Have you ever faced the problem when you went to a public restroom and you just couldn’t relieve yourself no matter how hard you tried? Well there can usually many reasons behind this type of problem like medical reasons, psychological reasons and physical health related reasons. But there is high probability that the real reason behind your problem is Paruresis or the shy bladder or the bashful bladder syndrome as it is generally known as.

Paruresis is a medical problem which has its roots in the deep levels of psychology. It is one of the many examples present about the power our mind has our body. In very basic and layman terms, Paruresis is the problem when the suffering person cannot urinate in any public area like public restrooms, public urinals or any such place where they fear that their privacy can be visually invaded. There is no physical health related problem like inflamed prostate that is prostatis which blocks the urine, related to this condition. It is completely psychological. You are not able to urinate because your subconscious mind is not letting you urinate.

Now why this does happens? Usually this all problems start with a little incidence like when you were a kid and you were using a public restroom and someone or some people like elder boys teased you about something. You feel insulted and it feels like a mental pain or torture. So from then on, your subconscious mind starts relating a public restroom to pain. That is why whenever you even try to relieve yourself in a public restroom even if you want to. This is Paruresis.

Now how to know that you have Paruresis and what are its effects? The basic thing by which you can identify this condition is when you can easily urinate in the privacy of your bathroom but not when you do not feel or get the privacy. This problem has several negative effects on the person’s daily life. Like for example, he needs to go through a drug test. He will find urinating in the restroom incredibly difficult as he will feel like everyone will judge him. People suffering from this condition start avoiding going to parties, social functions, football matches, bars etc. because they fear using the restrooms there if the need arises.

So this condition hampers the social life of a person. Also, suppose the person suffering from shy bladder syndrome will find it very difficult to go for long flights or tours which require them to spend a huge amount of time in trains, buses etc. because as they cannot use the restroom available there in the train, they will avoid such tours even if they are important tours related to their business etc. This causes a very dampening effect on their growth in professional field like marketing, sales etc.