U.K. PARURESIS TRUST: Re: Feedback from Manchester Beginners workshop, September 2016

Hi all
Guess I'd like to start off in thanking Ian and Andrew, the workshop leaders - it's their tireless efforts that mean this was the 91st workshop that's been run, helping over 500 people (or 3-4 full pubs worth of people!). They clearly have plenty of experience and over the past few years must have honed in the way in which they go about these workshops - I guarantee you whatever specific situations you find yourself consistently unable to pee, it's not stupid, or something to be embaressed about, someone at a workshop will have experienced the same problem before and these guys will know how to make you feel comfortable and ultimately help.

My personal experience before the workshop was pretty bad - I'm 18 and I was too afraid of the toilet situation to ever feel comfortable going on nights out - in fact I'm going off to uni very shortly so my main motivation behind coming was to help me towards a situation where I'd feel reassured that I wouldn't have to make a sudden dash home because the toilets weren't any use to me.

I could only ever go in a public place if I were in a cubicle, the door locked and there was a decent seat on the toilet (I could only go sitting down) so the main thing I wanted to work on was transferring from being in situations where previously I could only go sitting down, to being able to stand up (let's face it, the cubicles in a night club are highly unlikely to ever feature a working seat!).
While on the workshop however, I was absolutely delighted to find myself peeing in urinals! With actual other human beings just going about their business also! (Like seriously, life goals or what?!) I now find myself thinking completely differently - not just emptying my bladder before I go out in the hope I'd be home before it got too uncomfortable, but avidly drinking more so I can challenge myself to go in a urinal, knowing I can happily use a cubicle as a fall back and for the first time ever suggesting to a friend we should go clubbing.

I feel I must stress however that this workshop isn't some miracle cure, I'm sure if you're reading this you'll be quite unsurprised it's different in the company of people you know, compared to the (relative) safety of the workshop, but I now have an action plan I am going to go about with and definitely keep up the momentum. This whole process is certainly quite 2 steps forward, 1 step back - but in my mind that's still one massive step further forward than I'd have been if I'd decided not to go at all.

Now if you're still reading (I have rambled on a bit sorry) that either means you've already attended a workshop and are seeing how far someone else came, or you (or maybe even someone you know) are in the situation I was in a few months ago, relating to the stories on this discussion board and finally coming to the conclusion that this is what I have, there's no easy fix and the workshop is the best way forward - it took me far too long to realise this so please, please I urge you to learn from my mistake, you won't regret it.