Being Open About Your Incontinence

[diapermike]

I am trying to be more open about my incontinence mainly with my friends and family and some coworkers. I am just wondering how open are you and how do you show your openness about your incontinence. I some times show my openness with by joking about it or saying something that is funny. I always tell my friends that go with me on trips that they need to tell me when to stop to use the bathroom because I will only stop to get gas.

Daiper mike

[Rozi]

I don't hide my diapers from my friends (although I wear discreet clothing, I don't actively try to hide them). However, if I'm around a new person, I won't tell them about my diapers. If they ask, I'll answer, and eventually they figure it out. Although my close friends and I do talk or joke about them sometimes, I don't like the idea of forcing information about my underwear on someone.

[Red Barchetta]

Basically, I just don't deliberately bring it up - but don't take extreme efforts to hide the fact either. In almost all cases, people that I am around alot eventually figure it out (and don't really care one way or the other), while those I know but only see once in a blue moon really may question to themselves why every time I go in to the bathroom, I carry a tote bag with me, but don't know why, and rarely ask-But if one did, no big deal, it's no different then using any other medical assistive device - and certainly better than what would probably happen if I did not wear a diaper!

[t baby]

ALL my family and friends know i wear diapers but like rozi said, if i met someone else i am not going to be open about my "underwear" but if they got suspicious and asked, yeah I would tell them I have to wear diapers. i have nothing to hide or be ashamed of.

[Incontinent Jennifer]

I used to be afraid of people finding out and went to great lengths to hide them.

Now, I just go about my buisness and don't bother to hide it. My fiance has boosted my confidence so much, I show off my legs with short skirts like I used to before the diapers (not shorts though, I find them uncomfortable with the diaper).

I've gone to my car to get my spare diaper and walked back through a public place just with it in my hand, strangers have come over and I had some of my diapers out on a coffee table (not planned that way, they were getting packed in a suitcase, I'm just a procrastinater), and I've had to walk through a mall with a soaked skirt after my diaper didn't survive a movie theater soda. I didn't want to go home yet, so I went clear across the mall and bought a new one. Ugh, that was irritating. "You can't take merchandise in to the restroom"... "You see my skirt! My diaper leaked all over it, HE's got my credit card. Here's the tag, go ring it up, I am in NO mood to deal with you!"

So, I guess that qualifies as being pretty open about it.

[Guest diamondback688]

i dont bother to hide them, but i dont show them off....i too, used to be afraid of people finding out, and went to great lengths to hide them...now, i dont really care who notices...

[nappyloon]

Very simply put-"TOP SECRET" and thats it !

[StrayDl]

Fortunately I live in a small rural community & most women my age have problems from having kids..(which compounded my problem) or are caretakers to elderly parents so it's nothing new to us, the local dollar store sells as many adult diapers and pads as they do baby diapers.

[dbk]

It's better to be hated for who you are than to be loved for who your not. Too much energy and time is wasted hiding, but don't let diapers be the only thing about you. When I stopped "hiding" I discovered half the people I was hiding from already knew, most people really don't care. It's a lot bigger of a deal to us than it is to others. ::

[uk_DL]

Hi, can you give us little more detail on this.

You say you don’t hide it anymore, to what extent is this,

And what did the people say that already knew about it?

It's better to be hated for who you are than to be loved for who your not. Too much energy and time is wasted hiding, but don't let diapers be the only thing about you. When I stopped "hiding" I discovered half the people I was hiding from already knew, most people really don't care. It's a lot bigger of a deal to us than it is to others. ::

[rickibrat2]

Hi, can you give us little more detail on this.

You say you don’t hide it anymore, to what extent is this,

And what did the people say that already knew about it?

make no efford to hide the fact i wear diapers many times in summer walk around with no shirt and you can see thew wasit band of the diapers over the pants

many times will walk around the trailer or pit area with the top half of my fire suit turned down and you can clearly see the outline of the diaper

as a first responder many times have been called to off road accidents and found kids and adults wearing diapers on there cloth

i just tell them to relax it is no big deal that i wear too

[InDpnds]

If someone were to ask me, I would say I wear, but as with some of the other posts, it's mainly a matter of people (strangers) not all that worried about the type of underwear you have to wear. In other words, if I'm getting a package of disposables in the store, I don't pile fifty thousand other things on top of the package in the basket. Of course, no one has ever accosted me in a store or asked me why I'm buying a package of diapers or undergarments. It's just like women buying feminine "things" that are a daily part of your lives. If anyone has a problem with that then its their problem and not your's! And I woudl expect the only ones interested enough to ask would be close friends and of course, you would want to be honest with them.

[dpr13ca]

When I was getting remarried I meet my wifes family at their cabin for a weekend of rebuilding decks.When asked about my situation with diapers and all I was just straight forward and told them about it,there were no complaints about it and lots of questions that they asked to understand the situation better, but they did try to limit my working only because they thought it would harm me.I just went about helping all i could and they started to understand I was no different than anyone else that they had meet.I dont care who knows and i make no effort to cover up the fact,I dont flaunt it in peoples faces but i try not to let it interfer with things i want to do,like swimming or wearing shorts or no shirt in the summer,we are still people with the rights to be out in public like anyone else with no harrassment.

[rusty pins]

I thought you Americans had a really good anti discrimination law for disabilities.Their policy sounds like an invasion of privacy.

Companies, especially the large international ones really don't care how they treat their people if they can save a little money here and there! My company set requirements that no one could meet, then once they let a certian number of people go, they relaxed the requirements and hired new people at starting wages. That way they didn't have to pay for belifits for 12 months (medical insurance, etc.) and saved money on per hour wages. Are they going to get sued? Doubtful because they can change requirements as often as they want "for the changing needs of the business!" You know how bad a company is when an employee is in the hopspital in intensive care because he had a heart attack (probably brought on by the stress of the job) and the company denies his FMLA and then writes him up for missing work!! Yes, that happened!

[diapers aeternus]

In the past (even still), I have been very private and reserved about disclosing my need to wear diapers -- the only people I have ever told were girlfriends, and only a select few at that (which usually always led to some sort of complication or conflict regarding sleeping over and such). Even when I was younger (10, 11, 12), my parents never said much about it. My father once said [to me], "I'm not changing any pissy diapers!" And when [diaper] deliveries came to the house, my father would put them in my room without even telling me (I remember finding a bag in the cabinet in my room and saying, "When did these arrive? I didn't put these here..." and that was when I was 12 or 13 years old).

Back in May, I started dating a woman who, at the outset, was rather freaked out about my wearing diapers, but has since become VERY supportive--and [this is the best part!] has even started wearing diapers herself (especially when she is on her period).

I think I will always keep my incontinence issues private, since I feel it's not really anyone's business but my own. I feel I might lose some of my dignity if I were to tell even my close family. Mostly, I guess because I live in such a small community, that word would travel fast, and I value my privacy too much for my need to wear diapers becoming public knowledge.

[jmcnappy]

I am trying to be more open about my incontinence mainly with my friends and family and some coworkers. I am just wondering how open are you and how do you show your openness about your incontinence. I some times show my openness with by joking about it or saying something that is funny. I always tell my friends that go with me on trips that they need to tell me when to stop to use the bathroom because I will only stop to get gas.

Daiper mike

i have found that being open is the best way,you try and hide it and it will start to control your life.i joke about my nappies its either that or turn into a total depresant...last week in my local pub the barmaids little girl (2 1/2 ) had a stinky nappy,she put her hand on my bum first just checking..which had evry one in stitches.then the checky b***h asked for some baby wipes she forgot to pack hers.live life and be happy wet but happy....