Why is it the closer you get to home, the more you have to pee?
The urge intensifies at the toilet, too.

A woman has to go to the bathroom really badly.
Isn’t it a little strange that while driving home from work, you start feeling like you have to pee as you get about a mile from home? The closer you get to home, the greater the feeling intensifies until you do the pee-pee dance while trying to figure out which key opens the front door. The problem is, it doesn’t stop there. The feeling intensifies until you reach the toilet.
Why do you have to pee the closer you get to home?
If you know this feeling all too well, you should be happy to see that it isn’t a coincidence that the closer you get, the more you have to go; it’s science. “The closer you are to that access, the more you’re going to feel that sense of urgency and your body is going to say, ‘Oh, hey, we’re almost there, we have it,’” Jessica Stern, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Health, told The Huffington Post.
You’ve probably heard of the mind-body connection, but did you know it also extends to the brain-bladder connection? According to Stren, there is an ongoing dialogue where the brain tells the bladder whether it’s okay to go to the bathroom. So, when you’re commuting home from work, your brain says, “Not now, bladder,” until you get closer to home, and then the brain gets less demanding, and the bladder takes over.
A man has to go to the bathroom really badly.via Canva/Photos
“As one gets closer to the bathroom, the inhibitory signals from the brain become less and less as the thought of urinating becomes stronger and stronger,” Dr. Victor W. Nitti, a professor of urology and obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, told The Huffington Post.
The more you wait to use the restroom until you get home, the more your mind will associate coming home with having to go to the bathroom until it becomes habitual. “The more you go to this place where you’re arriving at home and having to go to the bathroom immediately, the more that pattern is going to start to develop,” Stern said.
A woman on the toilet.via Canva/Photos
So, now that we know there’s a brain-bladder relationship happening, what about your bowels? Is there a brain-bowel relationship, too? Because it seems like the closer we get to home, the greater the utrge to poop as well.
Why is it the closer you get to home, the more you have to poop?
Jack Gilbert, a professor of surgery at the University of Chicago and the university's Microbiome Center director, says there is a similar effect on the bowels. Our body chemistry changes when we get home which makes us more comfortable going poop. Gibert says that coming home “triggers the relaxation response that allows you to release the inhibitions that led you to hold it in' while in unfamiliar surroundings.” That’s a big reason why people often suffer from constipation when they go on vacation, because the body isn’t sure where it’s safe to go. Remember, many of our systems are running on ancient evolutionary data that, thousands of years ago, meant that going to the bathroom in the wrong place could get you eaten by a wild animal.
Interestingly, our mind works overtime, communicating with our bladder and bowels without us knowing it, so we have a safe and comfortable place to go to the bathroom. Still, it would be cooler if the brain tols us we have to go pee or poop after we opened the front door instead of a mile from home.
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."
This article originally appeared in May.