I Like a Good Flogging, What’s Wrong With Me? - A quick look at the fine line between sadomasochist behavior being part of a healthy sex life or part of an unhealthy mental illness.

Hey there everyone out in blogger land, I’m Dr.Slick. I joined the Jane Blow all star team of writers after reading and becoming a fan of not only the writing but the idea behind a collaborative effort of sex positive people opening up and answering questions for those in search of kinky enlightenment. I’m not really a doctor, yet. I’m a second year medical student from NYC. I encourage anyone who has a medically related question about sex to send me an email or twitter comment and I’ll do my best to answer it here.

Now for my first topic I decided to pick a common question, but one not many people have the courage to ask their doctor due to shame and embarrassment. “Does being a sadist or masochist mean something is mentally wrong with me?” The answer is complicated. Psychiatric Diagnoses are categorized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th. Edition.  Better known as the DSM-IV, the manual is published by the American Psychiatric Association and covers all mental health disorders for both children and adults. It states that sadism, masochism, and fetishes are included under a heading of “Paraphilia” and in order to be diagnosed as having an actual disorder certain criteria must be met.

The basic criteria or symptoms one must have for it to be a diagnosable illness are that for six months or more a person must experience intense sexual urges and fantasies involving said acts and that the behavior causes serious impairment or clinical stress in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. I bolded the last part as it is the most important. As long as you are playing by the standard of “Safe, Sane, and Consensual” and your everyday life is not negatively impacted then why would you even think you were sick in the first place?

Of course should your play turn violent, harmful to yourself or others or should you act out your fantasies on unwilling partners then professional help should be sought immediately. Otherwise, have fun!  You and your partner(s) should be exploring and enjoying your fantasies, not shamefully hiding them for fear of being thought of as “sick”.