"All I want for Christmas is a child who uses the loo and will drink some water....."

If that sounds like you, here's a little bit of free costless info that may as well be worth a try.

A friend wrote about her boy having drank more water this weekend than he usually would in a week.

water is essential for info processing, without it blood glugs together and wont transport nutrients or oxygen properly to the brain or detox the body.

They had visited friends with a pool, ponds,waterfalls & filtered water.

Now I had a cat which wouldn't drink from its bowl but always drank from the indoor fountain. I had another cat the same issue which would drink from a dripping tap or from the running water in the toilet bowl of my broken toilet at the time (at least it was drinking).

One of those indoor fountains (and change the water every two days) or a bubbling water cooler (you know the ones in offices/showrooms with the big bottle of spring water upside down on the machine that keeps releasing air bubbles with a glug-glug sound- the machines with the little buttons you press to get a drink (ie make the machine work) might be a good investment or borrow one for a month and, without watching, waiting, wanting (this is bound to create avoidance, diversion, retaliation in the person with Exposure Anxiety), leave the object to do it's stuff if it will- and you just chill out (this part is the most essential to any success with people with Exposure Anxiety).

Its fairly possible that part of this having worked for this boy or the cats is the principle that if it doesn't move, it don't mean anything, ie it don't exist or when in a rather fixated or stressed state one forgets it exists if it doesn't jump out and grab attention. Another principle is that of Exposure Anxiety- 'can't do it as myself, by myself, for myself) as the fact these things are somehow calling attention and already 'served' so to speak means one feels less fully like one has initiated the expression of 'i need a drink' (ie compared to fetching a cup from a cupboard and running the tap and turning it off etc). With the fountain or water cooler is may well be 'it made me do it'- ie 'can't do it for myself' strategy. In Exposure Anxiety; The Invisible Cage, I wrote that if things were in cupboards or drawers they were harder to initiate getting than if on an open shelf (ie: one can attribute responsibility to the objects calling oneself rather than one's own initiation).

water is essential for info processing, without it blood glugs together and wont transport nutrients or oxygen properly or detox the body and that's very bad for info processing and not much good for the chemistry in the brain in any case.

Now, if the ability to attribute responsibility to the object having reminded the person (and remember objects don't socially 'invade' like people, they are'nt multitrack, they don't watch, wait, want like people) then a similar principle may apply to the reminder of the toilet. If this comes from a carer and the person has Exposure Anxiety, what can happen is increased avoidance, diversion, retaliation when it comes to the subject of the toilet (the thing the carer is watching, waiting, wanting - ie 'invading' about). But what if the toilet itself did the reminder? A tape recorded sound of the toilet flushing every 15-30 mins or so may actually be the best, least invasive, very concrete and directly relatable to the experience type of prompt and without watching, waiting, wanting, pushing, nagging, wishing etc, just see if it does its job all by itself. Pretty much costless and worth a try.... let me know if it happens to work (but if you watch, wait, want it is bound NOT to, so if you try it get on with your own thing and chill out). If you live with a cat-like person, stop behaving so dog-like when you want the cat to do something.

Anyway, for those that info may be useful to, or the principles described, there it is.

If you wish to read more about the chronic fight-flight responses of Exposure Anxiety and how it works and what to do about it, you can read about it in Exposure Anxiety; The Invisible Cage.