Skin picking with dementia/Alzheimer's and how to stop it without drugs.

I often see posts on AgingCare about elders picking their skin to the point of it bleeding and causing issues. My Aunt did it with advanced Alzheimer's to the point where she lost her hair in channels on the side of her head. Her DD tried everything to address this OCD/anxiety/agitation disorder, but nothing worked to stop it. The doctor was no help (as usual) and only wanted to prescribe calming meds which ALSO did nothing to stop the chronic picking. Some use mittens, but that's really a very annoying thing to have to do 24/7, plus the elders usually pull them off in short order.

I subscribe to a user on Facebook, Joshua Pettit, who posts videos of his mother Betty who has advanced Alzheimer's. Her fingernails are always polished in different colors. Well, it turns out that she has a powder gel treatment done on her nails every few weeks called SNS, which her Neurologist recommended to STOP HER FROM PICKING HER SKIN! This SNS system thickens the nails and makes them 'pick-proof', for lack of a better explanation! The nails are then trimmed very short and filed smooth. Betty had a huge issue with picking her skin till it bled and scabbed over, but it stopped on a dime with the SNS nail treatments (considered a 'dip' treatment)!

I wanted to share this information with the subscribers here b/c I KNOW it's a huge issue for a lot of your loved ones. And this is a super easy fix. You can even do this SNS nail treatment at home and buy the supplies yourself if you can't get your loved one to the nail shop. Google it, all sorts of info comes up.

Acrylic nails can also stop skin picking, but I can't imagine an elder wearing fake nails and having that go over very well :(

Press on everyone, and happy 2023! I hope your year goes well and you have many celebrations to enjoy!