When ADHD combines with BDSM it can be intensely fulfilling or intensely damaging. Overwhelmingly hot and positive, or overwhelmingly bad and negative. WHAT EXACTLY IS ADHD? In Focus, Forgetfulness and the ADHD sub i shared my personal story of attention deficit while trying to avoid the label. ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It’s…
Category: Mental Health
Depression, Mental Health and BDSM
Depression falls under the big umbrella term of “Mood Disorders”. It affects a person’s moods with different intensities in a spiralling negativity of sadness and loss of motivation. There are good psychological explainations of depression here: WebMD University of Michigan National Institute of Mental Health Speaking from personal experience, depression may generally be evaluated from…
The Dungeon Doorway Effect
If you’ve ever walked into a room to get your keys and forgotten what you’re looking for, or found yourself staring into the fridge wondering what it was you came to the kitchen for, then you’ve experienced the Doorway Effect. It’s not just you, it happens to all of us, and there’s a straightforward enough…
Panic Attacks in BDSM Scenes
by Hermes Solenzol Among the many problems that can happen in a scene, panic attacks can be a serious one, especially if the Top doesn’t know how to handle them. They are more common than you may think. Last month, during a talk I gave at Threshold (the BDSM organization of Los Angeles), I asked…
Anticipation, Anxiety and the Butterflies
We all experiences anxiety, stress and the butterflies start fluttering in our stomach at different times in our life. Because what we do is transgressive and sometimes edgy, there’s a chance that it does happen more frequently or with higher intensity in our BDSM exploration. It might be when we hook up with people we…
It’s All Smoke and Mirrors
In my checkered career I’ve studied business, design and journalism, worked in PR, been a graphic designer and a magazine editor, and I now run my second design and advertising company. I’m what they call in Singapore, where I live, a “creative”. I’ve only recently started using that as a noun… I always thought it…
Mental Health and the Issue of Consent
If you have read previous articles on this site, you will probably have noticed that we emphasise the importance of consent — basic understanding of consent, different models of consent (e.g. SSC and RACK), the complications and legality of consent in BDSM settings, and more. Consent is the important red line that exists between BDSM…
Top Drop and Easing Back the Throttle
Our terms for things can be a bit clumsy, and there are actually two ways you could use the term “Top Drop” or “Dom Drop”. There’s no right or wrong way, and both would work within their context. IS THERE REALLY SUCH A THING AS TOP SPACE OR DOMSPACE? One way to talk about Top…
Quiz – What’s Your MBTI Personality Type?
In the famous Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, there are four possible pairs: • Introversion (I) or Extraversion (E) • Intuition (N) or Sensing (S) • Thinking (T) or Feeling (F) • Judging (J) or Perceiving (P) Briggs and Myers work is based on Jung’s theories of the 1920s, and it’s such an established personality typing that…
When the Dominant or Master has PTSD or Panic Attacks
This is part 3 of a 3 part article on PTSD and panic attacks. Part 1: 2 Ways to Deal with PTSD and Panic Attacks Part 2: When the submissive or slave has PTSD or Panic Attacks Dominant’s issues are very often swept under the carpet for various reasons. Firstly and generally, the BDSM community…