Yasemin Aydoğdu, Specialist in Psychology, says that urinary incontinence as experienced by approximately 2.7 million women in Türkiye leads to a lack of self-confidence, loss of self-esteem, feelings of shame and embarrassment both in men and women, thereby affecting lives negatively in all aspects.
In Türkiye, one out of every four women aged 40 years and over and one out of every 10 men aged 50 years and over suffer from urinary incontinence. Although urinary incontinence often occurs due to physiological causes, especially in women or men over 45 years of age, the disorder can take origins from psychological reasons. In this context, Yasemin Aydoğdu, Specialist in Psychology, states that the psychological effects of urinary incontinence are particularly challenging for women, who are in active working life, and explains the causes and solutions of this problem:
“Childhood traumas can manifest as urinary incontinence”
Noting that urinary incontinence can be due to psychological reasons, Aydoğdu says: “Urinary incontinence can occur in individuals of all ages including women, men, young people, old individuals, and children. Psychological urinary incontinence can occur in adulthood, especially as a result of certain situations experienced in childhood or later in life. Such situations may include being exposed to punishment during toilet training, having a family member suffering from urinary incontinence, witnessing an act of violence in childhood, hardly reaching the toilet in time, accidents, overreaction of parents to bedwetting, jealousy of a newborn sibling, academic failure, beatings, death in the family, divorce, migration, school-related trauma, hospital stay, inconvenient access to a toilet (toilet outside the house or inside the house), or emotional reactions to overly clean and tidy mother’s oppressive toilet training.”
“This problem challenges women both emotionally and in terms of work life”
Stating that urinary incontinence leads to a lack of self-confidence, loss of self-esteem, and feelings of shame and embarrassment both in men and women, affecting their lives in all aspects unfavorably, Aydoğdu emphasizes that urinary incontinence and related problems can be resolved as long as psychological support is received. Aydoğdu further adds that women in particular are emotionally damaged by this problem.
Psychologist Yasemin Aydoğdu notes that urinary incontinence poses an emotional challenge for women: “It triggers a feeling of shame and distress in most women. In some women, the problem can be severe enough to lead them to limit their daily lives. The condition can impair the quality of life of women through limitations to their personal freedom. Urinary incontinence when cleaning, walking, lifting an object, laughing, or sneezing may lead women to avoid people or going out in public. Since women with this problem urinate frequently and experience urinary leakage when they cannot reach the toilet in time, they spend efforts to find a toilet nearby when they are outside their homes. As expected, such situations upset women. Urinary incontinence negatively affects work life as well. A woman, who cannot refrain from thinking of the risk of leakage or need to run to the toilet frequently, cannot focus on her job tasks or may not sustain her attention during long meetings. They will need to go to the toilet frequently during the night too and may not get enough sleep and rest adequately”.
Aydoğdu states that individuals with urinary incontinence, who have normal findings in a urology examination, or those who continue to experience incontinence despite using the prescribed medications, can consult psychologists. “Situations experienced in childhood or later periods in life causing urinary incontinence today at the subconscious level are discovered, their meanings are discussed, and such issues are resolved with the hypnotherapy method. The negative aspects of experiences are clarified and reinterpreted along with the positive aspects of events; then, the thoughts that cause the problem can be modified to be followed by relevant suggestions to eliminate urinary incontinence”, says Aydoğdu.
Kaynak: İHA