My mother has Alzheimer's and wants to go to the bathroom every five minutes. Advice?

Oh my gosh, my mother does the same thing. She is constantly going to the bathroom and not going. When I say something she just gets mad and says she can't help it she feels like she has to go. I've tried using depends, but she won't ware them. Our water bill keeps going up, finally realized it was flushing the toilet a million times a day. When you find a solution, please share.

Mums 83 no dementia diagnosed. As soon as I arrive at the resthome to visit I'm greeted by I have to go to the toilet. Then as soon as she is back in her chair she asks to go again 456 times. She has to be taken there and back etc. Its driving the carers and us to distraction. Gynaecologist and Urologiest have cleared her.
Pysch specialist in a weeks time.

When we had this problem, we found medication was not the way to go. Either made her constipated or dangerously groggy when she staggered down the hall. What we did, after hearing from her Center Care Manager, was not make a big deal out of it. Apparently there will always be some kind of obsession with some patients, and this was hers right now. The good new was, she moved on to another obsession AND there is usually only one at a time. LOL!
So, we didn't make a fuss. I put up a sensor light for her at night, and disconnected the toilet bowl chain, even turning off the toilet water tap, AND a large sign "please don't flush". You will need to go in a check every few hours to make sure the toilet doesn't clog.
On the positive side, she isn't very active so we did feel as least this is a bit of exercise. I know it's hard to think of it in a positive sense, but like with children, if we make it a problem, then it tends to compound the issue.
Silly me, now that we have experienced so many "obsessions", I sometimes think "gee, the toilet going one wasn't so bad after all". Hang in there, try to see it through and hope the next thing won't be more difficult to deal with. :-)

Do you go with her to the bathroom? When we first started taking care of my mom we were allowing her to go to the bathroom herself. Well I stopped doing that when I realized that she likes to take toilet paper out of the trash, old depends, forgets to pull down her pants before peeing, etc. Anyway, she used to go to the bathroom a lot too (the one place she could be alone I suspect) but now that I go with her every time she only goes once every couple of hours, granted it seems like it's when I'm cooking or just sat down to eat LOL.

My Mom had a stroke in 2010 and is paralyzed on the left side. As she cannot stand I have to get her in her chair, off her chair onto the toilet then back onto the chair and then back onto the couch! I've had back surgery, knee surgery and have fibromyalgia and the incessant peeing is a pain in all the above. She is constantly having a UTI....its gotten now to where she pees in her diaper which she started wearing about 3 weeks ago. Then she constantly thinks she needs to go have a BM but doesn't go once back there! She is getting weaker and cannot stand up enough for me to pull her clothes back up without holding her up and pulling clothes at the same time. Its killing me physically and emotionally because I find myself loosing my cool, and sometimes yelling at her to stand up and lean over towards me so that I can get her pants up! What is so bad is that there are times when she can do it just great and then the next time she won't so it kind of feels like she is just doing it. Oh, and every day its....."Just put me in a nursing home"....which I refuse to do!
Sorry so long...I could go on and on......but I just need some suggestions from those of you that have been here and done this!!
Thank you,
Rita

My experience is with a 93-year-old lady whom I care for in her home. She has 24/7 care by eight different women. We all experience this potty issue with her. She will get on what I call the toilet tango and does it for hours. Sometimes she wont even leave the bathroom before she announces she has to go again. Sometimes she cries and says she is sorry for doing this, sometimes she yells about it. She is extremely anxious about everything and I feel she would benefit from an anxiolytic but I dont want to sedate her, I just want her to feel good and less anxious. I can redirect her at times by taking her out. Any ideas are appreciated. Urinalysis tests are almost always negative.

My mother has just started this bathroom behavior within the last 3 days. She was having loose bowel accidents and her PCP has her on Cholestyramine to firm them up. She is already on Celexa for depression and Depakote for combativeness. Not only does she refuse to wear depends, she refuses to wear underwear at night. I sometimes used to find small "presents" dropped on the carpet in the hall on her way to or from the John. For the past few days, the bathroom has become OC. Every 10 minutes. Last night between 2:30 and 3:30 she went 6 times. Used 1/2 a roll of toilet paper yesterday. Before, she was OC about downsizing, threw her jewelry away. Before that, packing and unpacking, tearing up her books, had to take sissies away as she was cutting up her clothes. All these stopped when the meds kicked it. Always thinks it's Sunday and someone is coming to take her to church or lunch. I have been hit, kicked, told to go to hell and accused of trying to poison her. She is so much better on the meds that the bathroom thing seems small except that we are on septic and I don't want an overflow! Are there meds for OCD? Or are the anti depressants the same as anti anxiety?

My mom is absolutely obsessed with the bathroom. She has literally, (and I counted) went 6 times in less than one hour. There's no infection says her doctor. I don't know what to do. We go through 9 rolls of toilet paper, for her use only, (we have a totally different pack for everyone else) in 5 days. I've fixed it so that she can't flush as my water bill is over 50$ a month. It used to be 9$..not to mention this house is on septic and not sewage and we had sewage in the bathtub from what the plumber said was way too much water usage. I don't know what to do. When I try and talk to her about it she gets upset but doesn't remember anyways. So I can feel your pain. Lol

Oh boy, that and the toilet and tissue obsession. I noticed that my mother went to the bathroom every few minutes while waiting for the bus for the adult center. She gets anxiety easily, she is by nature a worrier, she worries she will have to go once on the bus, okay, it is hard because you have to rearrange her clothes. She will do this after a shower, after you get her all dressed. I know she drinks enough tea to make her peeing make sense and a lot of water too. I thought, maybe this is also a UTI. She got bronchitis and was on a run of antibiotics, so this would clear any UTI. However she was checked at the doctor and had a kidney infection, so go figure. There is something that my mother will always do obsessively, compulsions galore. When she gets something in her mind, she may forget everything a minute later, not the current obsession. I think after checking her for UTI, it may be nervous behaviour, makes you crazy because she just might have a UTI, arggh.

The voice of experience, lol :) is that blood pressure meds can make you pee like crazy (personal exp here) as can caffeinated beverages tea and coffee. Also ALL antibiotics do not target UTI's that is why a culture and doctor visit are necessary and why a kidney infection could still be lurking after a round of antibiotics.