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Incontinence Anxiety

1 reply

Belle2020 · 15/03/2024 12:03

Hi, I am wondering does anyone else suffer with incontinence anxiety, and whether you can offer any advice. I am a middle age woman, life is pretty good, stressful at times, like most people but overall okay. For the past 20 years I have had incontinence anxiety, I pretty much remember the first time it happened, I had recently moved area and two friends has come to visit me, on the way to meet them I had to rush to the toilet because I thought I had a bad tummy, I didn't. Since then it comes and goes but it is never far away. If we are due to travel, I will not eat beforehand, if we are travelling by plane, I will more often have to have a glass or two of wine before we fly. I will take Imodium even when I probably do not need to, just so I can reassure myself. I will overthink scenarios, what I would do if it did happen, how I would hide it, even as far as keeping nappies with me when the children were no longer using them. I will have to go before I leave the house, even though it occasionally makes me late for work etc. i have never had this type of accident, wet myself, yes a few times, but I'm not too bothered by that happening. I have spoken to counsellors in the past, they say it is a control issue, my childhood was physically and mentally abusive, and I behave like this to keep some control. But, what can I do to change this, I am very much in control of my life now. I would really appreciate some advice, I have dealt with this for so long, hiding, coping with it, and the thought of doing that for the rest of my life is quite depressing.

OP posts:
Eyesopenwideawake · 15/03/2024 13:18

When you had that first 'bad tummy' scare a part of your subconscious mind said "woah, we don't want that to happen again, it would be absolutely mortifying" and devised a strategy to make sure it didn't (even though the worst didn't actually happen - just the thought of it was bad enough). From it's POV it's doing a really good job; you have not had an accident since. Problem is that that response is no longer necessary or helpful so it needs to be simply switched off. A short course of remedial hypnosis would fix it.

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