It’s day 24 in my home desensitization. I’ve been practicing Gradual Exposure Therapy with my Pee Buddy Mike, and today, for the first time in a year and a half, I’ve begun to implement Breath Hold Techniques into my routine as well.
The last time I attempted Breath Hold I was able to hold my breath for a minute, and even got good at it. I got to the point where I almost peed doing that, and I wasn’t gasping for air at the end.
Even though I felt like I was making progress, it just wasn’t clicking for me. I gave up after 2 weeks of practice and haven’t tried it since.
Until today!
Today, I start it up again!
I wake up first thing in the morning and tell Mike to stand behind me as I pee.
I tell him I’m going to practice Breath Holding, which is exhaling about 3/4 of the air in your lungs and holding your breath calmly until your pelvic floor drops and your bladder begins to empty.
It all has to do with your body needing oxygen and taking it from where ever it can. Which is from the tightened muscle (your external Sphincter) that controls urine flow.
If you hold your breathing long enough, that tight muscle will have to relax, let go, and you WILL pee!
Or so they say!
So, it’s back to practice time. I usually don’t have a hard time peeing around Mike as it is, but now I’m adding in new tension. Holding my Breath. I notice that as I’m doing it, I’m preoccupied with holding the air in my lungs and not concentrating on peeing.
So what happens is I end up gasping, and still haven’t peed.
I try to shift my thoughts, but after about 40 seconds I fail and take a Breath. Holding your Breath is harder than it seems, especially when you’re under pressure.
It wasn’t good for my first try, but I know I’ll get better, with practice.
I still peed. And I also peed later on after another cup of coffee.
But Breath Hold attempt 2 resulted in failure as well. This is just practice, and I know that it could take me a month of trying to get it to actually work.
That’s a long time!
No matter what, I still peed and still emptied my bladder. Success!
I’ll keep practicing Breath Hold and get better at holding my breath for extended periods of time. I believe most people who master this technique say they have to hold their breath for 50 seconds or more…
We’ll see!
I peed a few more times today with my Pee Buddy, and even though I was out Christmas Shopping today, I didn’t step hide-nor-hair into a public restroom!
So I missed many great opportunities to desensitize…
I did practice Breath Holding more, and the last time tonight it worked!
Or should I say, I peed while holding my breath. But let me point out that this was NOT because of breath hold… I was by myself and I really needed to pee. So it only took me like ten seconds to start a stream, so breath holding wouldn’t have mattered much in this circumstance any way.
I’ll keep on practicing, and see if I can get good at it. You never know…
A cure could be right around the corner!