Obsessive compulsive disorder and bladder and bowel anxieties

Obsessive compulsive disorder involves the experience of unwanted obsessions (i.e. recurrent thoughts or images) or compulsions (i.e., repetitive rituals or behaviours). Individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder commonly experience compulsive behaviour around cleanliness, checking, counting, and safety concerns.

• Paruresis: Individuals with paruresis have also reported to experience obsessive compulsive disorder. A study by Vythilingum, Stein, and Soifer identified 4.8% of paruresis sufferers reporting obsessive compulsive disorder, with 1.6% of individuals also reporting a family history.
• Parcopresis: While research has not been conducted on the relationship between parcopresis and obsessive-compulsive disorder, it is likely that parcopresis shares the same psychological symptoms with paruresis due to similarities between the conditions.
• Incontinence anxiety: Research by Pajak and colleagues in 2013 noted that individuals with incontinence anxiety reported experiencing symptoms related to obsessive compulsive disorder. Incontinence anxiety sufferers reported intrusive, visual mental imagery regarding public episodes of incontinence. Pajak and colleagues also noted thatthe content of images was primarily future-oriented (85%; images that end with or start just before a feared episode of public incontinence). Incontinence anxiety sufferers have been reported to obsess over fears of public incontinence, and compulsively use the restroom (make sure their bladder and bowel was completely empty) before going out in public.