phunphysio-

I hope your treatment is going well with the boy.
In the meantime.
I have giggle incontinence, and have had it for now nine years.
Yes. Nine years.
God, nine years.
This "condition" has completely wrecked my life. I have only recently begun seeing a counselor for it, and she told me that I have a lot of anxiety issues. A lot of problems with letting go, in all aspects of my life. I don't trust anyone, I don't like drinking alcohol past a "tipsy" stage, I have problems with sex... the works. While to some this condition may seem laughable, it almost makes me wish I had a life-threatening disease, because people just don't understand. I wish it was something that I could control. But I can't. I am now at the point where I lose control about once a month, but then again, I avoid funny situations like the plague.
Also recently I have been researching giggle incontinence because I want to learn more about it- maybe find someone else in my situation that I can talk to. So far I have only found a few myths to debunk.
Evidently some doctors say to go to the bathroom more frequently; to drink less water before a funny event. I'm sorry, but this just does not work. Granted, it helps, of course, but I've had times where I would go to the bathroom (they ran tests and found I can completely empty my bladder) and then five minutes later I would have an "episode". In which all of a sudden my already empty bladder would empty itself again.
I tried Kegel exercises early on and it never helped. It's not that we cannot control normally, it's that a part in our brains just shuts down. No matter how strong the actual muscle may be, there is no control.
My best advice to anyone with giggle incontinence is to get on Ritalin and trying it out. I never did, I went on some other drug whose name I do not remember any longer, since I stopped using it about five years ago. Needless to say, it did not work. I am very wary of using Ritalin myself, but I would not bother now- the episodes are too few and far between. But for any child or teenager who pees themselves when laughing-- try it out. And as soon as possible, because of the psychological effects that will occur. Parents, if you're reading this, don't let your kids live with this condition. I wish my parents had made me gone on Ritalin. But it's too late now. Also, if you happen to see your child/teenager washing their pants or underwear, or if you happen to smell urine when you shouldn't, ask them. Because they are going to be far too humiliated to say anything until the last minute. I would know, it happened to me.
And now before I start crying, I'm going to end this post...