Asking this since I’ve always been told the former and that your bladder rupturing from not going to the toilet is a myth and the story of Tycho Brahe is too old to be reliable. But in recent years, I’ve seen articles about people drinking alcohol and passing out and their bladders bursting because the sensations got dulled (which still shouldn’t affect the sphincters giving way due to the pressure before the bladder actually ruptures, since it’s about the sphincters being not physically strong enough to hold back the pressure).
The existence of overflow incontinence would seem to contradict this story from 2020, for example. Alcohol dulls the urge to urinate, but overflow incontinence often happens in absence of this urge as well, and when the detrusor muscles (which squeeze the bladder) aren’t working.
What’s the straight dope here?
I’ve heard of countless people peeing themselves, and 0 bladder explosions, so Occam’s razor says that second option has to be very rare if it ever happens.
There’s also option #3: Die of water intoxication before either happens
Why not both?
Reality is complicated. Things like our GI system are very complicated, with many different things that can go wrong.
Think about the question “what would happen if you filled a kiddie pool over the maximum capacity? Would it leak over the top, or would the sides collapse?”
Your immediate answer would probably be “well, that would depend on the pool.”
Likewise, in this case, it would depend on the person.
You’ll certainly pee yourself before any of that happen but it can happen when under influence because alcohol will simultaneously make you have to pee and dull the urge to do so.
Bladders are insanely tough, like stomachs. We used to make carrying pouches out of them for that reason. Without some weird medical issue, and I mean really weird, your bladder is simply going to let go.
people drinking alcohol and passing out and their bladders bursting
Anecdotally, if this were possible, I wouldn’t have made it to 30.
Disclaimer: Not a medical scientist.
With that said, your question would probably hold more water (pun intended), if you had asked regarding a urinary tract infection or similar infection forcefully blocking the urethra, making it almost impossible to piss even if you wanted or needed to.
I won’t go into the fine details, but early 2009 was definitely not fun for me after a multi-systemic infection that started as a dental abscess.
No, luckily nothing down south ruptured, but its never good when someone is pissing brown, I couldn’t hardly even piss for a few days after I started antibiotics.
Generally our organs don’t rupture without some other function. In your example, we probably don’t have good studies to reflect how long humans can hold urine in until “something” happens. We do have good studies on trauma patients, and I think that would be where the rupturing would be.
I think at some point you piss yourself.
The question is, how much blood will there be
I went to a fair bunch of Biker Parties back in my MC days. At least one guy blacked out drunk and pissed himself after binge drinking… and in southern Germany we start with 0.5l bottles of beer.
All piss, no blood.
I think this has happened in a few radio competitions…
Put your hand on the car the longest and you win the car, that sort of thing. I think if you’re really holding on it’s your bladder that splits first.
There was one I remember we called something like “Wee for a Wii” where a woman died of a ruptured bladder.
[edit] never mind she died of water intoxication. [/edit]
Come on. Just piss yourself. Or bring a bottle. That’s probably more respectable.
You’ve obviously never been to church.
Try it and report back
