www.incontinentsupport.org

Scott,

If you read the primer on this website, there is a section o diaper stigma, and the euphemisms that manufactures use to sell products for us adults.. if you are afraid of offending members on this site..don't be.. Many of us have come to grips with the realities of incontience.. and use the words diaper, brief, and protection interchangeably, at least I do..

As far as briefs vs pullups.. I doubt you would find a pullup more absorbent than a tape-on brief/diaper. I'm assuming the diapers you bought at CVS are store brand? In my opinion, store brand briefs are not worth the packaging they come in..they are about as thin as paper..The most vunerable positon for a diaper to leak is sitting down.

I have moderate to heavy stress/urge/overflow(i think????not sure) incontinence, and for daily home use wear Attends breathable.. and when im at work or a situation where i cant change easily.. i wear a premium extended wear brief, such as Dry 24/7, Wellness, or Tena slip Maxi. I think that you will find that you have a MUCH wider selection of protection choices online, and having boxes of diapers shipped to your house is more discreet than buying them in the store.. me, personally, i only buy locally at the phamracy near my building.. otherwise,I just feel weird doing it.. thankfully.. my supplies are covered via Medicaid and i get a monthly shipment of everything i need for management, including briefs, wipes, rash cream, booster pads, and chucks pads for airing out.. all at no cost to me My incontinence first became noticable or bothersome . I got dry in early 2010..now its back 4 years later.. first reoccurance was in May, saw the urologist, did biofeeback and excercises.. was dry late july through late septenber.. then started having leakage up until now. It was difficult at first to come to terms with having incontinece come back, but acceptance for me has gotten easier with time. I'm glad you don't have a problem wearing protection, beacause it really does make life SO much easier.. when things stared prior to 2008.. id have the occasional postvoid leak.. which became more routine.. and for the longest time i put up with wet undewear.. NO MORE. I either wear underwear and keep them dry.. or wear diapers..no in between...

Welcome to the forum.. I'm sure you can find a lot of stories you can relate to.. and don't forget, we are all in this together!

Peace out!

Rob

_________________
"We cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love" Mother Teresa

"THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" - Captain Picard from Chain of Command, Part II

Hi Scott and welcome to the board.

I happen to be 44 years old and have been dealing with incontinence issues for some time now. I'm also a Psychologist and I want to commend you on your courage for coming on to a site and posting about yourself so that you could get some support. Reaching out to others is a really important way of taking care of yourself and that is the one thing that people with incontinence often feel they CANNOT do for fear of embarrassment or shame. Such is the value of this community of people. Everyone here has been so welcoming and supportive, you can feel free to be yourself and connect with people who truly do understand what you're going through.

I'm glad that you already have a psychotherapist. Please keep going with the work you're doing there. When it comes to working through trauma, it can be really hard to stare down those memories and experiences. But the only way out is forward. Let your therapist know when it's getting hard so you can adjust the speed or intensity of the work accordingly but the more you process through what you experienced and learn to look at it through the adult eyes you now possess, things begin to get much easier. You may very well carry those memories with you forever but they do not have to continue impacting your life as they once did.

Feel free to message me if you have any specific questions you may wish to ask or pose them to the board. Chances are if you have a question about something in particular, someone else does too.....

At any rate, nice to meet you and welcome!

CJ

Thank you for your warm welcome, CJ. This Monday, I had to go to the ER for a major psychiatric crisis. I waited over 5 hours, and eventually, they told me to go home, take some Trazadone I had, and try to sleep, because they were so insanely busy in EMH that they could not treat me. It was a massive panic/anxiety episode. I felt like I was 6 years old all over again, and my adoptive parent was abusing me. I was shocked that I had such a reaction - it was all induced by very old memories that were indeed focused on urination, elimination, and so forth when I was a child.

On a positive note, however, I did manage to leave a message for my primary care provider, and speak with a nurse at the hospital on the phone. She told me I was speaking with the right person, because she does all the paperwork and billing for insurance. She is going to order me an ample supply of pull-up style briefs that I can use (3 a day if needed). I also got in touch with my psych doctor on the phone, and told her about my panic episode this morning. She was very supportive. I am planning on talking to my therapist soon as well. You are right: the memories never go away, but hopefully, I can find a way to keep them down to a dull roar. Thank you again for your welcome.