Is BDSM Better for Your Mental Health than “Vanilla” Sex?

Practitioners of bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism, or BDSM, have long had the mental and sexual health questioned by wellness experts and society in general, but a new study has found that playing with whips and chains in the bedroom may actually lead to a better psychological wellbeing than taking a more “vanilla” approach to sex. Even though BDSM sexual preferences are listed in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DMS-5) as potentially problematic, the new research, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, has revealed that those who practice sexual activities that revolve around those found fetishes score score better on a variety of personality and psychological measures than “vanilla” people who don’t engage in unusual sex acts.

 

The DSM-5 – which is the newest edition of the definitive psychiatrist’s manual – lists BDSM as a paraphilia, or unusual sexual fixation. This label has caused controversy amongst psychiatrists and a growing number of members of the public (perhaps thanks to the new prevalence of novels such as Fifty Shades of Grey) who are not quite sure whether such sexual predilections belong in the catalogue of mental disorders. However, it is important to point out that BDSM is only listed as a disorder in the DSM-5 if it causes harm to the practitioner or to others. Even so, some psychiatrists point out that including BDSM and other kinks in the manual is stigmatizing, especially considering the lack of research proving that enjoying sex with a side of pain is linked to psychological problems.

 

The new study showed that, contrary to the DSM-5 belief, BDSM practitioners may be better off psychologically than the general public. Study researcher Andreas Wismeijer, a psychologist at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands who conducted the research while at Tilburg University, commented that BDSM practitioners ‘either did not differ from the general population and if they differed, they always differed in the more favourable direction.’ For the study, the researchers put out a request on the forum for people in the BDSM “scene”, as well as seeking out participants who didn’t do BDSM via a women’s magazine website, a personal secret website and a university website.

 

The participants – which included 902 BDSM practitioners and 434 vanilla (non-BDSM) respondents – were merely told that the surveys were on “human behaviour”. They answered questions on personality, sensitivity to rejection, style of attachment in relationships and wellbeing. On a basic level, the results of the study revealed that BDSM practitioners are no more troubled than the general population. In fact, they were found to be more conscientious, extroverted and open to new experiences and more conscientious than vanilla participants, as well as being less neurotic, which is a personality trait marked by anxiety. Moreover, BDSM aficionados had lower scores in terms of rejection sensitivity, which is a measure of how paranoid you are about others disliking you.

 

Looking at a breakdown of the BDSM results, 33% of men reported being submissive, 48% dominant and 18% “switch,” or willing to switch between submissive and dominant roles in bed. In the women studied, about 75% of the BDSM respondents were submissive, 8% dominant and 16% switch. The submissives lowest and switches in the middle. Still, submissives never scored lower than vanilla participants on mental health. Wismeijer noted, ‘Within the BDSM community, [submissives] were always perceived as the most vulnerable, but still, there was not one finding in which the submissives scored less favourable than the controls.’ He concluded, ‘We did not have any findings suggesting that people who practice BDSM have a damaged psychological profile or have some sort of psychopathology or personality disorder.’

Categories: BDSM, Mental Health, Research

Should BDSM and Fetishes Be Included in the DSM-5?

If you’re a little lusty for leather or predisposed to prefer pain, does that spell trouble for your mental or sexual health? While plenty of the kink-inclined assert that foot fetishes and a fondness for bondage has nothing to do with your state of mental wellbeing, wellness experts have surmised that such interests may land you in the psychiatrist’s bible of diagnoses; the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

 

The DSM-5 sets the standard criteria for psychiatric diagnoses, which means it is crucial to mental health treatment. Within its pages, unusual sexual fixations, or “paraphilias,” get their own category as odd, but not necessarily signs of mental illness. However, you will be eligible for a diagnosis of a “paraphilic” disorder if you are distressed by your fetish, or if your fetish causes harm to others. Ray Blanchard, a psychiatrist at the University of Toronto and chair of the working group on sexual and gender identity disorders for the DSM-5, explained, ‘This was a way of saying it’s OK to have a benign paraphilia. That does not automatically give you a mental disorder.’

 

Still, even including the benign paraphilias in the DSM in any capacity is thought one step too far by certain psychiatrists, as other diagnoses within the DSM can cover any harm and distress caused by sexual fixations. The argument is that by giving paraphilias it’s own special mention in the DSM, people who enjoy non-mainstream but harmless sexual activities will become stigmatised – even more so than they are already. Alan Shindel, an urologist and specialist in sexual problems at the University of California, Davis Health System, noted, ‘I’ve heard people at meetings talk about “those paraphiliacs,” “those people.” I think that’s always a dangerous road to go down when you’re talking about othering people in that way.’

 

This is not the first time that the DSM’s approach to sexual preferences has caused controversy. Even though homosexuality was removed from the DSM in 1974, for the next 12 years – until 1986 – psychiatrists still had the option of declaring gay people mentally ill if their sexuality caused them distress. Today’s mental health experts have drawn parallels between the treatment of homosexuals in the 1980s and people nowadays who get aroused by bondage or unusual objects. These advocates argue that the problem is not that the shoe fetishist or BDSM practitioner has sexual preferences that are somehow wrong; rather, the real problem behind their woes is that society judges them harshly.

 

It’s not hard to understand the advocate’s point of view, especially when you consider the fact that evidence for consensual paraphilias causing harm is lacking. Shindel commented, ‘There doesn’t seem to be a lot of harm to someone having a preference that’s unusual or different from what we consider mainstream.’ He said that the DSM have made a step in the right direction by swapping out “paraphilic disorders” for “paraphilias,” but the change still leaves plenty of wiggle room for prejudiced psychologists to blame their clients’ problems on their sexual fetishes. Shindel clarified, ‘I think it’s loosely applied and not really used the way it’s supposed to be.’

 

However, those who have framed the DSM reject the parallels made by such advocates as Shindel, with experts such as Blanchard making the point that not every sexual interest is comparable to homosexuality. ‘Homosexuality preserves a lot of what is in heterosexuality,’ he said. ‘There is a capacity for pair-bond formation, there is a capacity for long-term loving relationships. … I think it’s a special case, and I’m not afraid to say that it’s a special case.’

Categories: BDSM, DSM-5, Fetishes