XPost: rec.arts.sf.tv, rec.arts.tv   
   From: david@creeknet.com   
      
   Jen wrote:   
      
   > On Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:37:53 +0000, "David Cheatham"   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   > > When I see people talking about OCD, I usually try to make an   
   > > analogy to having to pee. Usually, when you 'have' to pee, you   
   > > don't actually have to pee. And, strictly speaking, you never have   
   > > to pee. Your bladder will eventually explode and you will die, but   
   > > you cannot, under any circumstances, be forced, by pressure in your   
   > > bladder, to urinate.   
   >   
   > If your pelvic floor muscles can't handle the pressure, you will.   
      
   No. The muscles holding your bladder closed are stronger than the   
   actual bladder. We actually know this from people getting bladders   
   ruptured during trauma.   
      
   Normally, if you get hit down there hard enough, you will urinate. But   
   this is *not* because the urine is being forced out, because it doesn't   
   happen if the impact is *fast enough*...if it's fast enough, your   
   bladder bursts without any attempt to urinate at all.   
      
   So that's actually some sort of automatic system opens the bladder due   
   to force. A reflex action.   
      
   But that is not due to applied pressure forcing it open. Simple   
   pressure faster than it can respond results in the bursting, and that's   
   very well documented in car accidents. (Make *sure* you're wearing your   
   seatbelt correctly, people. Across your *hips bones*.)   
      
   Note that this reflex actually sometimes triggers even if you aren't   
   actually hit in the bladder. You can get hit just near it.   
      
   In fact, the 'wetting your pants out of fear' reflex *is* this   
   reflex...your bladder wants nothing in it if you're about to be   
   assaulted. It's the nervous system overriding your brain, not   
   pressure...if the pressure shows up before the nervous system catches   
   on, bam, burst bladder.   
      
      
   Now, whether or this reflex, or another reflex, *also* would   
   automatically open the bladder muscules due to simple normal pressure   
   is unknown.   
      
   But an argument it *won't* open them is the fact you can easily hold   
   your urine long enough to totally fuck yourself up, and people have   
   done it before. Not because of your bladder, but because the urine   
   backs up into your kidneys.   
      
   And, we know *this* happens, too. Various mental issues can keep people   
   from urinating, and it screws up their kidneys.   
      
   Logically, if the nervious system has a 'I'm peeing right now due to   
   pressure whether I want to or not' override, you'd think it would   
   trigger at the point of 'bladder full, backing up into kidneys, causing   
   serious medical problem' danger, not waiting until the 'bladder   
   bursting' point.   
      
      
   But, anyway, most of this is irrelevant. I was just making an analogy   
   to OCD.   
      
   Unless someone is drinking something at the moment, they're really not   
   building up *more* pressure in their bladder. A little more, but   
   they're not likely at any 'danger point'. And yet, mentally, they are   
   convinced they are actually about to urinate randomly, even though they   
   almost certainly are not. 99.99% of the people who 'really have to pee'   
   could wait several hours without any problems at all.   
      
   No one *ever* actually has their body override their control. Really.   
   It does not happen. Even if it is hypothetically possible, it's   
   probably more likely you'll be knocked dead randomly and urinate   
   because of *that*.(1)   
      
   The idea they need to go, right now, is a compulsion. A perfectly   
   normal compulsion that everyone has, and the absense of actually   
   indicates mental illness of some sort, but a complusion non-the-less.   
      
   That is what people with OCD feel like about having to touch a light   
   switch or whatever.   
      
   I used to use 'holding your breath', but that one doesn't work so well,   
   as bad things actually *do* happen if you hold your breath even   
   moderately long amounts of time. Whereas you really, truly, I promise   
   you, can put off your bathroom visit for another hour or two.   
      
      
   1) Erm, except for people who are actually incontinent, of course.   
   They've lost their 'manual control' and their bladder is running solely   
   on the automatic control that opens whenever it feels like it. That's   
   two different systems.(2) But the body can't open the manual control   
   without your consent, on purpose. Incontinent people just have the   
   manual control broken or weak.   
      
   2) I think all people have experienced opening our manual control and   
   not having the automatic one open, and standing or sitting there like   
   like an idiot trying to pee. We can feel it in our bladder, *we're* not   
   stopping it, but our body decided to go on break and not actually open   
   that the automatic control.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)