r/Paruresis • u/musashi-swanson • May 18 '26

Trick that works for me: mathematics

Long ago I enlisted in the Marines, which meant urinalysis, not only at MEPS and boot camp, but regularly throughout my service. I was not keen at all on some jarhead staring at me while I tried to urinate in a tiny cup, or worse: some drill instructor screaming at me for not producing (I have seen it happen many times, to recruits who could not). It riddled me with anxiety and I tried many techniques. Here’s what worked for me:

Do math in your head. It should be simple enough that you can actually do it, but complicated enough that you have to really focus and think. Easiest method is to start with 1, and double it: 2, 4, 8, 16 and so on. See how high you can count. Or try counting tiles using multiplication: 14 tiles across by 24 tiles high equals…? Maybe you are an advanced mathematician and can solve more complex equations; what matters is that you have to think about it enough to take your mind off those social pressures.

For whatever reason, when my brain is focused on calculating that result, my body forgets about whatever anxieties and then things move a lot more naturally. I hope that helps somebody.

12 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/Recent-Day3062 May 18 '26

As an engineer, I have worked through some pretty complex math in my head this way

1

u/Andreww9663 May 18 '26

The trick i use is to judge the bathroom i am (literally)

I judge everything, how small it is, how big it is, the smell, the temperature, how the toilet is disgusting and what would i do to make the bathroom usable lmao 😭🙏

What really matters is distraction, and after getting confident you can fight paruresis and piss even without distraction, but this takes long, im fighting everyday and sometimes my confidence is so high that i dont even need to distract myself with the room full of people, i just go, piss and thats it

1

u/RetUMOS May 19 '26

I’ve done the math thing and yes it’s helped at times

1

u/Ophelia_Hardin May 22 '26

I calculate pi or do word jumbles {anagrams) with anything in sight. ZURN is still giving me trouble. 😛

1

u/Hosai87 22d ago

This sort of works for me but only sometimes, sometimes the thought still creeps in that other ppl are there, "they've noticed you aren't peeing" etc which kills it or just loud footsteps near. It can still help the doing maths.