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Hi Sean
Sorry to read your G.P has said your A.P isn’t up for debate.
You have a right to change your G.P or see another G.P specifically for this problem so it may be worth thinking about it.
You could try writing down exactly how A.P affects your life and send it in a letter to your G.P or another G.P and go in and see them a week or so later. If you include a link to this website and ask them to look at it then hopefully they will understand your problem a bit better. You can also tell them that you haven’t had your appointment with the urologist and they will possibly chase it up for you. If you have or can get the urologist’s secretaries phone number you can chase it up yourself.
Best of luck to you.

Hi Rielle ,in my experience GP’s on the whole are not very receptive to paruresis sufferers.What I would do is short circuit the wait and request a private consultation via the GP with a urologist,it’s worth the money ,tell them your story and request disposable catheters and to be shown how to use them.They may even transfer you to be treated via the NHS.

Hi Karl, many thanks for your comment. I am thrilled to say that I have been prescribed with intermittent catheters. I had paid for a private consultation with a urologist of whom recommended that I learn how to self-catheterise. I have catheterised a total times of 4 times, but I'm slowly getting better at it! I am very excited for my future, which is something that has hindered me for the past couple of years. I'm hoping that I can get to a stage now where I am able to urinate naturally purely knowing that I can get my urine out in the matter of minutes if I werent able to naturally.

You’re welcome Sean.
I’m glad that you now have the catheters that you wanted and are getting better at using them. It’s also good to read you are excited about your future and have hope in urinating naturally in the future.
When you feel ready to practice desensing and urinating in public toilets again I strongly recommend the following that help me no end.
1. Regular practice
2. Fluid loading
3. Learning as much as you can from the paperwork given to you at the ukpt workshop if you attended one.
4. Anchoring. This is giving yourself praise before you go into the public toilets to feed a positive mind pattern into your brain. I drummed into it my head “NO MISFIRES!, NO MISFIRES!” and I’d silently rub my thumb and second finger together like I was silently clicking them.
When I’d successfully urinate I would repeat this step on the way out for the same reason.
I still do this every time now whether I am desensing or just using the gents because I need to.
5. Diary. Keep a diary of your successes and misfires. This can be done in code so that if anyone finds your diary no-one will understand the coding except you. Hopefully you’ll have more successes than misfires and reading that and focusing on those successes will also hopefully feed a positive mind pattern in your brain and help each time you use public toilets.
For extra positivity I do anchoring at home too so it’s engrained in my memory whenever and wherever I use a toilet.

Try these steps once you’ve gotten used to the catheter for some time and remember there’s no need to rush things.
I wish you the very best for the rest of the year.

Hi Karl, thank you very much for your very kind words. I will definitely engage in desensing activities in the future. I am finding so far that knowing that I have a catheter on hand has helped reduce my anxiety so I am able to urinate a lot easier at home. I haven't been able to urinate in public toilets for over 10 years so this is something that will take a lot longer, which is where the desensing will come in handy. Again, thank you for your advice and I wish you all the best for the rest of this year and beyond!