My Mum seems, according to my Dad, to have developed an obsession for going to the toilet - which sadly seems to frustrate my Dad beyond belief, despite him being incredibly good tempered about everything else. (Maybe he feels he just can't exert any help/control over this?)

Anyway, it seems Mum will decide to go off to the loo about 3 times an hour and then stay there for what Dad describes as 20 minutes, but i expect is nearer 8 or 10 (otherwise she'd be in there for the whole hour!) Mum never knows whether she has 'done' anything although she has suffered with both piles and diarrhoea (poss due to the side effects of Aricept?...) recently so I can understand why this has become an obsession. My own theory is that she doesn't want to get 'caught out' by the dreaded diarrhoea so then strains to go and thus the piles....

Any one experienced this behaviour before and, if so, any tips for how we might manage it? Oddly it seems to be Dad's 'problem' rather than Mum's in that it effects him greatly - I can tell as soon as he answers the phone - and it's really stressing him which then sets the scene for the rest of the day (very frosty when I arrived yesterday!)

Would something like an egg timer be a thought - so Mum knows she has a certain time alloted on the loo or would that make things worse? - I really don't want going to the loo to be more of a hoo-ha than it already is!!!

Many thanks,
Mays Mum