My interest in weight loss did not begin with a diet book, a training course or a sudden desire to become thin. It began with throat cancer. In 2007, I weighed around 21½ stone. During twelve weeks of cancer treatment, my throat became so sore that eating was extremely difficult. Unsurprisingly, I lost weight, around …
Exercise does not always produce the weight loss people expect. Learn how appetite, compensation and eating habits can affect the number on the scales.
Ever feel like your bladder is running the show? Imagine you’re in a peaceful café, sipping your tea, when suddenly your bladder throws a fit: “We need the loo…NOW!” Cue the panic. You know there’s a toilet somewhere, but will you make it in time?
Can toilet anxiety be cured? It’s a question I’ve been asked many times over the years, often by people who have spent a considerable part of their lives worrying about needing a toilet and not being able to reach one. Some have lived with the problem for decades, while others have developed it relatively recently. What they generally have in common is a desire to get back to the life they had before toilet anxiety began influencing almost everything they do.
When a young person begins experiencing functional seizures, life can change with frightening speed. Ordinary things such as going to school, leaving the house, seeing friends or simply making plans can become difficult.
After more than twenty years as a clinical hypnotherapist, I’ve become increasingly convinced of one thing: the greatest obstacle to understanding the human mind may be our certainty that we already understand it.
Does positive thinking release brain chemicals and improve mood? A critical review of seven scientific studies separates the evidence from the myths.
This awareness post explains why SICH is making Toilet Anxiety: The Fear Nobody Understands, a scripted short film and five part web series designed to help people recognise and understand the hidden experience of toilet anxiety.
These toilet anxiety statistics reveal what 100 anonymised clinical cases can teach us about this often hidden condition. Discover the behaviours, fears and recurring patterns that emerged from the SICH Toilet Anxiety Research Project, and why the findings challenge many common assumptions about toilet anxiety.
If you have ever wondered how common is toilet anxiety, recent data from our clinic offers some uncomfortable but reassuring answers.
Anxiety does not always fit neatly into one label. Learn why understanding your anxiety pattern can be more useful than simply naming the type of anxiety you have.
In my clinical experience, toilet anxiety is usually linked to the fear of needing the toilet and not being able to get to one in time. The anxiety often increases when toilet access feels uncertain, difficult, delayed, awkward or impossible. That might happen in a meeting, on a motorway, on a train, in a restaurant, in a queue, or simply when you are away from home.
Overthinking and anxiety often become tangled together. Learn why the mind gets stuck trying to create certainty, and how hypnotherapy can help change the pattern.
A short public awareness film from SICH about toilet anxiety, the fear of needing a toilet and not reaching one in time.
If you keep asking how do I stop overthinking, you are probably not looking for clever advice anymore. You want relief. Real relief. The kind that comes when your mind finally stops circling the same fear, replaying the same conversation, checking the same possibility, or trying to solve something that never seems to settle.
Most children are afraid of something at some point. It is almost like a rite of passage. The dark, dogs, the sound of the hoover, strangers, going upstairs alone, sleeping in their own room, the idea of being sick, the thought of you leaving the house without them.
The world is a complex and sometimes confusing place, so children can, quite naturally, actually feel a little anxious every now and then. These periods of anxiety in children are generally self-contained and pass quickly, causing no lasting problems. However, there are some children who find they are routinely plagued by anxiety and panic.
In this article, we aim to give you a deeper understanding of toilet anxiety, helping you determine if you or someone you know may be experiencing this condition and how to fight toilet anxiety so you can live without this debilitating fear.
Toilet anxiety refers to the fear of needing the toilet, but more specifically…
Feeling emotionally numb can be more unsettling than feeling clearly sad. You might catch yourself thinking, “I do not feel sad, I just do not feel anything at all,” and wonder what on earth is wrong with you. Life carries on, you go to work, talk to people, do what needs to be done, yet …
a kinder way to think about weight loss Opening up about your weight can be uncomfortable. When life feels busy and your confidence is already a bit dented, it is no surprise that weight loss gimmicks look appealing. They offer dramatic results, simple rules and the promise that this time will finally be the time …
If you hear yourself saying that “I’m Scared I’ll never stop smoking” , it’s usually not because you do not understand the risks. You already know. It’s because you keep having the same experience, you do well for a bit, you feel stressed, flat, irritated, overwhelmed, or oddly empty, then you cave. And afterwards you …
“I cannot do another year like last year!”
That’s the thought people don’t always say out loud, but you can feel it in the background at this time of year. The calendar flips, everyone posts their resolutions, the ads start again, and a part of you quietly wonders whether anything will actually be different this time, or whether you’re about to repeat the same patterns with a slightly new soundtrack.
Dreading travelling anywhere in case you cannot get to a toilet in time? This journeys explainer unpacks why trips can feel unsafe and what keeps the anxiety cycle going.
When you keep thinking “my child is not coping” it can feel like you are failing them and nothing you try really works. This article explains the emotional overwhelm loop underneath the behaviour and shows how small, practical shifts can begin to change things for your child and your family.
There’s a particular moment, I think, when someone starts looking for a new direction. It is not always dramatic. Sometimes it’s just the quiet realisation that the job still works on paper, but it no longer feels like yours.
You might think that it is the break from work, the slower mornings and the lack of emails that makes a holiday feel so calming. Rest does matter of course, however there is another part of the story that usually goes unnoticed.
When you first hear the terms OCD and ADHD, they can sound like opposites. One is often pictured as rigid, neat and rule bound, the other as scattered, impulsive and disorganised. In real lives though, things are rarely that simple.
