Holding

Holding is the act of resisting the urge to pee. It is commonly done in order to wait before reaching the bathroom as to not wet oneself. There are many reasons for which one must hold it for an elongated period of time, many of which are omorashi tropes: being stuck in traffic, being on one's workplace, the toilet being occupied, etc. In Omorashi, Holding often serves as a build-up before one reaches their breaking point, at which point they will lose control and have an accident.

The act of holding can be silenced by the person performing it, as confessing to needing to urinate can be embarrassing in many social cases (for example around strangers, or co-workers). Conversely, one might admit to needing to pee more easily when surrounded by close ones.

When the need to pee is deemed intense and holding it in gets hard, it is said that the person holding is "desperate".

Signs and representations of holding

Many omorashi artworks depict scenes of holding and desperation. While there are many different ways to do so, the most common ways of expressing it are though the display of desperate gestures and verbal expressions, as well as holding scales.

Bodily indicators

A person trying to refrain themselves from urinating may mobilize certain specific body gestures or poses depending on the intensity of the urge. The usage of these gestures will often vary depending on the social context.

Some early signs of holding may be a slight restlessness of the body, such as a repetitive tapping of the foot or the fingers, slightly trembling legs, or a fidgeting gaze. The reasons for the using of these methods for early-stage desperation is that they are relatively discreet and usually do not give away the desperation.

As the desperation grows stronger and harder to fight back against, the person holding will mobilize more obvious strategies. These can for example be squeezing one's thighs together, fidgeting moderately, bouncing back and forth.

When the desperation is very difficult to fight against, the subject will hold it in with more ungraceful manners. These can include intense squirms, clenching of the legs one against another, bouncing up and down, bending forwards, shoving and pressing the hands against the crotch, holding onto a wall not to fall over, and more. Due to the intense effort required to not wet themselves, the subject's body might tremble or sweat profusely.

Having an unusual bulge on the stomach (around the bladder) can indicate a full bladder.

Verbal indicators

A person needing to pee may also show it verbally, depending on the context and the intensity of the urge.

The verbal indicators can be direct, in cases which the subject will openly admit their situation, through different expressions depending on the intensity. Admitting to need to pee can be accompanied by different emotions such as embarrassmment, shyness, stress, or even panic. Below are a few common sentences that are commonly used in omorashi:

When the urge is bearable:

• "I have to to pee."
• "I need to go."
• "Gotta pee!"

When the urge is more intense:

• "I really have to go."
• "I don't think I can hold it..."
• "I can't hold it anymore!"
• "I'm at my limit!"
• "I'm going to have an accident!"
• "I"m about to wet myself!"

The verbal indicators can also at times be indirect (i.e. not imply the subject admitting to needing to urinate), although this happens rarely when the urge is bearable. In cases of intense needs, these can manifest by an increase in the speech rate and the use of shorter sentences due to the restlessness. When close to their breaking point, the subject might even start stammering, gasping or breathing loudly because of how much energy preventing oneself from peeing requires.

Scales

In omorashi artworks, the artist may depict the intensity of the need through the usage of a desperation scale. These are abstract representations of the urge, often depicted next to the desperate person. The desperation scale can be a simple drawing of a bladder, a balloon, or a bottle containing urine (with the amount of urine inside varying, depending on the urge). It can also more simply be represented by a percentage of desperation.

Factors that influence holding

The urge to pee is a bodily need. Because of this, tactile stimulation applied to the body can tamper with one's ability to hold their urine. Not only this, but mental conditioning can also make it so certain thoughts, sounds, or sight, make one's ability to hold harder. These are the two common way the act of holding can be influenced, and they will be described in more thorough detailed below. These can be used as a way to tease a desperate person.

Tactile stimulation

Refrain oneself from peeing requires a lasting control over one's bladder. When the bladder is full, it is stretched to a point where it becomes harder to contract it to prevent the urine from coming out. Applying direct stimulation over someone's lower stomach (in front of where the bladder is located) when they are desperate can further stretch their bladder and make the holding significantly harder. That is one way tactile stimulation can directly make the holding more difficult, but it is also possible to do it indirectly, for example by tickling the subject, which causes spasms that reduce the control over the body's muscles and might cause an accident.

Mental alterations

Most persons are conditioned to feel the need to pee when seeing or hearing moving water. That is hypothesized the be mental conditioning: since it is sometimes convenient to urinate when in the presence of a flowing body of water (the toilet), the human brain might associate the presence of moving water with urinating, which would cause the subject to be unable to distract themselves from the urge to urinate. Similarly, seeing someone urinate may induce a wave of desperation for the person holding.

A sudden fit of emotion, such as being scared or laughing, can also induce a loss of control over the bladder's muscles which leads to leaks.

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