DS9 (AuDHD, medicated with dexamphetamine) cannot stop tearing the skin off his fingers. They are a total mess. He picks at the fingertips to raise calluses, rips them off until they bleed, rips at the edges right down by the fingernails, picks the fingernail edges to raise them and then rips the edges of the fingernails off to about 2/3 of the way down the nail bed. They look very abnormal.
He does it all the time, when he's bored, trying to concentrate, listening, thinking, zoned out, not thinking... watching him try to do some schoolwork, it's about every 15 seconds that he'll start staring at a nail and trying to rip it off.
Our GP tells us he'll grow out of it and she's not going to do anything about it. His developmental paediatrician used to say it was an unfortunate symptom of ADHD, probably made worse by stimulants, that he probably wouldn't grow out of, but there was no treatment for it and there are no dermatologists here who would deal with it. So, basically, just crack on with the bleeding fingers and hope they don't end up infected. This has been an issue for 5+ years. It's not getting any better.
We've tried other medications for ADHD. He needs to be on the current meds as they work better than anything else. The skin picking has been there constantly through all the different meds we've tried, and in between when he's been unmedicated.
I've tried giving him reminders (he gets irritated), fidgets (he focuses on the fidget instead of schoolwork, loses the fidget, goes back to picking fingers), taping up the fingers (he picks the tape off and goes back to picking), gloves (only works when outside in cold weather)...
Is it worth trying to do anything else about it? Has anyone had any success with treating this at all?