Posted by Mark on 19/9/2010, 4:30 pm, in reply to "I think this thing officially has ruined my life."

Hi I'm back, sorry its taken me a while to reply to all the great replies, I am so grateful people replied to offer support. Some great advice here indeed, a lot to take in and certainly sounds like its helped you guys going to the workshops. Its a weird problem this cause when I'm at home and going to the toilet as normal everything seems so ok and you forget what a major burden the problem is because it just doesn't effect me. I work from home but at the moment and things are tough to be honest and I barely scrape a living, I do have plans though and am working hard on changing my current situation. I've made the steps to get help with this problem first I've bought the shy bladder book, hopefully arrive next week and I want to then go see my GP about this self catheter solution, just for the real emergencies, like last week it would of really come in handy. I went out last night and theres this one pub and I love it so much, the toilet is more like a house toilet with a proper door and has plenty of space in it with a door that blocks out any noise too. I always manage to go there and its usually quiet in the pub. Its not too bad a problem if I go out around my home town cause there is 2 toilets in pubs that we usually go to and they are ones that the door closes proper that cancels out the noise outside. I'll then next year maybe consider a workshop. I know there's one coming up in October but not quite sure I'm ready just yet for it and at the moment I'm totally skint so its out of the question, but I'm not ruling it out for next year as I think it will help me, especially the bit of getting used to go with someone near. It does make me think that I wonder if something did happen when I was really young to make me this way, I honestly can't remember when but there must of been something that triggered it. Anyway its good to have come on here too to get it off my chest, which is a problem I'm kept so hidden for so long. I guess the next step is telling my brother of best mate or both. I just don't know about their reaction, its a tough one, I was all for telling my brother this week but lost the nerve and the time wasn't right, we never have any deep conversations about much, he only talks mainly about sport lol but when the moments right I'm gonna try and bring it up. Thanks again everyone who replied, appreciate it. Andrew I'll email you soon when I read through the book and learn a little more about getting on the road to recovery, thanks for this great forum.

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