I have this too. For me, it has nothing to do with anxiety. It happens to me mostly during the night when I can't sleep. I need to do some 'bladder retraining' according to my Dr. I have to force myself to hold it a bit longer each time. It's annoying but it does work.

I have it and thought it was anxiety......it was diabetes (they both can cause this problem).
I don't wanna scare you, but check for diabetes and if that is normal then it's anxiety. As Lucky states.....it could be an aging thing too.

What meds are you on? This happened to me when I was on a few different meds and they prescribed amiloride to help and it did. I also had to do some bladder retraining too.

Thanks everyone. I am not on any meds as of now. Why do you guys need bladder retraining? What is that anyways?

MsBlank1... Ugh. Now I feel old.... And I'm only 46.... LOL! :-)

Sarah, I needed to retrain my bladder to hold urine for a longer period of time. During the night, because I'm not focused on anything, I feel a strong urge to urinate and then when I go...it's a drip and that's it. So my mind was telling my bladder that I had to urinate so, the bladder listened. Here is an example...It's gross but it makes the point... If everyday when you got in the shower you urinated your mind and bladder would learn fairly quickly that every time you got in the shower you would have a strong urge to urinate. Bladder retraining would have you holding it in the shower until you could get to a toilet. Eventually you would not have the strong urge to urinate in the shower and therefore have retrained your bladder. Make sense?

I have bladder issues too. I have done the retraining on my own, but it comes back from time to time.

I think retraining my bladder at this point in my life is gonna be a problem. Ya can't teach an old dog new tricks....lol.
I'm only 52, but I inherited some 200 year old woman's bladder!!!!!
I'm hell bent on just getting a Nasa diaper so I don't have to get up to relieve my thimble size bladder 6 times a night!!!!!!
Actually since I've gotten my diabetes under control, I don't have to get up quite as often :)

Thanks luckyempath for your reply. And everyone else as well!! How long does bladder retraining take and where could I find out how to retrain my bladder? It says all over the Internet you need a physical therapist? Did you guys need one

My Dr. (general practitioner) told me about it. She just said that I needed to 'hold it' longer. I didn't have any type of physical therapist to help with it.

I would imagine the length of time it takes to retrain depends on how much effort you put into it. I do really well for a while and then I stop thinking the issue is resolved but it usually comes back. For me, it's an ongoing thing. I'm not sure if it is for everyone though.

So do you guys just feel like you have to go to the bathroom mostly all the time but you actually don't?

For me it only happens in the middle of the night when I'm laying in bed awake with nothing to occupy my mind. Even if it's just the slightest feeling of having to urinate, I get up and go. Mainly because I can't get the thought out of my head and because I know if I don't go to the bathroom, I'll never fall back to sleep.

I do not feel the need to go to the bathroom all the time. It is only when I have liquid in my bladder but it doesn't matter how much liquid. It could be a dropper full and I will feel the need to urinate.

I have to go a lot when my anxiety is turned up. I feel like my body has turned up the processor and it is stress that makes everything go through me faster.

Glad to hear I'm not alone in this. I just recently went to the dr for this.

I have it exactly like luckyempath described. It's the worst at night and i can't sleep if i don't go to the bathroom even if there is really no urine in my bladder. I do have the sensation more when I'm not doing much. Like this discussion right now is making me think i have to go.

My dr didn't have any real answers for me. He was going to give me something to relax the bladder and then hopefully after a couple months i would just be weaned off. I declined. The other theory was possibly bc i hardly drink that the concentrated urine was irritating my bladder.

Hey lucky how do you sleep when trying to not go to the bathroom? I think my issue also is when i actually have a very full bladder i get the same sensation which i was told was bad to hold.

Adriasm, I actually don't sleep when I feel I have to go to the bathroom. Eventually, I wait long enough and then let myself go. Once I empty out (there is always something in there) it frees my mind and I can go to sleep.

I have also heard it is bad to hold a full bladder for too long. I have not had an issue with this because my bladder is rarely full in the middle of the night.

Adrasim... Did you mean ic not bc? That what a doctor tol me but my symptoms are only and urge to pee even I don't have to not terrible pain like ic causes... It's worse for me to when I think of it.