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My moms compulsively picks her feet, what can I do to help?
My mom has been a compulsive skin picker for quite a few years now. She completely mutilates her feet. She has utensils at the bedside and will sit there for hours with clippers and ped eggs just picking layers and layers of skin off. She constantly has to bandage her feet up because they are painful and bleeding and her big toenail is completely gone. I catch her doing it all the time and I tell her to stop, but she cant. She says she feels rough areas that she has to get smooth. I dont know what to do anymore, its painful to watch her do this to herself. I tell her that she is self mutilating and that she needs to seek some help for it. Ive gotten her all sorts of foot creams to smooth cracks and moisturizing socks. But it hasnt helped and I dont know what to do. I think it really does have something to do with stress and self-loathing. Anyways, I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what I could do to be more supportive and get her the help that she needs.
April 29, 2010
you obviously care about your mother very much and that is wonderful. the most important thing is to realize that this is your mom's issue and only she can do something about it when she is ready to. as for how you can be supportive, just continue to love her, be loving toward her, be willing to listen to her, and resist expressing negativity or anger toward her about it even though it is frustrating to see her do or even know about it. keep positive and let her know you care as i'm sure she knows you do. tell her about this site. but only she can decide when to take action on changing her behaiours and habits. even her doctor is at a loss to help her until she wants to help herself. just be there when she need support. she's lucky to have you caring about her as you do. ♥