I was thinking about asking this question when I previously posted my questions about left-handed/right-handed and blood group, trying to find any random particularly common factors, but I thought it might be a bit embarrassing.
Enuresis, aka bed wetting
I've been prompted to post this by a thread on the Awares conference site, some mums are discussing about their Aspie children wetting the bed at the age of 6, 8, up to 12...
I was enuretic until around the age of nine. :oops:
Interestingly, though, a couple of years ago, in my early 30s, I had a bit of a meltdown, a major personal crisis. I was prescribed some anti-depressants. [I can't remember the brand or generic name off hand.] Next time I went to the doctor, she asked how I was getting on and I said 'As if I didn't have enough problems, all the stress has caused me to start wetting the bed again, I haven't done this for 20 years!'
I was debating not telling my GP, because it was sooooo embarrassing. Luckily I blurted it out, because she checked and it turned out that enuresis or frequency of micturition was listed as a possible side effect for this particular antidepressant.
I was wondering at the time whether there was any relationship between my wetting the bed quite late on into childhood and this side affect of a drug which affects, amongst other things, a part of the brain relating to bladder control.
I also have, have always had, what they call 'frequency of micturition', I have a really weak bladder, I'm always going to loo. Neither of my sisters was like that.
I wouldn't have posted this except there were some mothers with Aspie children experiencing the same problem and I was wondering how common it was.
Yes, I think it's fairly common among Aspies, I have also seen a number of posts on this subject on various sites.
Both my sister and my son were bed-wetters all through their primary school years.
Bonnie, are you sister and your son both Aspie? Or on the spectrum? Do either/both of them have any DX?
*puts hand up too (About the same)*
But, isn't that normal in children then?
Hmm - Aspies seem to develop everything later - has there ever been a study into average age-of-death, and metabolic rates. Theres anecdotal evidence aspies look physically younger, maybe they physically develop slower.
Really cute avatar Ryuujin.
^_^ (Drew it myself, looks a bit big for an avvie might reduce it)
I had a problem like that too, my psychatrist claimed that I would go to the bathroom too much at night from anxiety. I think what's nice now is they have those Good-Nights underwear. So that until the child grows out if it, they won't need to be hellishly humilated about it.
I, too had this problem (as did one or two others in my family of seven), in my case up to the age of 10 or so.
The frequent micturation thing is still with me and interestingly, others have commented on it in the past and still do.
Again, in my case, it was attributed to 'anxiety'.
My father used to stop for toilets for me so often on family trips that he threatened to drill a hole in the floor of the car and put in a funnel! Interesting that other Aspies also have this problem. I'd always assumed it to be linked to Hashimoto's instead. Particularly since Lauren's like my husband and can hang on for like 48 hours! :o
Although I never wet the bed when I was a child: instead my mum tell's me I'd sleepwalk to the loo during the night, often several times per night. Vernu tells me I still do this, but I never remember in the morning. However, I have extremely vivid dreams about needing to "find" a toilet, often in very public places. Go Freud that!
Alison
I wet the bed until sometime in elementary school.
They used all sorts of devices, and eventually simply made me use the bathroom before bed every night. This may be the start of my using the bathrooom several times whenever I think I'll be without one for more than 30 minutes.
Since then, if I wake up and go back to sleep without using the bathroom, I've started doing it again.
I have to get up it seems.
I seem to have pyschiatric polydipsia (compulsive overconsumption of water), and consume about 3/2 to 2 gallons of water a day. The requisite amount, according to snopes, is no more than 6 glasses.
The issue is clearly OCD because on vacations or trips, when the water doesn't taste as good and there's rarely an easy receptacle, I tend to dehydrate myself by drinking no fluid between breakfast and dinner, unless I get a headache (by which point it's already to late). And I drink most of this at night, since my mouth feels dry no matter how much I drink, so everytime I get up I drink until my stomache hurts, and then some.
So I also have to use the bathroom a lot.
Which drives my little brother utterly insane on trips, and he whines constantly. Ironically, on long trips because I drink less for the duration, I have to use the bathroom less often than him, something that eludes him.
no problems i remember as a kid but do have a relatively weak bladder. But I donno if i made it weak by concentrating on something else so much that i can forget to go (or alternatively by just being absentminded and forgetting to go)?! or if it was there all along.
Ditto. I never wet the bed after about the age of 3 (mum says) but I also have to "go" every hour during the day and I wake up 3-4 times every night. In the early days of our marriage, Vernu said it was like being in bed with a grasshopper. But he can sleep through it now. And at least at work, I can now blame high-blood pressure medication (it's a diuretic) for my frequency.
Alison
I wasn't a bedwetter as a child but now I have to be careful about sneezing or coughing or lifting or I leak a bit. It is annoying and seems to be a bit worse some times of the month than others. I understand it is common for women who've had children to get this.
Well, since I last posted on this thread, I've been given an appointment to see someone at the local hospital as it might be necessary to have a small operation to stop the "accidents". Apparently, this kind of thing is very common in women who've had at least one child, particularly if any of the births were difficult.
With physiotherapy, I'm now leaking a lot less. The earliest they could get me an appointment to see a specialist was in April next year. Mum and my aunt had to have an operation for something similar so there is some chance that I will too.
Ironically, I was not a bedwetter as a child, although two of my siblings without AS were.
I've wet the bed maybe half a dozen times in my life, and I think the most recent of those was when I was 6. My dad was nice about it (he wet the bed once in his 40s lol), but my mother gave me a terrible lecture for it.
I think i wet the bed maybe once or twice in my lifetime and i never had any day accidents after being potty trained, but then I wasnt potty trained until i was four. So it balances itself out :p
also I always go to the bathroom before I go to bed, not like i think im going to wet, but i dont see how anyone can fall asleep with a full or patially full bladder.
Im one of those annoying people who go to the bathroom like 20 times a day. (litterally i counted one day) cause I cant stand feeling like i have to go.