Incontinent and Proud?

By Elisa Utili  💛

...or if not proud, just unashamed?

Anyone out there suffer with (or, I guess in this instance, make the best of) urinary incontinence of any kind and just simply not care whether you're caught in public with wet pants at times?  Maybe you wear protection some of the time but just can't be bothered, can't afford it or simply don't want to wear it ALL the time, so you have days, weeks or months where you just let the chips fall where they may in terms of accidents.  Perhaps on off-days you even fully wet yourself at times because you're so damn sick of the constant conscious holding?

Incontinence includes everything from mild OAB to full-on loss of bladder control.  Any type counts:  stress, urge, overflow, functional, mixed & reflex (caused by spinal cord injury). I know people can arrive at these diagnoses via a variety of routes ranging from athletic stress, pregnancy/childbirth & menopause to prostate enlargement in men, and it's not always known what caused the condition.  All of these must be extremely stressful in any case.  "The Big I" (incontinence) happens to so many of us eventually that it would be great to hear from some actual incontinence patients who didn't inflict it on themselves via a diaper fetish or enjoy it to begin with.  

Some other questions I have for the "incontinent & proud" demographic:

What tools/strategies do you use to manage hygiene on the go or clean up "oopsie" pee accidents in public?

Are you more or less open about wetting yourself now than when you were first diagnosed?

If there was a change in your attitude over time regarding this, what do you think was the main cause?  

Do you frequent any of the incontinence support forums online?  

How do the people closest to you react when you have a wetting accident?  How would you prefer for people to react?

Do you feel like you were constantly fighting (physically & mentally) to hold your pee before, so you just "gave up" a little at some point?  Maybe equally for your convenience and your sanity? 

Do you ever dehydrate yourself or withhold fluids while out to help minimize accident potential?  Why or why not?   

What treatments have you tried for your particular type of incontinence?  Did any of them provide even modest improvement?

Do you feel that holding your bladder for prolonged periods on a frequent basis contributed to your current incontinence problems?  (I.e. waiting too long to pee).

If you could go back and do things over, would you have done anything differently in the course of your life in the name of hopefully changing the course of your condition?  (I.e. wearing diapers to work occasionally so you didn't hold your pee as much, holding longer between bathroom breaks to strengthen a weak bladder, drinking less alcohol, etc).  Or was your incontinence caused by something completely unexpected/unknown so none of that would've mattered?

Lastly, what advice would you give to anyone of any age or sex who's currently struggling with urinary incontinence?  

Serious answers only please.  Please include your age, how long you've had incontinence & the type (stress, urge, etc) for best results.  Your identity can & will remain anonymous.  Just copy/paste the questions and answer them in the comments below.  I and other women (and men!) would love to hear from you.  This super-common condition could happen to any of us someday, and is statistically likely to for many.  Maybe sooner than we think!     

(Personally, I have the urge to pee more often than is normal but I also have the ability to hold it longer than most if necessary, so I've never had an accident.  Certain foods/drinks really irritate my bladder as well (anything carbonated, acidic, caffeine, etc) & I get UTI's pretty easily, so I'd guess I probably have SOME kind of bladder/urinary condition though I haven't had it diagnosed formally.  But I know what it's like to need to pee often/urgently & have to alter your life based on bathroom availability & it does suck).

Bonus:  Cool page on celebrities with incontinence who are embracing it!    ✊🏽 ✊🏼 ✊🏿 ✊🏻

Salient point from Active Mum