To pee or not to pee? OCD or panic?...

[Guest Gemz]

Hey all... not been on the site for a while as pleased to say that I am now 99.9% OCD free these days. I still have the odd wobble but my CBT therapist has been amazing and Lustral has done wonders. Hurrah.. it's seems this thing can be beaten (or at least contained!)

My post is about a friend of mine who, to me, is showing classic signs of OCD but won't hear of it.

To cut a long story short she cannot go on car journeys of more than five minutes without thinking she needs to stop to go to the toilet.

It's got so bad that she rarely goes out and if she does she will have to plan her journey according to public toilets along the route and even takes a bucket in the car in case there is nowhere to go. She is so panicked that she will wet herself although she knows this would not happen.

To me this seems very much like OCD although not one of the obsessions I experienced... I just wondered if anyone else has? She's been checked out by the doc for a medical reason but nothing.

Can anyone help?

Gemz xx

[catherine]

Tricky one!

It could be an OCD trait and I know I have 'strange' habits over when and how often I go to the loo. But it could also be an anxiety reaction without the OCD element. I think it's so hard to know because anxiety and OCD are of course so closely linked.

In my experience the same issue can also cause opposite reactions in two different people. For example, some people like your friend appear to have become somewhat obsessed by going to the toilet, whilst another OCD sufferer will refrain from drinking because they do NOT want to go to the toilet :huh: . It reminds me of a similar post a while back on brushing teeth. Half seemed to have a really big fear of brushing their teeth because for example, the toothbrush was contaminated, whilst the other half (myself included) were obsessed about cleaning their teeth after immediately every meal

I think with your friend it would be necessary to see if they show any other OCD traits or tendancies. This would help build a fuller picture. Sorry, I can't be of much help.

Catherine

PS Great to hear you are overcoming your OCD so well

[Guest harmony]

Its very difficult to say weather it is anything because you only really give one set of behaviour, on the face of the toilet behaviour it could be based in OCD however this type of behaviour can also been seen in some if not a lot of people who are incontinent weather its faecal or urinary, weather there old or young and the stereotypical incontinence is that of any old person and this is far far from the true. There are different types of incontinence from full to stress, and the effects can be for the person so embarrassing they change there behaviour, like planning routes, needing to know where the toilets are, knowing how long there going to be out, controlling there fluid intake and without that planning they never go out.

My opinion is based both in my partners OCD and Faecal Incontinence which is the result of child birth and is ongoing and life long, my partner is 28 years old and I have gained consent to share this information.

Sorry this does answer anything.

Take care

Alan

[Guest sweetdisaster]

I used to convince myself I was going to be sick every time I went out, I guess that's the time type of thing.

I have a friend who needs to wee everytime she uses a cash machine.

[Guest Gemz]

Thanks all for your posts. I did wonder if perhaps I'd let my own experiences of OCD lead me to think this was the case with my friend but it seems it could be anything.

Fingers crossed she'll be on the up soon.

Keep battling guys.

Gemz x :blushing:

[Caramoole]

I'd agree with the others.

Difficult to call really. As an isolated behaviour I'd say it was anxiety, the need to be in control of the situation, spending a penny is a very common one. It does become an obsession but not in and OCD way. If though there are other things as well it could be OCD :blushing: