Can Your Bladder Be Conditioned To Respond To Sound?

[Guest Craig]

We know that some who naturally have poor bladder control will wet themselves when they are trying to get the keys in the door or when they hear water running. Could we "learn" this behavior?

In other words, suppose I put a one-minute audio clip of water pouring into a glass on a small, portable digital audio player, and played it right before and while I wet. Would I eventually be able to generate the wetting response just by playing the sound (assuming my bladder was not completely empty)?

[Marshmallow]

Eventually i would say yes you would wet uncontroably when u hear water running. (eventually)

your body doesnt "un-learn" anything, but u can re-learn it to do other things, and if you keep doing the same thing time and time again, eventually your body does it without you thinking.

it will probably take a good 2 weeks before u even start thinking "i need to go potty" when u hear water running, but keep at it, give it a few months and im sure you'll get there.

i guess its similiar to bed wetting.... im trying myself but im not doing everything that i should be so im not 100% dedicated at the moment. for example the first month, you'll wake up wanting to go potty and you'll just go while lying in your bed (while awake), after a month or two, you'll wake up into a kinda half-asleep state and "i need the potty", you'll wet and drift off to sleep nearly instantly. give it 3-4 months, maybe longer and you body takes "wetting the bed" as something you do without thinking becuase the past 4-6 months youve been doing it.

i think if you can relate this to your sound wetting, i think you'll be sucessful in wetting when you hear water running. i must say i think the sound of keys jingling (trying to get through the door) and oh no! ive just wet before i can get to the toilet sound like a fantastic idea!!!

be 100% sure u want to do this and be 100% dedicated, dont let your mind have any doubts becuase it probably wont if you have any.

hope this helps! xx

[sarah_ab]

Yes called classical conditioning.. pavlov and his dogs? you can condition biological responses to a stimulus to elicit the behavior.

[Darkfinn]

It is easy to do... just run the water or play a specific song when you go to the bathroom. If you do it every time your body will eventually associate the sound of running water or that song with emptying the bladder, and the reaction will become automatic.

I don't know if it is something you would really want to do though... it could have some negative consequences.

[DavidMW]

We know that some who naturally have poor bladder conteol will wet themselves when they are trying to get the keys in the door or when they hear water running. Could we "learn" this behavior?

In other words, suppose I put a one-minute audio clip of water pouring into a glass on a small, portable digital audio player, and played it right before and while I wet. Would I eventually be able to generate the wetting response just by playing the sound (assuming my bladder was not completely empty)?

Be careful what sound you choose. You may hear running water at a restaurant or some chosen song over the radio when you're driving. Are those places where you want your conditioning to pop in?

[BabyJune]

Go to the inner city. As soon as you hear the first gunshot, you'll pee your pants...and probaby poop yourself, too.

(Just kidding) What you are referring to in your question is Pavlov's classical conditioning. I think it would be possible, but it would take a lot of time because for the most part, your daily life requires you to control your bladder.

[Bettypooh]

Go to the inner city. As soon as you hear the first gunshot, you'll pee your pants...and probaby poop yourself, too.

(Just kidding) What you are referring to in your question is Pavlov's classical conditioning. I think it would be possible, but it would take a lot of time because for the most part, your daily life requires you to control your bladder.

I believe this is a more accurate answer for a few reasons. One- the main one- is that you're trying to change a lifelong habit, and those are the hardest ones to change Two is the level of consciousness where bladder control resides- it's deeply ingrained and hard to reach Three is like others have already said- you know deep inside that there are times you really don't want to be peeing But the habit of bladder control is just that- a habit- learned behavior that can be changed as long as you want or need that change badly enough As deep as it is in our minds making that change isn't easy or fast It requires a total commitment and total acceptance of whatever consequences there are that may come along with it- you cannot have any doubt and be successful Whatever you try be consistant and persistent never giving up hope or letting your desire wane and in time you will get what you want

Betypooh

[Guest Craig]

Wow! What a comprehensive and thoughtful series of replies!

Since the title of this topic is "incontinent desires," it occurred to me that perhaps borrowing from the experiences of those who are already incontinent for a variety of reasons might add some tools to the kit being used by those who've chosen to go down this path. Hopefully everyone so doing will realize that it might take some time to turn things around if the destination is not exactly what it was imagined to be!