For over 20 years I have been working with people who live with psoriasis and are fed up with being told, in one way or another, that this is simply their life now. Some arrive angry, some arrive exhausted, plenty arrive trying to look calm while quietly hating their own skin.
When I first started working with clients who had Psoriasis, I conducted a study into the effectiveness of hypnotherapy on the condition. Initially I didn’t expect too much, however the results were staggering.
Imagine a person sitting at home when a sudden fear about a family member’s safety appears. Their partner is driving back from work, their mind throws up images of accidents and hospitals, their heart starts racing. In an attempt to cope, they decide to picture their partner arriving safely and repeat that image several times.
Anxiety is not only about what happens to you, it is also about the words and pictures your mind creates in response. Those inner words and visuals shape feelings, then feelings drive behaviour.
When you are living with toilet anxiety, almost every decision starts to bend around one question, where is the nearest toilet if I need it. Journeys, meetings, meals out, even short walks close to home can begin to feel like risks. It is no surprise that you end up searching for a way out, and …
a personal guide through midlife change Opening up about what really happens in the middle years is not easy, I know. For many of us, the first clues arrive quietly, then everything seems to gather pace. Sleepless nights creep in, words vanish mid sentence, your heart scurries when you are only making tea. You tell …
What is Anxiety? How does it develop? Most of us have experienced anxiety at some time in our life but for some of us it becomes a debilitating force that if left untreated can continue to get worse.
The man that could not eat in public.
This case study explains in detail the treatment stages we use in helping someone to resolve their anxiety issues using Hypnotherapy.
Toilet anxiety can make everyday life feel like logistics. You plan ahead, you check exits, you carry just in case supplies, and still the worry shows up. The first video in this Toilet anxiety recovery series explains why familiar coping strategies, from breathing routines to toilet mapping, often keep the cycle alive because your brain …
Every day, plenty of people find that worry has taken charge of ordinary life. Not just a quick flutter before a test, the kind that seeps into decisions, relationships, even sleep.
If that sounds familiar, treating anxiety is about retraining how your mind and body respond, so you are not white knuckling your way through the day but actually changing the pattern.
Our overcoming claustrophobia programme offers a practical route back to everyday freedom, especially when enclosed spaces have begun to dictate what you do and where you go.
For people with toilet anxiety, the question can anxiety cause diarrhoea is not just academic, it is central to their daily life. The fear of diarrhoea is often at the heart of toilet anxiety. Many clients tell me they are not frightened of the toilet itself, but of what might happen if they cannot reach one in time. This single worry can spiral into obsessive checking, restricting what they eat or drink, or even avoiding leaving the house altogether.
This interim report presents findings from a randomly selected sample of 100 patients presenting with toilet-related anxiety disorders at The Surrey Institute of Clinical Hypnotherapy. All patients identified toilet anxiety as their primary presenting issue. The sample reflects a demographically representative subset of the wider clinical population and includes individuals presenting with anxiety related to urination, defaecation, or both.
Toilet anxiety is one of those things people hardly ever talk about. It’s awkward, it’s personal, and it can feel deeply embarrassing, especially when needing the toilet is a constant fear and that fear becomes so intense it starts to take over your life. Maybe it’s the constant checking for toilets. Or the creeping dread …
I’ve been working with clients that needed toilet anxiety help for over 25 years, and if there’s one thing that makes my blood boil, it’s reading content from so-called experts who clearly have never worked a day in their lives with this condition.
Hypnotherapy Backed by Research A major new study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health (2025) has confirmed what many paediatric hypnotherapists have observed in clinical practice for years, that gut-directed hypnotherapy is one of the most effective treatments for abdominal pain in children. This breakthrough research is a landmark moment for families looking …
How They Shape Our Lives and How to Overcome Them Fear is a universal experience. Regardless of where you live, your age, background, or beliefs, fear plays a fundamental role in human survival. It is a natural and necessary emotion, hardwired into our brains to protect us from danger. Without fear, our ability to navigate …
Research from the Henry Ford Center for Sleep Disorders found that there was a strong link between being able to fall asleep (primary insomnia) and/or waking up in the middle the night (middle insomnia), and severity of high blood pressure.
Anxiety is a silent force that can shape thoughts, beliefs, and behaviours from an early age. For many, the challenge to tackle anxiety begins in childhood. It does not always appear as obvious distress but often emerges through behaviours like clinginess, avoidance, or excessive worry.
Anxiety doesn’t always announce itself with panic attacks or sleepless nights. Often, it’s the quiet, nagging feeling that something isn’t right, the subtle undercurrent of unease that we carry as we navigate life.
If you’ve been looking for a fresh start, a hypnotherapy career might just be the perfect answer. This isn’t just about switching to a new field; it’s about embracing a calling that lets you guide people to overcome their challenges, realise their potential, and live better lives.
In this article, we’ll explore the causes, symptoms, and triggers of the fear of needing the toilet, and discuss practical strategies to overcome it.
Understanding this common but often hidden issue is the first step towards letting go of the fear and thus letting your mind forget all about needing a toilet. Read on and discover how to remove this fear together.
Putting yourself out on the dating market can often be difficult, especially if you have been out of it for a while. Within this blog post, we look at a new way to increase your confidence when dating and attend to any underlying problems that could be damaging that confidence and hence stopping you from …
Work can be stressful in a normal, manageable way. Deadlines, difficult conversations, a busy commute, the odd late night, you expect a bit of pressure, you recover, and you still feel like yourself. Business stress feels different. It follows you home. You might be cooking dinner while replaying emails in your head, or you feel …
As human beings, we experience a range of thoughts each day, and by and large we are able to keep them in check. However, there are some people that find it hard to manage rage and this affects not merely them, but also their close friends, workmates and family members. The inability to manage rage …