public restroom phobias

To many public restroom phobias will seem a little odd, but to some it is an incredibly embarrassing problem. No matter how desperate they may be to ‘go’ nothing will happen if outside home environment. Public restroom phobias are also known as bashful bladder syndrome (BBS), urophobia, psychogenic urinary retention and paruresis (the official clinical term). People with public restroom phobias are sometimes referred to as paruretics. It is a psychological disorder that involves the urinary system. More precisely, puplic restroom phobias are a type of social phobia, meaning the paruretic is usually shy and fears being scrutinised or criticised by others when performing in public— in this case, urinating in a public restroom. The psychological conflict that generates this particular form of social phobia is expressed through the physical symptom of being unable to urinate whenever the person desires.

Typically, he or she, finds the home bathroom to be the only truly safe toilet. Public restroom phobias range in intensity from mild, in which the person can urinate in public facilities under certain circumstances, to severe, in which the person can only urinate when alone at home. Thus the degree of the public restroom phobias hesitancy ranges from a momentary delay in initiating the process, to chronic and acute retention. Most people occasionally experience at least some hesitancy in public restrooms, maybe having to wait an extra second or two before being able to urinate, but this is not a paruretic. Rather, public restroom phobias are often a life-long condition characterised by excessive hesitancy or a total inability to urinate. The problem also causes distress over everyday activities like travel, social engagements, long business meetings, and interferes in a significant way with the paruretics ability to carry on with these normal activities.

Paruretics most commonly refer to three triggers of their public restroom phobias. For the typical paruretic, these triggers must be removed, or person must try another toilet, for urination to occur on a particular occasion. First, familiarity with other people present in the restroom can trigger public restroom phobias, with strangers usually (but certainly not always!) leading to greater inhibition than friends or relatives. Secondly, proximity plays a role in the problem. Proximity for the paruretic is both physical, involving the relative closeness of others in or near the restroom, and psychological, involving the need for privacy. The most frequent complaint about physical stimuli in public facilities is the absence of suitable partitions and doors on stalls. Many sufferers of public restroom phobias remark that they cannot urinate (or defecate) in a stall toilet if the door is missing. They feel embarrassed about their personal space being invaded visually. Thirdly, temporary psychological states - especially anxiety, anger, and fear - can interfere with urination. Social phobics who are overly sensitive about the sounds and smells they make while urinating are usually fearful of being criticised for such, which in turn arouses their nervous system, leading to the trigger of their public restroom phobias. Also, excessive emotional states may explain why attempts to urinate under favourable conditions are often unsuccessful if the individual is overly excited or feels pressured to hurry.