Posted by Ronnie on 15/4/2010, 8:47 pm, in reply to "Re: Just another story"

Dave, thanks for your comment. One thing that has struck me very forcefully, reading this website and the Soifer book, after all these years of comparative isolation, is just how amazingly similar so many of our stories and experiences are. Exactly the same point emerged when, just a few weeks ago, thanks again to this forum, I sat down face to face with a fellow sufferer and chatted about what we had gone through in our lives. Not just similar, but very often practically identical, experiences. It's both a comforting and a disturbing realisation. Disturbing because, in my case at least, it makes me sad for the fact the we could not have got together all those years ago and provided some sort of mutual support when it might have made such a difference to our lives. But as others have pointed out, it's never too late, and I would definitely like to get involved with a workshop, just sorry the next opportunity is probably still months away. As for ways of coping, I agree, do what you can, we all have our personal "vans" of one sort or another and that's important to be able to lead some sort of normal life. (And I realise too that people like you and me are the lucky ones to some extent, and some of the other stories I read here, where some sufferers really do go through quite horrendous difficulties, genuinely do sometimes bring tears to my eyes.) But in a way that's all part of the "avoidance" cycle, and ultimately I would still like to try to overcome the underlying habit so that we could ditch the van and just get on with the trivial business of having a pee like everyone else. If it's possible, and for some at least that does seem to have happened, then i'd like to aim for that.

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