Spitting in the face of defeat

[obscured]

I have had the condition for almost 11 years and I have it 90% beat! I only found out what the condition was called to day from my girl friend, for years I just thought it was pee shy-ness and did not give it much thought only on the weekends when I was drinking and traveling and some times in work, I have often had to hold it for 12 or more hrs! I think 16hrs was my longest which was not fun, I found listening to music while in public worked really good for me, normal what I did was just think of being in another place.. like my own bathroom at home and really concentrated on making my mind go blank and next thing I knew I was working, for the last 2 or 3 years I have been going on trains planes, and most pubs last weekend I went on the back of a van out side a house party I was at, while talking to a few ppl that were standing in the front door of the house so I guess im doing ok now. I think you just have to be hard core and never give up just keep telling yourself that you are a lot harder than that and it will not beat you, worked for me so I hope this can help somebody out as paruresis sucks! pm me if u need more info i guess im leaveing some stuff out

[admin]

Hi obscured,

Great to hear your success story! How did you overcome it? Just through listening to music? Or did you do something else as well?

[luce]

It's so nice to hear someone who has overcome it! I'm working on aversion therapy at the moment, and it's slow going with a lot of backward steps So frsutrating, but it's great when you hear from people who have overcome it as it's really inspirational and motivational

[obscured]

I was thinking about it today after reading the posts, what might have been one part in helping me is exposure therapy I was doing it without even knowing about it, I think I got used to peeing with some body else in the room next to me, I have an on suite in my room so my girl friend is normally there when I use the bathroom, at first when I started going out with her about 5 years ago now, I had problems going when she was in the room next to me or some times even in my house! but slowly I just got used to it, now it dose not bother me if she is brushing her teeth when I am going, the listening to music is really great I used to never go any where with out my MP3 player if I was stuck id put on the music so it would drown out the back ground noise and id just pretend I was in there alone or like I said close my eyes and pretend I was at home, what worked also was to totally clear my mind of any thoughts, I find that pretty easy to do and the more you do it the easier it becomes to just draw a total blank, you even forget for a few seconds where you are and what you are doing and that's all you need to start going, an easy way to start is to think of a tree falling in the woods and the sound it makes then think about if the tree falls and I am not there to see it dose it still make that crashing sound.. it sounds silly but it works, if I think of any thing else I used to do and or still do I will post it here. I know if ye stick at it ye will beat it

[eskimo]

Thansk for the success story. It's nice to hear that someone has beaten it because sometimes I feel like I'm never going to get there