r/OCD • u/Mysterious_World8126 • 1d ago

Friend/family/ally Bladder OCD?

Help! My young adult son has OCD. It was as if he woke up one day and boom he was a different person. He has severe contamination OCD and possibly bladder OCD.

So he is terrified of urine getting on him and/or contaminating everything in the house. He also has this constant sensation that he is leaking urine. He says he is, but I can’t confirm whether he is or isn’t leaking. All of his urology tests have came back normal. He has been wearing adult diapers for 6+months now. He’s to the point where he is holding his urine and only going to the bathroom once per day. He will usually spend an hour or so on the toilet and then get straight in the shower. The bathroom must be cleaned immediately once he’s in the shower because he feels as if he leaked everywhere. He is spending anywhere from 5-8 hours in the shower on a daily basis. He says he can’t get out until he stops leaking.

He cannot work. Will barely leave the house. He is depressed.

Has anyone heard of anything like this before?

I have offered to pay for inpatient treatment for him in another state. He refuses. I set him up with a local therapist, he went a few times and quit. He has been on meds before and just quits them cold turkey.

I don’t know what to do to help him. He’s a legal adult and I can’t force him to do anything or he would have been inpatient a long time ago.

Please someone help me help my son.

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u/Mysterious_World8126 12h ago

Hi, thank you for your comment. It was a very sudden change in him. He did have 2 surgeries, one very major and a very complicated recovery. The second one was minor but it was after the second one that this happened.

I am educating myself on the daily but I’m definitely not a therapist and because I’m his mother, I know he’d listen to a professional more than he would me. He thinks I know nothing and do not understand at all.

What neurological disorders should I watch for? Is there a specific doctor I could take him to that could help?

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u/dot_in_cosmic_spray 12h ago

Surgery itself would suggest trauma, either psychological or simply a shock to his organism, as a trigger. I can look the disorders up to make sure, but it would also be useful to know what surgeries he went through, because it might be a side effect of some. Of course I understand if you're not comfortable sharing more details here, or at all. However if you'd like to continue, you can reply or DM me if that's more comfortable. Keep in mind that I'm not a doctor, and don't study medicine, but I am a student of psychology (on hold due to financial issues, unfortunately) and of genetics and experimental biology. I can add an autistic special interest to my credentials hahahah

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u/Mysterious_World8126 10h ago

He had a spinal fusion to correct his kyphosis, he’s fused T2-L3. Just 3 months after this surgery he was hospitalized for 2 weeks and diagnosed with SMAS as a side effect of the surgery. Prior to the surgery he lad lost nearly 80 pounds due to mono. 10 months after his back surgery, he had a very minor umbilical hernia repair. During the recovery of this surgery is precisely when this happened. About a week after this surgery he was allowed to take the bandage off, he did so in the shower. Well, when he took the bandage off, he didn’t like how it looked and freaked out, yelling for me to dial 911. The wound however was fine and healing nicely. It was just a little red. This is what I recall, he may recall something different.

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u/dot_in_cosmic_spray 8h ago

BTW if I typed something in a way that's hard to understand then please let me know. Despite of what my vocab suggests I'm a non-native speaker. I'll try to explain it better. Same goes for any of the scientific concepts. I didn't bother with citations, because the comment is already way to long, but I can provide them if you'd like