray everything even remotely chewable that really shouldnt be in your mouth with a bittering agent. That way, as soon as it hits your mouth, you will know.

Surprisingly, you can get such agents already in a convenient aerosol can, since they are added to compressed air duster to discourage inhalation abuse of the product.  That stuff is POTENT. (Spray dusting my keyboard from time to time, inadverantly causes overspray when I tip the can, deliveirng the bittering agent in liquid form to the keys. It then rubs off on my fingers when I type, and if I dont wash them before picking up food and eating it, I KNOW.)

Easy peasy-- Take items you dont want to chew, put them in a cup standing vertical, invert the can of duster, and spray the liquid all over them, and then let them dry. All done.

I have tried this, actually. Didn't work. I'd rub aloe vera sap on my fingers to stop me from chewing my fingernails, which is when I just went to chewing my knuckles. So I put it on them too and just kept doing it despite the awful taste. And as Xantalos said, I'd have to put it on everything around me anyway.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Straightjacket, plus one of those collars you put on dogs so they cant chew themselves.

[wierd]

Wont stop them from chewing their own lips.

(I feel delightfully morbid today.)

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Wont stop them from chewing their own lips.

(I feel delightfully morbid today.)

impressive sir, the only thing outside of full paralysis, either induced through mechanical devices or death, that could fully cure them is a coma!

[Xantalos]

Wont stop them from chewing their own lips.

(I feel delightfully morbid today.)

impressive sir, the only thing outside of full paralysis, either induced through mechanical devices or death, that could fully cure them is a coma!

Hypnotherapy sometimes works.
Also the lip chewing thing is real.

[freeformschooler]

Yeah, lip chewing is totally a thing. It's (usually) not as horribad as it sounds.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

I know, i've chewed the inside of my lips raw! as well as the inside of my cheeks!

[Kolnukbyne]

Wont stop them from chewing their own lips.

(I feel delightfully morbid today.)

impressive sir, the only thing outside of full paralysis, either induced through mechanical devices or death, that could fully cure them is a coma!

Hypnotherapy sometimes works.
Also the lip chewing thing is real.

Oh yeah, lip and cheek chewing is one that I completely forgot about, as well as the edges of my tongue.

[DJ]

Wont stop them from chewing their own lips.

(I feel delightfully morbid today.)

impressive sir, the only thing outside of full paralysis, either induced through mechanical devices or death, that could fully cure them is a coma!

What about pulling out all the teeth?

[Xantalos]

Wont stop them from chewing their own lips.

(I feel delightfully morbid today.)

impressive sir, the only thing outside of full paralysis, either induced through mechanical devices or death, that could fully cure them is a coma!

What about pulling out all the teeth?

Compulsive gumming.

[Facekillz058]

I don't see anything wrong with chewing on stuff honestly.
I've ended up eating two plastic bottle caps a day for the last 5 years and nothing bad has happened yet.