Report on my Overseas Travel
Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 7:47 pm
Travel Overseas is possible for paruresis sufferers!!!
Hi All Readers of this site.
I have just come back from 6 ½ weeks travelling o/seas with my darling wife.
Some background to those who don’t know me:- I have had medium to severe paruresis for over 44 years before I found out a name for it. I started talking, and then practicing, with the Sydney Support Group about 4 years ago. I purchased & read Steven Soifer’s book – ‘Shy Bladder Syndrome’. I attended two Sydney Workshops (2006 & 2008), and continued to persevere with the desensitization exposure practice whenever I could.
My travels overseas involved long haul flights. Approximately 13 hrs to Singapore in an Airbus A380, then a further 7 hrs to London. I had no problems urinating in the plane, even when having to join the queue to wait for my turn!.
When we were day tripping around busy London for 7 days, I normally would go straight into a cubicle, lock the door and stand up to urinate. I think my stress levels where fairly high due to the crowds everywhere I went, so in some ways I suppose I was chickening out of trying the urinals!! Never-the-less, I was able to go every time I needed to, without any misfires.
This basically continued for the next 5 weeks while we drove ourselves site seeing through England, Scotland and Southern Ireland. We then had a 2 day stopover in Singapore on our return trip.
I am convinced that all the desensitization work I had done over the last few years paid off. Remembering back to what I was like in the ‘bad old days’, when paruresis controlled my thinking and my life, I don’t think I would have even considered such a long holiday so far from home.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me through the last few years, especially to those I met, and worked with, at the Workshops, and of course all at the Sydney Support Group!
Anyone considering overseas travel – it IS possible. You can DO it, even with your paruresis. But I recommend you start desensitizing practice as soon as you can.
Hi All Readers of this site.
I have just come back from 6 ½ weeks travelling o/seas with my darling wife.
Some background to those who don’t know me:- I have had medium to severe paruresis for over 44 years before I found out a name for it. I started talking, and then practicing, with the Sydney Support Group about 4 years ago. I purchased & read Steven Soifer’s book – ‘Shy Bladder Syndrome’. I attended two Sydney Workshops (2006 & 2008), and continued to persevere with the desensitization exposure practice whenever I could.
My travels overseas involved long haul flights. Approximately 13 hrs to Singapore in an Airbus A380, then a further 7 hrs to London. I had no problems urinating in the plane, even when having to join the queue to wait for my turn!.
When we were day tripping around busy London for 7 days, I normally would go straight into a cubicle, lock the door and stand up to urinate. I think my stress levels where fairly high due to the crowds everywhere I went, so in some ways I suppose I was chickening out of trying the urinals!! Never-the-less, I was able to go every time I needed to, without any misfires.
This basically continued for the next 5 weeks while we drove ourselves site seeing through England, Scotland and Southern Ireland. We then had a 2 day stopover in Singapore on our return trip.
I am convinced that all the desensitization work I had done over the last few years paid off. Remembering back to what I was like in the ‘bad old days’, when paruresis controlled my thinking and my life, I don’t think I would have even considered such a long holiday so far from home.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me through the last few years, especially to those I met, and worked with, at the Workshops, and of course all at the Sydney Support Group!
Anyone considering overseas travel – it IS possible. You can DO it, even with your paruresis. But I recommend you start desensitizing practice as soon as you can.