Posted by Dave on 31/5/2015, 7:49 pm

Hi all, My name is Dave and I'm a 27 year old based in London. I have a good life - partner, job and friends, but have also suffered from paruresis since I was a teen. I've known of this board for years, and posted once a while back. Today I thought I'd see if I can get some good advice for my current situation on here. Towards the end of my teens my paruresis was the worst it's ever been. For me that meant I could go in cubicles, and even that was hard sometimes. I went to uni, and found that when I got drunk I had no problems pissing at the crowded urinals in a club. Obviously that's quite a specific situation, but it prompted me to find this website and then to start trying to tackle this problem. I've worked, on-and-off, over the years since at getting used to using the urinals, building myself up from making noise in the cubicles, to door open, to urinals in an empty toilet, to where I am now. Now I can go in a moderately busy toilet, and have much better success in facilities where there are dividers between the urinals. I still find, however, that sometimes I take a proper step back in terms of what I expect to be able to do. Today, for example, I went home via Euston and St Pancras stations. My level of urgency was high (maybe 9/10), but I bombed out at Euston. I then went to St Pancras, where I couldn't go either. I stepped into the stalls, where I was able to take off some of the pressure (loudly, ha!). I then went to get a drink and tried again 10 minutes later, and found that I had no problem. I then went twice more. What is with this hit-and-miss? More and more I find I can sometimes accomplish quite challenging scenarios, and then completely lock up the following day in a similar situation. Is this a phase? Has anyone else been here? Any advice for moving forward? Best, Dave

528