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Some years back a patient of mine came to therapy with a major problem of bashful bladder. He could not pee at work and elsewhere except at home. He would hold his full bladder for 9 or 10 hours a day. His story he said went back to early childhood. His father would be shaving in the bathroom. He would get up needing to pee very badly. His father said he should come in and pee. He stood at the toilet but nothing would come out. His father would belittle him by laughing at him for not peeing and made fun of his small circumcised penis.Sometimes on a long family trip, at a stop he would rush to the toilet only to have his father follow him in. When he couldn't piss, he was sent back to the car. On long trips he would hold and hold for 10 or 12 hours. All throurgh childhood and into adolescence he could not pee in the toilets at school or elsewhere. When some bully would belittle him by saying he never goes to the toilet. He must be a girl who needs to sit down to pee.
He did not stay in therapy long enough to begin cognitive therapy. It was the time in the 1980s before paruresis began to be treated with behavioral practice.
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on 30/3/2009, 1:37 am, in reply to "Re: childhood abuse and paruresis?"