Could people prone to fetishes like Williams suffer from mental illness or trauma?
Dr. Richard Krueger, associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, says some people who practice fetishes or alternative erotic lifestyles may be mentally ill, or have experienced trauma. But he says this is not a predictor.
“With all the paraphilic disorders or matters of sexual interest that don’t involve typical sexual objects or behaviors, we can question how the behavior develops and what might this involve in terms of a lifestyle, but many of these questions are open-ended,” Krueger told Healthline.
He adds that a number of studies show people who practice BDSM have a higher level of socioeconomic functioning compared to control groups.
“The literature is limited, but it would suggest that they’re healthy or healthier,” Krueger said.
Williams says some of his clients suffer from an autism spectrum disorder, such as Asperger’s syndrome, and get positive sensory feedback from wearing a bulkier diaper.
“In these instances, they are not into the sexual fetish side,” he said. “However, most of our clients are mentally sound, and for a lot of them the lifestyle is not about sex. It’s about relaxation and and taking aspects from childhood, a time when life was simply easier. Obviously our brand is an extreme of that, but the concept is the same.”
A published in the looked at ABDL. Nearly 2,000 people who practice ABDL completed an online survey. Answers from some respondents — mostly men — showed that ABDL behaviors were associated with attachment styles and parental relationships.
For instance, for male respondents, being more anxiously attached was linked to nine ABDL behaviors, including a desire to be dominated and to have a “daddy” (the role of the person nurturing the adult baby).
Furthermore, some male respondents who reported having a negative relationship with their mother or father showed a connection to engaging in sexual activity with a mother or father figure.
On the other hand, those respondents who had a positive relationship with their mother or father viewed diapers as sexually stimulating, and placed more emphasis on sexual enjoyment from their ABDL activities.
“Different people have different reasons for being involved in the fetish or lifestyle. There are those who are into it for the sexual gratification, and that can be widely varied even by itself. For some people it can be degrading and where they want to be embarrassed or even very BDMS in nature. And for others it isn’t sexual all,” said Williams. “The only common denominator is the diaper is inv
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