Blog

In Part 1, I talked about finally making the decision to get help with my shy bladder.

In Part 2, I shared the plan I put together for myself.

But then came the most important part.

I had to do the doing.

One of the things I’d learned from The Secret Social Phobia was that I could practice graduated exposure on my own.

So when I went to Las Vegas, that’s exactly what I did.

I practiced like crazy.

And when I say I practiced a lot, I mean I practiced A LOT.

From early in the morning until late at night.

I fluid loaded.

I practiced graduated exposure.

I did a lot of breath-holding.

And as I mentioned in Part 2, if you’re considering breath-holding, please check with your doctor first.

Bathroom after bathroom.

Attempt after attempt.

Some were successful.

Some were what I call nonjudgmental no-gos.

And I just kept going.

But something else was starting to happen during this time.

I was beginning to see the role that thought was playing in my experience of shy bladder.

I wasn’t trying to change my thoughts.

I wasn’t trying to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.

I just started noticing them.

I started noticing the stories I was creating.

Who’s in the bathroom?

What are they thinking?

What if I can’t go?

What happens if someone comes in?

Instead of automatically getting caught up in those thoughts, I started becoming more of an observer of them.

And as I did that, something changed.

Those thoughts started to have less power over me.

And my experience started getting better.

By the end of those four days, I was actually looking for more difficult situations.

I was almost curious whether I could find a situation where I couldn’t go.

Just to see what would happen.

Think about how different that was for me.

I’d spent most of my life terrified of not being able to pee in a public restroom.

And now I was almost looking for a chance to fail.

Then, not long after that, I did something the old me would have thought was completely insane.

I agreed to be filmed peeing for the Pee Shy documentary.

I’d spent almost 50 years worried about people knowing I couldn’t pee in a public restroom.

And now I was basically saying:

“Sure. Go ahead and film me peeing.”

Knowing that someday thousands, tens of thousands, maybe even millions of people could potentially see it.

Who knows?

I didn’t magically recover in four days.

And my journey certainly didn’t end in Vegas.

But I had started to see what was possible.

Looking back at these three videos, first I made the decision to get help.

Then I found a plan that made sense for me.

And then…

I did the doing.

A LOT of doing.

Your path may look completely different from mine.

I’m simply sharing what worked for me because I want you to know that change is possible.