Do you ever get hit with a strong urge to urinate? What is your response? I bet you do what most everyone does and that is tighten up everything you can and frantically run to the bathroom. I get it. That certainly seems logical but in this case, logic is working against you. This is a war that starts in your mind. Learning techniques to suppress these urges is the beginning of conquering them.
My first thing I recommend to patients that are struggling with urgency is that when the urge strikes they need to relax. The response I usually hear back is “if I do that bad things will happen”. It is important to remember if logic was working there would be no need to be seeing me in therapy. When a person tenses up and tries to prevent urine from leaking they are actually increasing pressure in their abdomen and putting pressure on their bladder and pelvic floor. The very thing that logic tells us to do to prevent leaking can often be the cause of it.
If you are struggling with incontinence of any kind, a visit to a pelvic floor physical therapist will be helpful. Don’t accept that this just happens as we age. It is treatable, painless and there are no side effects to worry about. Take control of your life and schedule a visit today.
