“It seems like not many people knew that nail biting could cause such a big issue, including myself,” Gabby Swierzewski tells PEOPLE

Gabby Swierzewski has been a nail-biter for as long as she can remember. The habit began in childhood and followed her through adulthood, rarely causing more than the occasional sore finger or hangnail.

But in early February 2026, something felt different. What she assumed would be another minor irritation quickly turned into a painful and frightening medical ordeal.

“This began on Feb. 6; it initially began as a hangnail, and it was extremely painful,” Swierzewski tells PEOPLE. “Hang nails are a common occurrence for me, so of course, I thought it would go away, as I have been biting my nails since I was 8.”

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Within a day, however, Swierzewski’s finger had become “extremely swollen,” and so she decided to call her primary doctor, assuming it was just another ingrown nail. At the appointment on Feb. 10, she was prescribed a dose of antibiotics and an ointment meant to help treat an infection.

Despite the medicine, her finger wasn’t getting any better, so on Feb. 12, she decided to visit an urgent care specializing in dealing with ingrown nails. “They went on to try and pop the abscess and cut under my nail, they could not get anything, other than blood,” Swierzewski explains. “They prescribed me a second antibiotic.”

Yet, by Valentine’s Day, the situation had taken a turn for the worse. Swierzewski, who works as a restaurant manager at a TGI Fridays, pushed through long shifts despite the pain. When she finally removed the bandage late that night, her finger had turned a deep shade of purple and was throbbing intensely.

Still, Swierzewski forced herself through another shift the following day, but by Feb. 16, the pain had become unbearable. “I woke up crying and to the point of passing out,” she recalls. That morning, she drove herself to the emergency room at 6:30 a.m.

After being taken in immediately, doctors cut into her finger and drained multiple cyst-like abscesses. Even after the procedure, the swelling remained severe, prompting doctors to refer her to a hand specialist for further evaluation.

The news she received at that appointment was alarming. Swierzewski recalls the specialist saying it was “the worst case she’s ever seen” in someone so young.

As a result, on Feb. 19, Swierzewski underwent an urgent irrigation and debridement procedure under general anesthesia, which required a 2-centimeter incision in her finger to clean out the infection.

In the days that followed, uncertainty weighed heavily on her mind. Doctors sent tissue samples to a lab and ordered blood tests to determine whether the infection had spread to the bone. There was also the frightening possibility she might lose her nail — or even her finger.

Fortunately, that fear was put to rest on March 4, when, at a follow-up appointment, doctors confirmed Swierzewski would not need another surgery or an amputation. The doctor who evaluated her that day told her that "it was pretty impressive how big my finger was.”

Although the ordeal is behind her, the experience has changed how Swierzewski views the habit she once brushed off as harmless. “It is a very important awareness topic and it seems like not many people knew that nail biting could cause such a big issue, including myself,” she emphasizes.

Even though Swierzewski has tried to quit her habit more than once over the years, she has been unsuccessful. As a child, her mother bought her a bitter nail polish designed to discourage biting, though it didn’t work. Acrylic nails also proved difficult; she often bit through them within days. More recently, she managed to keep a set on for three weeks and even went a week without biting her natural nails before the habit returned.

Now, she hopes the frightening experience will finally help her break the cycle for good. By sharing her story online, Swierzewski hopes to warn others who might underestimate the risks. Her advice to other fellow nail-biters is to try different strategies and find healthier ways to cope with stress.

Some people may have better luck with acrylic nails or bitter polish than she did. As a student in grade school, she found that chewing gum sometimes helped curb the urge to bite, especially during stressful moments, she tells PEOPLE.

Today, she’s trying to be more mindful when the habit creeps back.

“I still catch myself attempting to bite my nails, but instead of biting hard, I have just been nibbling on them. I quickly stop and reassess what I am doing,” Swierzewski says. “I fully believe that I will be successful this time and that the habit will stop.”

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