Teen peeing in glasses

MyKittentail

New Member
Does anybody out there have a teen that pees in glasses, cups, or soda bottles? My 14 year old son has been doing this daily now. He does it and then leaves the glass on my living room table. He lies and says its gatorade or whatever else he can think of. He has anxiety and depression. He is seeing a psychiatrist now and recently started seeing a psychologist. Though I didn't mention this part out of embarrassment.

He has not been sexually abused. He has had a stressful life though. I am divorced. Left his father before he started school. His father is in his life though. I just wanted to figure out if this is part of another mental sickness.

I did just leave a voicemail and an email to his docs today because I can't take anymore. And I didn't want to tell them in front of him as he may refuse to see them after that out of embarrassment. Don't know.

He stopped going to school. He's on home hospital. (Teacher comes to our house). His severe anxiety appears to be the cause of medical symptoms. To much to go on about this. Just looking for answers. :(
 

Tanya M

Living with an attitude of gratitude
Staff member
Welcome MyKittentail,

I'm sorry you are dealing with this.

Your sons behavior is not normal and must be addressed. I understand you are embarrassed but you really need to let that go. You need to bring this to the attention of his psychiatrist. As a professional I'm sure the Dr. will know how to talk to your son about it without making him feel embarrassed.

Hang in there and please let the psychiatrist know, be completely honest with him because holding information back will not help.

((HUGS)) to you...................
 

MyKittentail

New Member
Thank you so much. I did email his psychiatrist and left a message for his psychologist. You're right about not holding anything back. I was just hoping it would stop so I wouldn't have to bring it up.
Thank you for your message. Hugs back. :D
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
I'm glad that you brought this up with his therapists in private. Of course he will be embarrassed because he will have to be told that the therapist knows, but if there was ever a cry for help, this is one.

One thing I found interesting - and I hope you won't find this judgmental, just an observation - is that you refer to your son's behavior by saying "I hoped it would stop..." and "it happened a couple of years ago..." rather than "I hoped he would stop" and "he did this a couple of years ago". "It" is not happening, your son is doing it. I honestly don't know why this struck me, but it did. If it helps, I'm glad, but don't worry if the observation is confusing. I could be way off track. I do know that sometimes little observations like this from an outsider can be enlightening, though.

It's easy to let a depressed person (social anxiety?) stay at home and not interact, but people have to get outside of their own small territory. (It seems to me that he is in a way marking his territory.) I think that getting him into some sort of outside the house group activity should be a goal that you all work on with his therapist. Not that that is where you're going to start, but that should be a goal in a set of goals.

Good luck!
 

MyKittentail

New Member
That is a very interesting observation. Perhaps I want to blame it more on a sickness as if he can't control it rather than a choice he is making. I try soooo hard to be understanding. But I finally lost it with him last night and started yelling at him. It's not that I approached it as something acceptable before at all, but I tried to handle it calmly. I don't know. I just hope his doctor can help him not continue to get worse. He also has hoarding tendencies now, which is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Thank you for your insight,
You're are right about trying to get him to break free from becoming isolated. He has to get back to school. His doctor said the same thing. I have to work ion breaking free from being an enabler. I try not to be, but he is REALLY stubborn. Thanks for your advice. :)
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
YVW. I don't blame you at all for yelling at him. I always tried to deal calmly with my son, as well and it often ended in my getting extremely frustrated and yelling at him. I'm sure that there were times that he was provoking me when he was that age.

Getting back to school could be a great long term goal but it seems to me that might be overwhelming at this point. School doesn't start up again for about 3.5 months at this point. Maybe you could get him to do an activity once a week or so at a public park or something? Do they even do that anymore? I know I did activities at the neighborhood park when I was a kid but I was his age 40 years ago. Things have changed.
 

MyKittentail

New Member
He does go to a friends house occasionally, and we go out together. Yet, anything school related, church meetings, psychiatry appts he tries to get out of. Thanks for not making me feel bad for yelling. I hate when I get pushed to that point. Thanks for your encouragement.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Is his psychologist male or female?

No, I'm not biased. But in my experience... a lot of men do better with a male counselor than with a female one. It changes the dynamics considerably.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Then yes, they need to know all this "stupid", "embarrassing" stuff. It's way more embarrassing to discuss it with a female. At least the male doctors will "understand" the male perspective.

Have you started a journal? It makes it easier to remember stuff, and to find patterns...
 

MyKittentail

New Member
I appreciate the recommendation. However, I can remember all of his quirks. I see them daily.
I am glad he has males to deal with, he does relate much better to them. Thanks!
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
He does it and then leaves the glass on my living room table. He lies and says its gatorade or whatever else he can think of.

Is he leaving these glasses of urine on the table intending that someone (you?) might mistake them for Gator Ade?

Is he filling the glasses in the bathroom and carrying them out to the living room, or is he filling the bottles in the living room?

Could this just be laziness?

Or maybe, not wanting to leave a video game or movie for the time it would take to use the bathroom?

When it happened before, how was it resolved? Has there been a triggering event?

Does he seem guilty and lie, or angry and then lie about what is in the glass?

If you did not notice, would he eventually empty the glass on its own or just leave it there?

Has he tried to trick anyone into drinking the urine?

Does he do the same kinds of things with food in the fridge? Spit in things?

You may already have figured everything out by now Kittentail, but if you haven't, those questions would be helpful to us in helping you decided what to do.

I would definitely have yelled at him. No one should leave urine in the living room. At fourteen he knows that.

So the most pertinent question here would be whether he is being lazy or is too engrossed in videos or something to use the bathroom, or whether he would leave the glass there forever, hoping someone would drink it.

He doesn't drink it, does he?

Cedar
 

MyKittentail

New Member
Hi, sorry for the delayed response. No, he doesn't want anyone to drink it. When he lied about it I pretended I was going to pick it up and drink it and he stopped me.
He has been struggling with extreme fatigue. He told me he was too tired to go to the bathroom when he finally admitted it was pee.
In the past he said it was because he was in the middle of a video game and couldn't stop.
I just found it so hard to believe that someone would keep doing it after being confronted with it and that someone would find it reasonable to do it . There's a bathroom so close. It's not like he has to go upstairs to use the bathroom.
I refuse to pick it up and will just nag him until he does. He acts like its no big deal, but he did lie about it up until me pushing the issue.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
He has been struggling with extreme fatigue
Have you found a cause for the fatigue? More importantly, have you found ALL of the causes? Lots of kids push themselves to the limit, and end up exhausted, at some point. But chronic fatigue is a major red flag for any number of other problems - from the physical (such as sleep apnea) to the psychological (some mental illnesses) to the "both" (some brain function impairments such as auditory processing disorder).
 

MyKittentail

New Member
He appears to have chronic fatigue syndrome. Also, his depression and anxiety doesn't help. Both of these are hereditary and his father has it as well. He is on Prozac now and clonipin. Clonipin is temporary to get him over the hump. It appears to be helping, though he has a bad habit of taking things for a short while and then skipping a day here and there. I've spent soooo much in medical bills trying to help him. It's so frustrating when he doesn't follow instructions and help himself.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Has he ever had a really comprehensive evaluation? The kind that take 6-10 hours of meetings with the evaluator, who is a specialist in evaluations, typically a neuropsychologist, or a PhD psychologist?

Depression and fatigue can be symptoms of many different diagnoses.
 
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