I have a REAL problem!

I have a somewhat severe difficulty urinating in public bathrooms, and I've always just called it having a "bashful bladder" or being "pee shy." I found out just today that it's a REAL problem with a REAL name: paruresis.

Apparently 1 in 10 people suffer from paruresis, and it's an anxiety disorder. If I'd known about "my condition" last December, I could have been in an NIH study and gotten paid $400!

Here are some characteristics of paruresis:

Being afraid or unable to urinate when others are nearby.

Sufferers worry that someone might knock on the toilet door, or see or hear them urinating, or be waiting patiently outside.

Feelings of anxiety, anger, and body shyness in provoking situations. These emotions lead to contraction of the internal and external urethral sphincters (circular muscles that voluntarily and involuntarily restrict the flow of urine), both of which must be relaxed for urination.

Avoidant paruresis usually occurs when using public toilet facilities, including those on trains, buses, boats and planes.

Producing a specimen for a medical examination can be especially troublesome.

The condition can also occur at home when there are other people in the house, irrespective of whether or not they are in the bathroom.

The difficulty disappears if sufferers are certain that no one is around or likely to arrive.

Now, the difference between me and most paruretics is that I'm not conscious of any embarrassment regarding the things involved in urination. I know everyone does it, and that I must as well. I don't find it disturbing to hear other people urinating, and in fact I'm mostly jealous of other urinators. Also, they say it usually affects men, but that's probably just because of the urinal thing.

There are various forms of therapy available for paruretics, but some of them seem pretty damned weird. For instance:

Treatment consists of six to ten weekly sessions of counseling. Patients arrive with a full bladder (made even more so through use of a diuretic) and repeatedly practice starting and stopping their urine flow in a variety of restrooms throughout the medical center. Patients begin in tiny bathrooms tucked away in remote corners and work up gradually to larger, more crowded lavatories.

In the beginning, the therapist stands outside the restroom and reassures the patient that no one will enter. Once the patient is calm enough to start urinating, the therapist gradually moves closer and closer.

Near the final session, the patient and therapist seek out the ultimate challenge: a football or basketball game or a concert - wherever people are lined up and waiting to get in.

Hmmm, a free concert might be fun!! Perhaps this kind of therapy would help because you'd be laughing so hard at the ridiculousness of your therapist "gradually moving closer and closer" that you'd end up peeing from the laughter!