Career
Paruresis and It’s Damaging Effects on Sufferers Careers
A woman with paruresis has not left home for 20 years. That summarizes in 11 words the extent to which paruresis can damage one’s career options. Although that is an extreme example, it reflects the intensity of suffering that the rest of those afflicted with paruresis go through and work to overcome.
Damage that paruresis inflict on sufferers happen in three major areas: mandatory drug testing, job performance and work place anxiety.
Mandatory Drug Testing. The biggest single obstacle that people with paruresis have to hurdle is mandatory drug testing. Because of their inability to produce urine, people with paruresis get rejected in job applications and fired from their existing jobs. It is a big injustice to the innocent coming from 7% of the population.
De facto discrimination happens in mandatory drug testing against people with paruresis due to the continued use of urinalysis. This is despite the presence of alternatives that do not require urine samples. This is also despite the acknowledgement of paruresis as a social anxiety condition as shown in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, under Category 300.23.
During drug tests, the procedure for collecting urine samples requires the presence of a witness to observe the act of urination. This procedure falls smack in the middle of the cause of social anxiety among people with paruresis. Add to this the pressure imposed on the sufferers to produce urine samples on demand. When they are unable to produce the urine samples, it is then interpreted as refusal to undergo drug testing and willful disobedience.
Authorities argue that paruresis can easily be used as an excuse by those guilty of taking illegal drugs to not undergo urinalysis. This argument however would be difficult to accept in the presence of alternatives that do not require urine samples. Hair testing for instance detects drug use that occurred several weeks before the time of the test. This is much longer than what urinalysis can detect.
As a result of this indifference to the needs of people with paruresis, many of them get punished despite their innocence. The rest shy away to avoid suffering the same fate. This means 7% of the populations are discriminated against jobs that require drug testing. These include jobs in transportation, sports or health care.
The law upholds that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Those who require people to undergo drug testing apparently thinks the other way: a person is deemed guilty of drug use until proven innocent. They determine innocence through urine samples that people with paruresis cannot provide under drug testing procedures that they strictly enforce.
The only apparent recourse for people with paruresis is to document their condition as quickly and as comprehensively as possible. Documents from a battery of professionals (doctor, urologist, psychologist or psychiatrist) regarding the condition would be helpful. It would also help to have an independent drug test right after the failing to provide a urine sample.
All those documentations would mean additional expenses for the sufferer. But they would be absolutely useful in protecting one’s rights in the workplace or in the court. They can also be used to take advantage of the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This law protects people with paruresis from urine drug testing, especially in publicly funded jobs.
A sufferer should also be straight-forwarded with his or her employer. Providing them with documents would justify the request for special accommodation during drug testing. Employers in turn are expected to allow the use of other drug testing methods that do not require urine samples.
Belonging to a union can also be an advantage among people with paruresis. Their support in case of undue disciplinary action would be very valuable.
Damage to Job Performance. Paruresis limits the ability of a person to move around. This already imposes constraints on what jobs he or she can do. Many shy away from long travel. This requires a person to urinate in public places, on the plane, bus or train stations, restaurants, malls and the like.
Even conventions and conferences, master planning workshops and any business gathering — whether formal or informal — make people with paruresis anxious. All these would most probably pressure them to go with the flow of participants to the restroom during breaks.
To relieve themselves, they have to either come out early than the others or come in late. This behavior matters more when one is somewhere in the middle of the corporate ladder. Others in the business or company see the pattern and may suspect something odd. Suspicions can get in the way of communication.
This is why part of being straight-forward to the employer about one’s condition is to be straight-forward about the implication of paruresis on one’s behavior in crowded situations. This clears up right from the onset any possible miscommunication.
This would however mean that the typically non-assertive sufferer would have to break out of his or her shell and start speaking up about his or her condition. Talking to superiors about one’s limitation is always a tough act. It is a breakthrough that sufferers must make to mitigate the potential or paruresis to do serious damage to one’s performance in the office.
Anxiety at the Workplace. Politics in the workplace can make people with paruresis vulnerable to malicious intents. A co-worker can easily suggest to the management that a person is a drug user. One would cite instances wherein the person always wants to be alone in the restroom. The “squealer” may also mention the anxiety he observed in the sufferer.
This would then force the sufferer to undergo a drug test, which is precisely the Waterloo of people with paruresis. A series of embarrassing and potentially damaging episodes in one’s life at work begins from that point onwards. The person is most especially vulnerable when the management is not responsive to the needs of people with paruresis.
The damaging effects of paruresis on the careers of sufferers really begin from the time they apply for a job, up to the time they work the job. Biases of authorities as well as misinterpretation of co-workers about one’s behavior are constant sources of anxiety, which only compound the problem. Most of these however can be mitigated by breaking through one’s silence and being straightforward with the right people about one’s condition.
If you or someone you love is struggling with paruresis or a shy bladder click below to read about what you can to help!