Chronic psychological stress can affect urinary function and exacerbate lower urinary tract (LUT) dysfunction (LUTD), particularly in patients with overactive bladder (OAB) or interstitial cystitis–bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS).
Urinary symptoms such as frequency, urgency, burning or retention are most common in women and become an automatic response to anxiety-provoking or sexual stimuli.
People who feel stressed or anxious often find themselves having to use the toilet for urinary urgency more often. This is because stress triggers a response in our body that discharges stress hormones into the bloodstream.
Stress, anxiety, and depression may actually contribute to OAB and urinary incontinence. In a study involving more than 16,000 women in Norway, having anxiety or depression symptoms at baseline was associated with a 1.5- to two-fold increase in the risk of developing urinary incontinence.
However, there is mounting evidence that the relationship between these two factors is bidirectional and that chronic psychological stress itself can result in the development of symptoms such as urinary frequency, urgency, incontinence, and pelvic pain.
If you suffer from high stress levels or anxiety, you might also develop a urinary tract infection. Can stress cause a UTI? Not directly. However, stress can increase your cortisol levels, which can affect your immune system and make you more prone to infections.
Stress incontinence happens when physical movement or activity — such as coughing, laughing, sneezing, running or heavy lifting — puts pressure (stress) on your bladder, causing you to leak urine. Stress incontinence is not related to psychological stress.
For example, a man at a public urinal may find that he is unable to urinate when flanked by other men. In severe cases, a person with paruresis can only urinate when alone at home. The condition is also known as 'avoidant paruresis', 'psychogenic urinary retention' and 'pee-phobia'.
Introduction: Psychogenic urinary retention is defined as urinary retention with no objective evidence of organic disease, in the setting of psychologic trauma. It is a diagnosis of exclusion and most commonly presents in young females with psychiatric histories.
If you find yourself feeling as though you need to urinate all the time, the best thing you can do is simply learn to relax. Getting up and walking around can be a big help. Often sitting actually creates more urine anyway, so you'll find yourself needing to pee all the time especially when you stand up.
Shy bladder syndrome (paruresis) is a type of social anxiety disorder. People who have this disorder are unable to or have severe difficulty urinating (peeing) when they're away from home. No matter how urgently they have to go, they have a lot of trouble peeing in a bathroom that isn't their own.
There are two types of anxiety urination. There is instant urination that genuinely occurs during moments of complete terror, and there is frequent urination, which is the sensation of needing to urinate often without necessarily drinking excess water/liquid.
FEAR + FRIGHT. Fear is the emotion of the kidneys and the bladder, organs associated with the water element. It is a normal adaptive emotion, but can become chronic when ignored.
Unfortunately, overactive bladder is linked to mental health issues like depression and anxiety. Women with this condition may therefore want to seek out professional help for both their physical and emotional symptoms related to OAB.
Stress does not cause IC, but if you have IC, stress can cause a flare. Physical stress and mental stress can lead to flares. Remember, every flare will settle down and worrying about it only prolongs the discomfort. Understanding stress and how to minimize it is the best way to limit the intensity of your flares.
Painful Bladder Syndrome (PBS)
PBS is not caused by an infection, but it can feel like a urinary tract infection or UTI. Painful bladder syndrome is also referred to as bladder pain syndrome and interstitial cystitis.
There is a correlation between anxiety, depression and recurrence frequency of recurrent urinary tract infections in female patients.
A lesser-known symptom of anxiety is also an overactive bladder . An overactive bladder is usually associated with urinary urgency and can sometimes lead to urinary incontinence as a by-product (though this is not always a given).
When we're under stress, our fight-or-flight response tends to kick in; this triggers a release of hormones, which disrupt the usual hormones which keep the bladder relaxed, causing it to contract. This results in people feeling the need to urinate, or even involuntarily urinating in some cases.
Urinary tract infections (UTI) are the most common cause of frequent urination. These are bacterial infections in your bladder, urethra or other parts of your urinary tract. They include cystitis (bladder infection), urethritis (infection of the urethra) and pyelonephritis (kidney infection).