Chapter One
Extended Holds
It might look like fun to just start guzzling down water and then holding your pee until your bladder bursts, but in actuality it takes a lot of practice before you can reach that point. Instead, you'll want to start out slower with extended holds. Extended holds are those times when you hold your bladder longer than normal because of extenuating circumstances which involve the unavailability of a bathroom. This might occur when you are on a long car ride somewhere, or maybe you are watching a movie in a movie theater. Your bladder starts to ache, but you don't want to get out of your seat for fear that you'll miss a really good part.
Its easy to extend your holds when you are at home or at work because there is most likely a bathroom nearby where you can safely relieve yourself in case things get a little messy. Remember, you don't want to hold to the point of wetting just yet—that comes later, or maybe not at all if this isn't your thing.
So, drink that soda, finish your bottled water, or except that extra glass of punch at the next party. Your goal is to ignore your bladder when it starts to feel full. You'll be amazed by how long you can actually hold your bladder when you set your mind to it.
Running on “Full”
What's the longest that you can hold your bladder under an extreme emergency? The good news is that you will be able to answer this question after you are done with your extended hold. Another piece of good news is that the pressure will build up until you reach that point when the urine is about to be forced out. This is when you will really start to realize what bladder desperation is all about—that feeling of release when your bladder finally empties. It doesn't really matter where you are when you start peeing, or where the pee goes, but the feeling you get as the urine is leaving your body. If you've ever had to hold your bladder for a real long time, you already know what I'm talking about. Verbalized, the feeling goes something like this: “Ahhhhhh...!!”
I once worked with someone who often drove his car past the red line on the gas gauge just to test how far his car could go in between stops at the gas station. Although this seems somewhat frightening to me, I can totally understand the reasoning behind it. I always try to fill up the gas tank before it goes below an eighth of a tank, but then how will I ever know how far I could actually get without a little bit of trial and error?
Extended bladder holds follow the same principle: You want to see how long you could hold if you were ever in a situation where there weren't any bathrooms. Seems far-fetched, but have you ever wondered what it would be like to be stuck in an elevator for a long time, or trapped on a rollercoast twenty feet off the ground when you needed to use the bathroom? How long would you last before you were wetting your pants?
Peeing reminds me of my former co-worker because we tend to be so very cautious about keeping ourselves out of difficult bladder desperation situations. How often have you stopped to use the bathroom before a long trip just to avoid a problem later on down the road, or used the bathroom in the store because it was convenient? How much of that occurs out of training or habit, and how much of that is actually motivated by a biological need to urinate?
My guess is that we treat our bladders the way we treat our car's gas tanks: We take care of things early so we can avoid problems later on. But, why is a full bladder really that much of a problem, as long as we are able to last a little bit longer?
Timekeeper
You are going to need some kind of timekeeper when you are practicing your extended holds. Even a watch will do. Don't stick strictly to a timeline, such as “I will wait 4 hours before peeing.” You just won't know how desperate you will get during those four hours. You just need to play things by ear, and then start the timer when you reach that point when you would normally get up and use the bathroom. Just picture a gas gauge in your head, but on this gauge the needle enters a “red zone” after your bladder is already full. This is the point when you should start counting down the minutes before you can go pee.
You don't have to kill yourself the first time out..you can aim for 10, 15 or maybe 30 minutes to start with. Stick with what you are most comfortable with. Don't go overboard with the wetting, but don't be afraid of dribbling at least a little bit. Stay close to the bathroom during your wait, or inch closer as the time draws nearer and nearer.
Hold Any Time
The beauty of the extended hold is that you can do it without causing too much suspicion. After all, how often do people make frantic dashes for the bathroom? You would appear normal to everyone else.
