How long did it take you to realise...

[gregs]

How long did it take you to realise that your incontinece is not only termporary and will not go away?  Are there any indications that made you aware, that it will be permanent?

[ken2988]

If you are putting out a poll in regards to months, then it is very unlikely you have ever had incontinence issues.  Unless you have had a major injury, most people take years to slowly lose the ability to control their bladder.   The average person urinates around 7-12 ounces when they go to the rest room without any medical issues.  While some people naturally have lower or higher capacities, I would say that I was in the middle of that range when I was younger and slowly watched things change.  The first time I really noticed an issue was when I would go on camping trips and instead of needing to get up once at night to pee, I would need to get up 2-3 times to go to the bathroom, which is no fun when it is cold!  It took years for things to change enough that it started to become an inconvenience in other areas of my life, but camping was the barometer for how much things changes over years.  I finally got to the point that I had to take diapers along when camping which took away much of the fun of camping and hiking.

It took several years for my capacity to drop from 8-10 ounces down to 4-5 ounces when peeing, and within another year I started to notice that I would leak once in a while, that I would have the urge to pee and sometimes only have 1-2 ounces of pee, and that it seemed like I needed to run to the bathroom almost on an hourly basis.  I think the final straw was when I would go to the bathroom and 10-20 minutes later already feel the urge to go again, or I would suddenly notice a wet spot on my pants or shorts.

 

[zzyzx]

9 hours ago, ken2988 said:

It took several years for my capacity to drop from 8-10 ounces down to 4-5 ounces when peeing, and within another year I started to notice that I would leak once in a while, that I would have the urge to pee and sometimes only have 1-2 ounces of pee, and that it seemed like I needed to run to the bathroom almost on an hourly basis.  I think the final straw was when I would go to the bathroom and 10-20 minutes later already feel the urge to go again, or I would suddenly notice a wet spot on my pants or shorts.

I assume you have seen a urologist and had your prostate checked.  Sounds like impact from watching and waiting  while having early onset BPH.

[oznl]

23 hours ago, gregs said:

How long did it take you to realise that your incontinece is not only termporary and will not go away?  Are there any indications that made you aware, that it will be permanent?

If I've read the question correctly, you are asking people who have conditioned themselves to become incontinent how long it took them to realise that this conditioning was irreversible.

If so, the demographic of people who could authoritatively answer this question would be confined to those who have:

1. Made themselves incontinent

2. Assumed that this incontinence was temporary

3. Recognised some kind of cue signalling that this incontinence was NOT temporary

4. Can recall the delta time between #1 and #3

It seem a very narrow audience or did I misread the question? ?

[Kawaharu]

Mines took me about 6 months to realize that I was never gona be wearing adult underwear anytime soon and I was gona be put back into diapers permanently.  After 6 months, I knew that I am gona be in diapers permanently and knew that I was never gona be able to use the potty anymore. My medical condition made that happen and made it where I couldn't hold it any longer and if I am stressed out, I would pee out alot. So it's why I knew then on that I'm always gona be kept in diapers 

[~Brian~]

@gregs

I believe your intention is to ask: how long did it take you to realize that your incontinence is not temporary and will not go away?

For me, this started happening in 2019. I had been having problems in April, May, June and July of 2019.  I started having accidents during this time, and figured that it may just be related to being sick. However, I kept on having accidents, and they kept on getting worse, meaning that I would not have any time to do anything about it. Sometimes, I wouldn't even feel it until it was too late, or I would feel it, and not be able to get up fast enough to do anything. By the time I'd felt it and said " I have to get up and take care of this now.....". The damage had already been done, and I already had either wet myself or messed myself.

I also was dealing with IBS and diverticulitis- those two conditions are not fun to mess around with- they always seem to come up when you least expect it, and when that happens you have no control over when or what you will release. In August of 2019, I finally summoned up the courage necessary to ask the doctor for help. I asked him for the diapers, and then I asked him for better diapers, which got me the mega Max is, which is the best diaper you can get as far as I am concerned. I also asked the doctor to write into my medical records a diagnosis that would make it clear that I need diapers. As I said in many posts, I am getting to the age when I do not want to worry about silly little things that can be handled very easily without too much difficulty. Incontinence is one thing that can be helped, and diapers are the way that I chose to take care of this. With my diagnosis written on record, no one will ever doubt my diagnosis, and it will make it easier for me to deal with it. This way I don't have to be hurting myself trying to get to the bathroom or trying to get to the toilet. There have been many times when I almost fall or hurt my knees trying to get there. Diapers will make sure that I don't have to do this again.

In 2020, I decided to go full time in diapers: it's a lot easier to deal with a wet diaper or a messy diaper, then to worry about trying to get to the bathroom every five minutes. I was also losing sleep and spending the waking wee hours of the morning in the bathroom trying to take care of business. A diaper will eliminate and has eliminated that from happening to me, and I'm grateful that I have made that decision. I have accepted that I am also a diaper lover as well as being incontinent both ways. There's nothing to be ashamed of there's nothing to be afraid of, and there's nothing to worry about, because now I have what I need to deal with it, and it is part of life. Having a disability, you have things that happen to you as you age, and you are hopefully able to deal with them. I figure if incontinence is the least of my worries, this will be easier to deal with than having to be running to the bathroom every five minutes.

It was in January of 2020 that I decided that my incontinence was not going away and that I was going to use diapers full time. I had been wearing them since August of 19, but had made the final decision in 2020 after talking to several people here on DD- that discussion was the best discussion I've ever had, and it was confirmation that my decision was the good one, and the right one for myself period now I can deal with having the feelings as well as having the incontinence, because diapers will help me with all of those things. I'm glad that I have done it. I have not regretted this decision one bit

also, the stress level has gone down to zero. Recently, it just seems like the stressors in my life have gone through the roof, so I don't know why this is possible or why this is happening, but I have decided that the best way to handle this is just too accept what I have in front of me, deal with it, and embrace it. Stress is nothing to mess with, and there's no real reason to worry, because you can deal with the situation effectively.

Brian

Edited May 27, 2022 by ~Brian~
added additional information

[Gejoe]

It took about 3 months after having my prostate removed due to cancer that I wasn't going to have dry pants anymore. I guess I didn't get hooked up right, but I was warned it could be a side effect from the surgery. 15 year later still incontinent.