During the course of your anxiety episodes you may have noticed that a large percentage of anxiety symptoms have made you feel like you were going to die or like you were getting real sick. But anxiety disorders, as negative as they can make us feel, are not always doom and gloom. Sometimes we have symptoms that are just annoying, one such symptom is urgency.
Now when I say urgency I of course don’t mean that you are feeling rushed or panicked about how you feel, this type of urgency is all about how your bladder feels. It’s not just palpitations that can bug you, sometimes it is the simple fact that you just have to go and urinate a lot. When I say a lot I don’t mean 3 or even 6 times a day either. We are talking 10, 15 or even 20 times a day. When urgency strikes you may feel like you have to go what seems like every ten minutes and even after you have just gone. You may also experience an inability to produce a “full stream”.
The good news is that this anxiety symptom is one of the few that won’t make you feel like you’re headed for the ER. It is however very annoying and can make it difficult to go places for long periods of time. I have dealt with this particular symptom off and on for a few years. Every time it would act up I would go to my doctor and he would run standard urological test and come back and tell me that everything was fine.
According to Psychiatric News it is normal for anxiety disorder sufferers to have higher rates of urinary urgency when compared to the general population. The exact cause is unknown but what is known is that urinary urgency, which is similar to interstitial cystitis, is related to stress and muscle tension. This is of course no surprise as it seems that stress and “nerves” is the driving force behind this and many other anxiety disorder symptoms.
So what can we do about it? Well I suggest that if this problem persist for any real amount of time that you see your doctor. You do need to rule out diabetes and other conditions that can cause urinary urgency. If you are cleared by your doctor than I recommend that you try meditation and relaxation techniques to help with the muscle tension that may be contributing to this particular symptom.
When it comes to reducing the affect this has on you I suggest that you not give it a lot of importance in your mind. I have noticed that when my mind was occupied I was able to not go as often, so there is likely a psychological component to this as well. If you want to read a little more about this topic click here or follow my recommendation and speak with your doctor. And remember no matter what happens with your anxiety disorder relax because you’re going to be o.k.
Wow! I never thought that people with anxiety disorder sufferers to have higher rates of urinary urgency. I think I am not one of those people but sometimes when Im anxious what helps me how to relax is to listen to soothing music.
Paul
A very very important fact. When you run a fasting sugar or urine glucose test for an anxiety disordered patient, it is bound to show positive results meaning the person is a diabetic. It is entirely wrong. They day i went to the ER i just gave my blood and urine samples. The result came back positive and the PCP was stupid enough to presume i was a diabetic. When i showed it to my cardiologist, he very clearly told me that anxiety is bound to increase the BP as well as the urine and there is nothing to worry about. Anxiety might also cause exercise intolerance to a certain extent.