BDSM (Bondage/Discipline, Dominance/Submission, and Sadism/Masochism) refers to a variety of practices including a power exchange in the context of sexual connection. Controlled voyeurism, exhibitionism, and role-playing are examples of other behaviors in BDSM.
Bdsm is not a deviation anymore
Although the activities included in BDSM have been practiced for millennia in various cultures, some people consider these types of sexual/relationship dynamics to be inappropriate. In addition to the media’s sometimes harsh portrayal of fetishists, the mental health industry has long denounced components of the BDSM.
The BDSM is classified not as a disorder, but as a paraphilia, or unusual sexual fixation, in the DSM-5, the most recent edition of the definitive psychiatrist’s manual. This label that has sparked debate among kinky communities and psychiatrists, who themselves are divided on whether sexual predilections belong in the catalog of mental disorders. According to the DSM-5, BDSM is not a disorder unless it causes harm to the practitioner or others.
Nonetheless, some psychiatrists regard the inclusion of the BDSM and other kinks in the manual as stigmatizing, especially since studies have failed to establish that having sex with a side of pain is associated with psychological disorders. The latest study, published on May 16 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, suggests that BDSM practitioners may be mentally better off than the general public.
A study about bdsm practitioner’s mental health
According to study researcher Andreas Wismeijer, a psychologist at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands who conducted the research while at Tilburg University, BDSM practitioners “either did not differ from the general population or if they differed, they always differed in the more favorable direction.”
Wismeijer and his colleagues posted on a bdsm website a request for participants in the BDSM “scene” to complete a variety of psychological questionnaires online. They also looked for non-BDSM participants on a women’s magazine website, a personal private website, and a university website.
The only thing the participants knew about the questionnaires was that they were about “human behavior.” In total, 902 BDSM practitioners and 434 non-BDSM participants completed questionnaires on personality, sensitivity to rejection, attachment style in relationships, and well-being.
According to the current findings, BDSM practitioners do not appear to be any more distressed than the general population. They were more outgoing, open to new experiences, and conscientious than the control group; they were also less neurotic, a personality trait characterized by anxiety. Rejection sensitivity, a measure of how neurotic people are about others hating them, was also lower among BDSM devotees than among the general public.
The researchers discovered that those in the BDSM community reported better levels of well-being in the previous two weeks than people outside of it, as well as more secure sentiments of attachment in their relationships.
According to the BDSM, 33% of men are submissive, 48% are dominant, and 18% “switch,” or are willing to flip between submissive and dominating roles in bed. Approximately 75% of female BDSM responders were submissive, 8% were dominating, and 16% switched.
These roles revealed some ties to psychological health, with dominants scoring best in all quarters, submissives scoring lowest, and switches scoring in the center. Wismeijer told LiveScience that submissives never scored worse than vanilla participants on mental health, and in fact typically scored higher.
The study is somewhat limited by a self-selecting response pool and the fact that BDSM practitioners may have answered in ways to make themselves look better and avoid stigma, according to Wismeijer — though the fact that the participants were unaware of the reasons for the study alleviates that concern somewhat. According to Wismeijer, the findings give grounds for mental health experts to be open to BDSM practitioners.
“We found no evidence that persons who use the BDSM have a damaged psychological profile or any type of psychopathology or personality issue,” he stated.
Bdsm benefits for your health
Recent studies have even shown than practising bdsm can be good for you, in different ways:
One research has suggested engaging in BDSM activities can boost your mental well-being and increase awareness of your attachment style in partnerships, which can ultimately lead to healthier relationships.
One study suggests that being dominant in the bedroom can boost your work ethic.
Bdsm can reduce your stress if you are dominant . In a series of studies from Northern Illinois University, researchers took saliva samples from submissive and dominant participants during sadomasochistic scenes and the dominant partners showed a decreased level of cortisol after the session concluded.
According to a 2016 study, there is a direct link between BDSM interactions and ASCs (altered states of consciousness) – the significant one, in this case, being that engaging in a submissive role during BDSM play can lead to transient hypofrontality.
Transient hypofrontality, a term coined by Dr. Arne Dietrich, is when the focused, thought-processing part of the brain is “shut off” by external triggers. An example of this is the difference between engaging in a competitive sport and running in a beautiful park. During a competitive sport, your brain will need to make a variety of complex decisions. While you’re running a calmer path in a beautiful park, however, your mind can “let go” of that prefrontal engagement and you can experience an alternate (relaxed) state of consciousness. For a submissive, during BDSM scenes, this can result in reduced self-reported stress and increased sexual arousal.
BDSM could be used as a way to heal from trauma and benefit your relationships, experts suggest.
BDSM also can help reinforce the communication in the couple, and to increment trust. As people usually talk about preferences and limits in a bdsm relationship, they get to know each other better and to connect in a deeper way.
