Is it possible to delay strong urges to pee?
Urge suppression techniques can be very effective for bladder training and for when it’s just not a good time to go to the bathroom
Or maybe you recently went to the bathroom and your urge to pee is probably a ghost urge and you just want it to go away.
In a normal brain-bladder system, the bladder will give us information intermittently depending on how distracted we are. The techniques outlined below tell the bladder to be quiet until it’s a socially appropriate time to void. We can also use these to tell our bladder to chill out if we think logically that based on the time interval since we last went and how much we had to drink, that the bladder probably isn’t full yet.
Remember that the bladder can usually hold about 18oz (even up to 23oz if you were born with a prostate) and normal void volume is 10-15oz. We might get that first urge from the bladder at 5oz, but it’s just a warning, like “hey Rebs, your bladder here. Just letting you know you that you’ll probably need to find a bathroom in the next hour or so.”
How to quiet your strong urge to urinate:
If you’re standing up, sit down. The pressure on the perineum from sitting down can help suppress the urge. You can also place a flat hand on your perineum (if it’s socially appropriate) and gently press upward. If you’re in a bind, you can squat down over one foot and use your heel to get the same type of gentle pressure or sit on the arm of a couch. Be creative.
quickly squeeze and release the pelvic floor (like you’re trying to stop the flow of urine) 5-7 times to interrupt the nerves that are firing and trigger a reflex that makes the bladder stop trying to contract.
Take two relaxing deep breaths to tell your nervous system your brain is in charge and gets to decide when you pee.
distract yourself with something that takes mental focus.
count backwards from 100 by 7s.
choose a letter and think of as many words as possible that start with that letter.
choose your own adventure, but make sure it’s somewhat challenging for your thinking brain.
stand up and lift your heels up and down to send distracting signals to a nerve that also connects to the bladder muscle.
if you still feel a strong urge and it’s been a while since you’ve peed, calmly walk to the bathroom.
How to quiet strong bowel urges:
In general, it’s a good idea to listen to your first bowel urge and take a break from whatever you’re doing to go relax on the toilet and let your rectum push your poop out. The brain will stop giving us signals if we’re chronically ignoring bowel urges and might lead to more constipation later.
If you’re in an important meeting or in the car or there’s someone else in the bathroom and you have to wait:
squeeze your pelvic floor: kegel, but with a focus on closing the anus and pulling it up
try to hold this squeeze for 15-30 seconds. This is quite a long time to hold and usually this much time isn’t necessary if you have a good formed stool, but might be necessary if your stool is looser or less formed. Similar to the bladder, there’s a reflex in the rectum that’s triggered with a pelvic floor contraction. This reflex tells your rectum to chill out and push the poop back up for storage.
Remember that water continuously gets absorbed out of stool as it sits in your colon, so if you’re already constipated, be aware of this and do your best to listen to your first urge.
Holding stool in can be a lot more difficult when it’s not nicely formed. There is something called a sampling reflex where the rectum tells your brain if distention of the rectal walls is from gas or solid.
Unfortunately, this mechanism is more confusing when stool is soft/liquid, which is why we can sometimes get what many of us affectionately call a “shart,” when you think it’s just gas, but a little stool comes out, oops. This is also something you can work on with your pelvic floor therapist.
I believe in you. Feel free to schedule a discovery call if you’d like more information or are considering working with me and I’ll do my best to help!
This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please consult your qualified medical provider for an individual assessment or plan of care.
