Continued from Paruresis Breath Hold Technique Part 1 Of 2
Step 3. Get to 40 seconds. Keep practicing every day, as many times a day as you can. At first, practice while your bladder is empty. Eventually after a few days or weeks you will be able to hold your breath for longer. Keep practicing until you can get to 40 seconds of holding your breath at about 20% lung capacity. Pay attention to how your body relaxes. Once up to 40 seconds, practice holding your breath standing up or walking around.
Step 4. Breath-holding during urination. Now, you are ready to practice in real life. This step will depend on how bad your pees shyness is. If you feel confident enough, you can start using this technique in public right away. Others with more severe bladder shyness may need to practice at home or in front of a trusted loved one first.
Drink plenty of fluid. Wait until you have to go badly.
Take a normal breath while waiting to pee. Then exhale immediately until you have about 20% of your breath left in your lungs. Then, hold your breath. As you hold your breath, after a while you will notice the “bottom drop out.” Your muscles will relax around your bladder and sphincter and the flow should start. Most of the time, you will begin to urinate well before reaching 40 seconds. Continue to hold your breath for a few more seconds until the flow is strong. You may need to breathe and then hold your breath again if your stream stops midway.
Step 5. Keep practicing. Keep challenging yourself, try to urinate in increasingly more difficult situations. For men, you can practice the breath-hold technique in public stalls first. After you can pee with no problem in a stall, you are ready to move to the urinal. Start peeing in public every day, whether there is someone there or not. Simply use the breath-hold technique and the flow will start. Usually it happens before 40 seconds…and don’t worry, no one will notice that you holding your breath!
Sometimes you may find that your flow stops midway through, if you are still tense or if someone walks in. Don’t panic if this happens. Simply exhale and hold your breath again. After a few seconds, your stream will return.
One more trick to use. You can start holding your breath as you are walking into the bathroom. You don’t need to wait until you get to the urinal. By the time you actually get to the urinal you will be ready to go. If you have to go bad, sometimes you won’t have to wait at all.
Overcoming Bashful Bladder Syndrome & Anxiety
Even after learning the techniques, I still have some anxiety when it came to peeing in public. I was still struggling a bit, which is why spent a lot of my time trying to find the best techniques and treatments to supplement the breath-hold technique. Now, my anxiety is almost gone and I can urinate anywhere I want.
The funny thing is now I notice other guys who can’t pee in public! I want to tell them:
“Hey, I feel your pain, and I know how you can fix it!
Read More: My Thoughts On Curing Shy Bladder
photo credit: TerryJohnston via photopin cc
Thank you so much…hoping to overcome my fear.