Anxiety, especially chronic anxiety, causes more than nervousness alone. The fight or flight system can overwhelm the brain and body, leading to excessive urination, frequent urination, and many other urinary challenges.
And, anxiety is a risk factor for developing incontinence. The same appears to be true with other mental health issues, like depression, which is also a risk factor for developing incontinence. Several studies have linked depression to urinary incontinence in women especially.
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.
When you're anxious, the muscles tense up and your body puts pressure on areas like your bladder and your abdomen. This pressure may also cause you to need to urinate more often. Those with anxiety may also feel more physically tired from all of their anxiety symptoms, and this too may lead to more frequent urination.
The risk for urinary incontinence among women with cognitive deficits is 1.5- to 3.4-fold higher than for women without mental disorders. The most common form is stress incontinence (50 %), followed by mixed stress-urge incontinence (40 %) and purely urge incontinence (OAB = overactive bladder, 20 %).
Causes of urinary incontinence
Urge incontinence is usually the result of overactivity of the detrusor muscles, which control the bladder. Overflow incontinence is often caused by an obstruction or blockage in your bladder, which prevents it from emptying fully.
A person with paruresis (shy bladder syndrome) finds it difficult or impossible to urinate (pee) when other people are around. Paruresis is believed to be a common type of social phobia, ranking second only to the fear of public speaking.
When you have anxiety, your muscles get very tense. This tension puts pressure on your bladder, which in turn makes you feel like you need to urinate more than you would otherwise. Evolutionary Adaptation Another theory is that there is an evolutionary reason that frequent urination would be advantageous.
Treatments are usually available to cure or significantly reduce the effects of stress incontinence on your life. Find a health care provider who's willing to work with you to determine the best way to treat your incontinence. Choosing the right treatments for you should be a partnership between you and your provider.
“A person suffering with pathological anxiety may develop obsessive habits that lead to more frequent voiding, a heightened awareness of bladder fullness and a type of incontinence associated with this, called urge incontinence.
Sudden stress (pressure) on your bladder causes stress incontinence. Common causes include coughing, sneezing, laughing, lifting and physical activity. Younger and middle-aged women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB) near or experiencing menopause are most likely to have stress incontinence.
Duloxetine (Cymbalta, Drizalma Sprinkle) is a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor that is approved to treat depression and anxiety. It can help relax the muscles that control urination and improve bladder leaks in some people.
Stress and anxiety can affect the flow of blood to your vagina which can interfere with how much lubrication you naturally produce and lead to vaginal dryness. This can lead to painful sex and bleeding, in some cases.
This condition can occur at any age, but it is more common in women over the age of 50.
As many as 20 million Americans have this problem. It's known as shy or bashful bladder syndrome. Your doctor may call it by its official name, paruresis. Without treatment, it can affect your personal, social, and professional life.
Symptoms of Stress Incontinence
The urine leakage may be an occasional drop or dribble if the condition is mild. In severe cases, you may leak a stream of urine. Stress incontinence is different from overactive bladder (OAB). OAB causes a need to urinate often and feeling an urgent need to urinate.
When we become stressed or anxious, electrical signals from the limbic system become so intense that the brainstem has trouble following the frontal lobe's commands. That's why many people urinate more frequently before important exams or in the starting corral of a marathon.
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).
In the absence of pain or other UTI symptoms, however, urine leakage associated with urgency to void is most likely due to an overactive bladder. With an overactive bladder, the bladder muscle itself can squeeze urine out without your permission, causing leakage.
Contact your primary care provider for a visit if: You're embarrassed by urine leakage, and you miss important activities because of it. You often rush to a bathroom, but can't make it in time. You often feel the need to pee but pass little or no urine.