Thanks,

Craig

[d_drew12]

Like some have said, you have to truly want to do it for it to happen with sound and even then would require you making the effort to wet. If you didn't want it to happen it wouldn't. If someone ran water every time you jumped would you jump at the sound of running water after a while? Not likely. The conditioning was based on rewards so if you can convince yourself that it's a reward to wet then yes but you'd still have to be congnitive of doing it. It's not like you're in a hypnotic trans.

[sarah_ab]

conditioning based on rewards is operant, we are talking classical condition, say the OP runs the bathroom sink as he is peeing, his brain will begin to associate the sound of the running water with the relief the OP feels from emptying his bladder, and soon the sound of running water would cause the OP to empty his bladder to feel that relief. The feeling of relief is not a rewrad but an unconditioned response.

[maxi]

Yeah I agree with the above posters. Whenever I go and make myself a mug of coffee (frequently) I seem to have got into the habit of peeing into my diaper soon after I rinse the mug out (running water) and then filling the kettle (more running water). The other day I wasn't wearing a diaper and went to make a coffee and went through my usual routine and before I realised what was happening I found I was peeing into my pants. ooops! No, I wasn't worried about it...in fact I was rather pleased...no, VERY pleased...my incontinent desires coming true at last. I am not following the 24/365 system all that closely, but I do try to never hold back when I feel the need to go and not squeeze off when finished either...think this helps me to be more relaxed about the whole thing. I wear as often as possible, but have yet to make that final big jump to going 24/7, but don't think it will be long before I do.

[d_drew12]

conditioning based on rewards is operant, we are talking classical condition, say the OP runs the bathroom sink as he is peeing, his brain will begin to associate the sound of the running water with the relief the OP feels from emptying his bladder, and soon the sound of running water would cause the OP to empty his bladder to feel that relief. The feeling of relief is not a rewrad but an unconditioned response.

I will want to pee yes but I have to make the choice to pee, very different. What if you don't have the feeling or need to pee when the water turns on? If you just went, would your bladder muscle conract and sphincter open and try to pee? I don't think it would. The sound would not cause you to pee, but make you want to. At most you may spurt out a drop but not become incontinent. If you have a full bladder, you won't just be standing in the bathroom and turn the water on and as it's running, pee down your leg uncontrollably for 25 seconds while your bladder empties and you can't do anything about it, and the only way to stop peeing is turn off the water. Running the water won't be like turning on and off the stream of urine.

Unlike the whole dog thing with the salivating, I can't control the release of saliva, I can control my release of urine.

Now those who wet there diapers or even there pants as some have said "uncontrollably" while waters running, well, it's a little deeper then that. It's also a desire to do so. This means it's more than just the sound of water working here. A person who does NOT want to pee uncontrollably and empty there full bladder won't.

[Guest Craig]

Fascinating stuff! To add to the discussion...

Recall that this discussion got started with the observation that there are those people who do NOT wish to be incontinent but who do wind up wetting themselves, obviously uncontrollably, in specific situations. These are people who are trying to overcome their incontinence, so they are clearly getting wet against their will.

One scenario commonly reported happens upon arriving home, going to the door, and fiddling with the keys trying to get the door open. For some reason, the bladder contracts with such force (which is out of their control) that the urge overcomes their ability to hold it (which to some degree they can control).

Another scenario involves running water. Again, the sound of running water causes their bladders to contract with such force that they often cannot hold it until they get to the restroom and thus wet themselves.

Of course, if the bladder is empty, or mostly so, there would be very little leakage. It may be that the degree to which the bladder is filled also impacts how strong the contractions are, but it is clear from what these folks report that the scenarios do cause the involuntary wetting of themselves. For some reason, fiddling with the keys to get the door open or hearing water run causes the involuntary response of their bladders contracting. The degree to which they lose bladder control as a result may well be dependent on how full their bladders are at that time. The stronger the urge, the more difficult it is for them to hold it (the voluntary response).

So maybe we've revised the original question to be: "Can the bladder be trained to contract when a person hears certain sounds such that this individual, depending on how full his/her bladder is, will wet himself/herself uncontrollably?" From the majority of answers it sounds like the answer is "yes."

Craig

[AbyMatt]

I was trying to think of another way to untrain the bladder and I came up with this. It's pretty much a fantasy, but it seems less destructive than cutting.

Implant a sensor on the sphincter that senses when the sphincter tightens up. When it senses tension in the sphincter, it delivers a light zap that is mildly painful. When the sphincter relaxes, the pain goes away or turns to pleasure.

After a few days, you stop tensing the sphincter and it becomes more natural to relax. After a while, the sphincter loses tone from lack of use.