I really need some help with my son guys, I'm losing my mind.

My son is 8 years old and suffers from encopresis; he still isn't completely toilet trained, nor has he ever been.

He has been seeing a psychologist for years but she isn't sure what is going on. We give him a laxative daily.

He no longer does big poos in his clothes, but he leaks poo, which is a sign that he is holding it in.

If he does defecate on himself, he says nothing. We've explained to him that everyone can smell it, but he continues. He says that he is afraid of getting shouted at, even though nobody has shouted at him for a long time. I used to get angry with him unfortunately, it's just so frustrating that I'm at the end of my tether; I don't know what to do.

I've told him that if there is an accident that he can go and change himself discretely without having to tell anyone. This morning I found about 7 sets of underwear that had traces of poo on them, so I guess he changed himself, which is great, even if he did hide them.

We thought the problem was due to a trip that we took without him when he was 3 years old, he often cried about this as he was getting older, so this year we did the same trip with him to try and make up for it. When we got back he started using the toilet of his own accord, we thought everything was going well, but all of a sudden he seems to have gone backwards.

At school, he no longer seems to have any problems, though we get the leaks at home. He says he goes to the toilet regularly at school but I don't understand how that can be when he is still having these issues.

Has anyone else dealt with this kind of problem?

I'm really struggling with this, I'm losing any hope that this will ever get better.