Posted by Marcus on 29/10/2008, 5:02 pm

I have been dipping into this site on and off for a few months now and have been surprised at the reassurance it has provided me. There really are other people with this issue. I have lived with this for over forty years and like others here it has affected my ability to be spontaneous and caused me to avoid otherwise fun situations. I am totally unable to use a urinal (screened or otherwise) if anyone else is there or I think someone might come in. I can use cubicals at times but not if I think people are waiting for me to leave or they are somehow too close to others (eg. only one of two cubicals together for instance). I had a course of systematic desensitization as a teenager but I have to say it had little effect. I have subsequently just had to accept this condition and cope. Recently however it has taken a turn and for some reason I now find that I can't use the toilets on planes. Trains have also become difficult for me. I have not had this problem with planes before and like to travel, it is one of my pleasures. Now the prospect of a long flight fills me with fear as to what might happen as there is now getting off to find another toilet. Somehow it doesn't feel private enough in that plasticy cubical and other people including cabin crew are often outside. I recently managed two 7 hour legs of a long haul flight without any success at using the toilets and experienced some discomfort. I have, in other situations in the past, ended up in quite severe pain after having not passed urine for long periods or with a full bladder from a few beers. I am not wanting this to prvent me flying and would welcome your thoughts and ideas about this. I have read the other posts referring to this on the forum but wondered if there was anything else I could do. I definately dont want to go down the self catheterization route. What I have done is to use the airport toilets (usually I can as they are 'impersonal') as close as possible before boarding and then refuse liquids apart from wetting my lips. Its not ideal but as I say I've just about coped with 7 hours. I am now wondering what would happen on a flight, particularly if it was longer, and I wanted to go but just couldn't. Would the pain become unbearable and is there a medical risk of a burst bladder or damaged kidney or something. I have been in situations of pain when it seemed even less likely that I could pass water. Is there any medication that I could take to limit urine production which could help with long flights? Any ideas, information or sharing of experiences would be helpful. Many thanks.

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