Posted by Andrew on 8/11/2016, 8:34 am, in reply to "Help and advice needed!"

Hi Dave What an unpleasant experience you have been through. Let’s see what can help. I have replied by email as well. First of all dont fall into the trap of seeing yourself as being at fault in any way. It is the military who are at fault. Go read the page on our website to do with drug testing here: http://www.ukpt.org.uk/drug_testing.htm You will see that the Home Office has procedures in place to deal with paruresis in prisons. Which begs the question as to why the military do not. I suppose it is because a guy with paruresis can commit a crime and get sent to prison, but would be unlikely to enlist in the Army; hence the military do not getto deal with guys like us much. But that is no reason why they cannot acquaint themselves with it. So point them to our website at www.ukpt.org.uk. Point out that: 1. The UK Paruresis Trust is a a registered charity. 2. That our trustees include a clinical psychologist and a medical doctor. 3. That the condition was first researched and identified back in 1950s (yes) and documentted in a professional journal. 4. That you want to pee, but the autonomic nervous system overrides your voluntary control by closing the urethral sphincter. Stage fright is a siomilar thing. 5. That other means of drug testing are available, e.g. saliva testing, which do not invade personal privacy. Who wants to watch someone peeing?! (This is especially the case with women who are expected to pee with their legs apart so the observer can verify there is no tampering!) If you send me an address I can send you copies of our glossy brochure which can be handed out as necessary. As you say the CDT organisations dont want to be bothered with providing other methods. So I think your approach with the military is to put the ball in their court by stating that the CDT people are not doing their job right. Can you get to a GP outside the military? you might get to a clinical psychologist more quickly that way? Can you get out for one of our weekend workshops? That would move you forward by improving your peeing ability. Its getting late so I’ll close off now. But get back to me wont you. Cheers Andrew Andrew Smith Chair of trustees UK Paruresis Trust

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