On A More Serious Note:

This question is entirely rhetorical for the "too embarrassed to ask for a bathroom break so I wet myself" people, of which I see a surprising number in the Omo community.  Feel free to answer it here if you like, but I'm asking it more to prompt internal thought than anything.

I say this as one of the shyest people I've ever known.  Painfully, embarrassingly shy.  Barely functional in the real world:  What sense does it make to hold your pee until you're in danger of having an accident because you're too embarrassed to speak up and tell your crew you need a bathroom break?  Everybody pees--it's a common, multiple-times-per-day event.  There would be something wrong with you if you DIDN'T, yet I constantly see "I wet myself because I waited too long after being afraid to speak up and tell my friends and/or family I needed to pee.  I didn't want to interrupt the fun / was too embarrassed to say I needed the bathroom / didn't want to be an inconvenience."  

SAY WHAT?!

Wait, I take it back.  It's not entirely true that I don't understand:  I never used the public toilets once in my 7 years of K-6 elementary school because I didn't want to walk to the front of the class and ask the teacher for a bathroom break or blurt out that I needed to go, but that's a tad different.  #1, doing so would've drawn the attention of the entire CLASS of heathens.  For a kid who said maybe 30 words per day in school total, that was unacceptable.  Secondly, I was a child and didn't grasp the risks of holding it all day and finally, I never had an accident as a result of my extreme holding (though there was one close call in kindergarten).  But I can't imagine doing this as an adult now that I understand the health dangers of holding to the point of an accident.  The discomfort and distraction alone are not worth it, but throw in the bladder/kidney damage & the fact that using the bathroom is a perfectly natural, if inconvenient event and, well... speaking up beats the hell out of the alternative.  It made perfect sense in my 5-12 year-old mind that was concerned mostly with proving everything my mom said wrong though.  ("See Mom, you said I would get a kidney infection and DIE if I never used the bathroom and I'm still alive!")  🤦🏻‍♀

This is not meant to criticize or judge anyone.  Far from it.  I'm just trying to understand how so many people get in these situations.  It concerns me that so many folks--a majority adult women from the looks of it--find it easier to ignore & suppress their basic bodily functions than risk inconveniencing someone.  Needs should always Trump convenience or comfort.  Read that again.  I'm sure you all have your reasons (and potential horror stories to back them up), I just hope you'll examine this behavior even if it takes the help of a professional & put some work in to overcome it because you deserve to live a healthy, comfortable life in which you can heed your body's calls like everybody else.  It's kinda the bare minimum. 

If you're this uncomfortable speaking up about a basic daily need to friends and family, what other things aren't you advocating for yourself about in your life?  It's easy to brush it aside as "oh I've always been squeamish about bathroom talk" but asking to use the bathroom isn't quite the same as, say, dirty toilet humor.  Is this symptomatic of a bigger problem with assertiveness?  And might it be contributing to the greater societal issue of medical professionals, bosses and others in powerful positions not taking women's health complaints & basic needs seriously in whatever tiny, insignificant way?

If this resonates I'm glad you got something out of it.  If not, discard it and ignore.  Ain't nobody trying to play Dr. Phil or Dr. Joyce in here.  Now go PEE before you have another accident, silly goose!  💛 🚽🏃🏻‍♀

Public accidents are cool and all... when you intend to have them.