Alex Robb: six weeks of group CBT for toilet-related fear with IBS

Alex Robb, a UK creator who makes videos about mental health recovery, traces his IBS to an incident at age 11 when a teacher refused to let him leave a lesson and he wet himself in front of classmates. Phobias about enclosed places and toilet access followed, and he was diagnosed with IBS at 13 or 14. Over the next two decades he chose university courses by the number of exams, downloaded toilet maps of cities before visiting, missed trains and buses, and shaped holidays and relationships around the fear of an accident.

When the impact became severe enough, his doctor referred him for cognitive behavioural therapy. He attended group sessions at a GP surgery: eight participants, two counsellors, 90 minutes a week for about six weeks. He says he initially found it embarrassing to talk about bodily functions in a group, but hearing other people’s fears made his own seem equally irrational.

The sessions taught him about the fight-or-flight response, including why the urge to go appears in stressful or trapped situations, and how to separate rational from irrational thoughts. The part he credits most is exposure: being sent to walk ten minutes to a shop and back without using the toilet first, and later not using every break at work to go pre-emptively.

He reports leaving the final session a different person and says that without it his life would still be dictated by toilet stops.