www.incontinentsupport.org

Wheels, I think you bring up an excellent point about healthcare in general. And that is the power differential between doctor/counselor and patient/client. The health care professional whether they acknowledge it or not, wields a great deal of power over the person seeking help. There is plenty of very good research on the lack of empowerment many if not all patients/clients feel when it comes to accessing health care. Many if not all people acknowledge having trouble speaking up on their own behalf, voicing disagreement with medical professionals and feeling forced to accept what they're given without question. I feel very fortunate that I get to participate in counselor training and supervision in my career because I get to hammer home this point to my supervisees... "No one will ever know the client/patient as well as the client/patient". I get to see someone for an hour a week (if I'm lucky) for the period of a few weeks or months. How ludicrous it would be of me to think that I somehow know what is going on for that person better than that person him/herself. To demonstrate how real this effect can be, I always share the story with my supervisees about the time I was seeing a therapist myself when I was going through a divorce and the counselor I was seeing pressured me to stay in treatment longer than I felt I needed to because she felt I wasn't ready to function on my own without her support (and I think she liked getting paid). Despite being a licensed Ph.D. psychologist myself, I found myself bending to that pressure for several more weeks before I came to my senses and stopped going. It can be hard for a client/patient to listen to her/his internal voice when you have a person with knowledge and authority (which translates into power) telling you something.

So, that being said, the best thing that patients/clients can do is find a way to help themselves feel empowered. I recommend that people write down their concerns and questions ahead of time when you are not under pressure and have a chance to really think about what you want to ask, learn or request. Once the provider gets in the room, they are trying to treat you as fast as they can and get on to the next person in line and this contributes to the feeling of "maybe I shouldn't bother with my questions". My doctors (PCP, oncologist, rheumatologist, dermatologist and urologist) all know that they're not escaping me now until I have every last question on my list asked and they've also seen me add questions to my list after the appointment began because of something they said. This has really helped me feel more like I'm in charge of the visit not the other way around. The other thought that I believe is helpful for people to hold onto is "I'm the one that is gonna have to live with whatever this is and I'm the one that's paying for the tests/treatments etc. I have a right to pursue more than one opinion if I'm not confident in the opinion/advice/recommendation being given". Doctors and counselors have no inherent rights to your body or mind unless you give it to them.

CJ

CJ,

I think you may have missed one or two of the evolution of the calling of this condition.

ACW=Soldier's Heart
WWI=Shell Shock
WW2= Battle Fatigue or Combat Fatigue
Korea=Operational Exhaustion(WOW, 8 syllables)
Vietnam= Post-traumatic stress disorder. (still 8 syllables BUT we've added a hyphen)

part of this was stole from George Carlin. Dude was awesome

Yes, he was. Rope, I didn't think you would be old enough to remember him - he's more of an icon from my generation! I'm guessing that you've seen old video clips?

Wetters

My mother loved him and I had the honor of seeing him live back when I was in middle or high school. I also have two of his books, "Brain Droppings" and "Napalm and Silly putty".

Actually...PTSD got recognized because of the women's movement in the sixty's and seventies. Shrinks were realizing that the symptoms (IE flashbacks/stress/depression/etc.) that many woman who were now coming out and speaking up about abuses suffered in silence, were very similar to what veterans of Vietnam (and other wars) were also having. Trauma is described as "Anything beyond the human experience." Rape, War, Abuse, etc.
Flashbacks are an exact reliving of an event. Your mental, visual, sensual sense relives the event exactly as it happened. From heartbeat to sweat, stress to actual feelings. Ones mind replays the event because it can not "sort it out with normal life experiences." So...over and over in continues. If one wet him/her self it would repeat itself. I doubt though (having dealt with PTSD -Vietnam as a combat Marine.) it would cause incontinence. My 2 cents worth. Papa

Fran, I just reread this topic - probably because of the PTSD connection. Prostate surgery combined with the PTSD (Flashbacks in particular) can definitely increase the wetting (day or night). And all the "Talk" with professionals will do little to help it. I became incontinent 11 years ago after prostate cancer surgery (butchery) and the night and day flashbacks do add to the wetting. It is what it is. Hope you find some peace in between the "bad times" Papa

My concern about things like conversion disorder (and I respect that some people genuinely have it) is that there are conditions line ME/CFS and. Fibromyalgia for which there is currently no diagnostic test so some drs (neurologists are bad culprits) see the negative test results and assume it's a conversion type illness which nabs people ending up with psychological treatments that could do more harm than good. This has resulted in some people being made much more ill unfortunately.

Sadly and doctors won't except that sometimes you just can't find the cause.

I just breezed through this thread and I'm intrigued by something that Tangerine said...."sometimes they just can't find a cause" I'm in that boat right now.....I've been to 10 doctors had surgery once and a myriad of medical exams and tests.......everything has come back clean....it's been so frustrating. I've been living with it for 9-10 months now and it has made life very difficult. We are always looking for bathrooms. I am wearing some sort of protection 24/7.......I am even using Foley catheters regularly to help me stay out of the bathroom.....anyway.....last time I saw my PCP he told me that he thought I had a somatization disorder. Well, in my research I found I didn't meet the requirements for a somatization disorder. But I do meet the requirements for "undifferentiated somatoform disorder" which is the same thing without the rigid list of symptoms. This condition is similar to the "conversion disorder" mentioned previously. If I had to give myself a diagnosis, I would give myself the "undifferentiated somatoform disorder" after 10 doctors not finding anything, I'm ready to accept this as it is........it is different than hypochondrias and the symptoms are real without havinf the actual medical condition.......it's weird......

PB&J, now that you have gathered a cache of hard evidence and have worked your way to a logical conclusion, you just may have solved your mystery. The explanation as to why you're experiencing the symptoms just might cause them to subside, or at least lead you to discover why and how you developed the undifferentiated somatoform disorder and to overcome it.

Wetters

PB&J

I wanted to point out, somewhat pedantically, Conversion Disorder, and USD are in fact medical conditions. They are primarily psychogenic, rather than organic, but medical nonetheless.