www.incontinentsupport.org

I was raised and educated free of emotions by a mother who had to flee from Silesia when the Red Army approached. So it effects even the children of trauma victims.

Then I was mistreated and neglected at a Catholic hospital in my childhood.

Hi ironhorse,

Sorry if this thread is a bit old- I will just add in my 2 cents from my experience with PTSD after my car accident
I am not sure if the PTSD and anxiety & depression "caused" my incontinence- but it may
have been a factor in exacerbating, perpetuating, or propagating my urinary symptoms and pelvic floor issues
My urinary symptoms as well as other physical symptoms and pains seem to flare up quite a bit when I get
the panic attacks or such. Several times i end up dribbling and leaking quite a bit when having an episode
RIGHT IN THE OFFICE! My episodes sometimes would also increase my back pain, or bring back neck pain
from my accident or cause many other symptoms..... it was quite insane especially last year....

Those were some awkward days then.... and i was glad to have a stick of deoderant on me

Now- there was likely quite a bit of 'somatization' or something going on. My brief bit with trying 'somatic' therapy didn't really do much. Instead I sought after EMDR therapy which really was quite effective treatment for me.

The body & mind have a very strange yet intriguing connection going on. And this is really tied into a lot of the pelvic area for many people.
I could probably write a book about it after all the research, reading, treatments and therapies relating to the pelvic floor, bowels,
and urinary system- I have had and done.

I probably should start a new thread for this tidbit about the effects of anxiety and safety/comfort on urination somewhere-
The interesting thing is that anxiety levels can keep you from urinating AND also cause you to urinate- sometimes
almost simultaneously. This is quite bizarre but I suspect it is really in a way what happened to me
Last year, i had a very bad panic attack and ended up going to the ER cause I could not urinate at all and
my pelvis and back were killing me!
But then a whole bunch of other things happened- and in a later panic attack I end up leaking after being unable to pee
I realized after all this that, that in order to 'properly urinate', you actually have to "feel" somewhat safe, secure and RELAXED.
That way the pelvic floor can do its thing and the signals "supposedly" get transferred back and forth correctly (if everything else works correctly).... But sometimes if you are super duper scared/anxious/upset etc- the signals may get confused or you may be trying to fight yourself
(ie. bladder muscles fighting sphincters, and pelvic floor going haywire, etc). Basically anxiety can cause dis coordination or dysfunction of the pelvic systems or other systems and thereby cause incontinence or WORSE- severe retention

I kinda learned the meaning of the trite phrase- "So scared he wet himself"...

One thing I have learned through my life either personally or seeing others go through it is stress can do some strange things to the human body and how each person handles is different.

Hmmmm the more I think about it, the stronger the correlation/plausible link between my depression, ptsd and incontinence. My uribary symptoms now are generally mild. But almost every single time I get a panic attack, spooked or have very strong emotions or depression, etc I notice my back and chest hurt like crazy, pelvis start acting up, and I end up having some more major leakage.