Thoughts on Personal Acceptance

I will never be enough.  How could someone ever want someone like me?

These thoughts fall at the core of my being.  They are the horrific reality that drives me.

Most people don't think this way.  They have at some point had someone there for them, proving that they were okay.  Proving that they were enough.  Proving that they deserved happiness and the things they wanted.  Proving that they could feel secure with themselves.  All it takes is one to quiet the nagging doubts within.

Unfortunately the experiences of my vanilla self did not have this.  Rather than proof, it simply added to the doubts.  I am not pretty.  I am too short.  I don't project the right kind of confidence.

I have written before that in many ways the birth of my submissive self was heavily rooted within compensating for everything that I am not.  I have strengths, but they never seemed to matter until I became a submissive.  My strengths and desperation made me into a very good submissive.  They made me enough to be chosen.

However, to this day I have never been chosen for who I am.  When I am chosen it is because of who I am willing to be.  I am willing to be anything and everything.  I am willing to be nothing.  I am good at this.  This is what has made me acceptable.

I will act with effort.  I will endure.  I will improve.  I will perfect.  I will be broken.  This is how I have learned to show love.

This is my identity.  This is how I have come to accept myself.  This is how I have come to like myself.  This is where I have pride.

I have spent most of my life insecure and confused.  As such, it becomes very important to me to understand myself.  It becomes absolutely paramount for me to be able to adequately express who I am and what makes me tick.  I crave labels because it gives a name to what I am.  They validate me.

This is how I accept myself.

I am not enough unless I am willing to __________.

Thoughts on Sex Drive and Depression

As a number of blogging friends that I know are also currently experiencing depression, seasonal or otherwise, I was asked to write on this topic.  The person in question went from basically… being horny and having many orgasms each day to complete loss of desire that has lasted over a week.  The question they wanted answered was if the loss of desire was due to loss of interest or depression.
The answer I have:  It is depression.

I’ve been to more therapists than I can remember their names.  One of the questions they ask, often in the first 5-10 minutes of the first meeting if you are feeling depressed is: how is your sex drive?
They ask this in couples therapy as well.

Loss of sex drive is one of the big tipoffs for many and it is especially noticeable when it involves a drastic change.

Since everyone has different things going on, I will just share how my process works in regards to this as it may lead to some observations that are applicable for others.

My own arousal is completely intertwined with feelings of submission.  I do not get aroused without being in or thinking about D/s in some way.  If I am aroused I am feeling submissive.  If I am feeling submissive I am aroused.

The first thing that makes me aware that I have depression setting in is the inability for me to access my submissive mental space.  For me, feeling submissive is a state of ultimate vulnerability where my heart is pulled to the surface and I am unable to avoid or hide my feelings.

As I have been dealing with depression for 30+ years and finally found a sustainable means of coping in the past 10 years, I have come to learn quite a bit about the process.  I refer to the effects of my depression as my “demons.”  They are basically impulses, thoughts, and feelings that creep into my head and begin to respond to random triggers and fill me with an impulse of negativity and pain.
One of note was when a friend and I were at a restaurant (I was 20) and she was coloring on the menu with a purple crayon and made a reference to Harold.  This was a reference to a children’s book that I cherished from my youth, called Harold and the Purple Crayon.  I probably read it and had it read to me well over 100 times from the ages of 2-4 and it carried with it many happy memories of the innocence of youth and times where I was protected from the world that regularly harmed me.  I also remember when I was made to give it away at age 5.  I had planned to keep it forever and read it to my children.  Taking it away from me was a betrayal and it left me devastated (that same day I was forced to give up a number of precious childhood keepsakes).  This event triggered me to relive the moments of lost innocence and it was a pivotal moment in my life when sentimental value ceased to exist for me.  I relived feeling a part of my heart die and I was overwhelmed with pain at realizing I hated being alive and carrying all of this pain.

While not every trigger is as strong as this one was, they happen enough to make life… feel not good.  I have since learned to “shrug off” the impulses, but it doesn’t stop me from having them.  During my depression, this will happen anywhere from 1 to 200 times a day, with the worse the depression is the more often it happens.

My coping mechanism is to try and keep myself busy and occupied.  Keep my brain thinking about unimportant things.  These are the times where I might watch 75 episodes of a TV or anime series in a week.  In turn, my heart closes off.  My feelings dull and get numb.  If I feel anything, it is living vicariously through whatever I am doing or watching.

As this happens, my sex drive shuts off.  It’s not like I don’t want to do intimate and sexual things, but it is that I am unable feel vulnerable.  When I am not vulnerable, I do not feel submissive.  Without feeling submissive, I do not get aroused.  Without arousal I have no sex drive.  In times like now, where I do not have D/s in my day to day home life it leaves me stuck and blocked.

That being said, my vulnerability can be forced open in the presence of dominance.  It requires an incredibly strict and harsh form of dominance, but it can in fact rip down my walls and keep me in a submissive and aroused state.

Hopefully this description will help them answer their question.

Thoughts on Kink vs. Submission

I received a comment on my last post that has inspired me to write another post (which made me very happy).  The post that I am about to write is not meant to detract from the views shared, it is merely something that set off a chain reaction of thoughts that I will spew onto this page.

The comment separated the individual acts relating to submission and kink.  e.g. bondage is kink while service is submission.  I find this interesting because the idea of separation has become very common in recent years in certain circles but it was a notion that really didn’t exist until the past ~5 years or so.

When I started researching and learning about D/s in 2004, kink and submission (or kink and dominance) were seen as fairly inseparable.  The community as a whole pretty much accepted that kink and D/s were intertwined and with one came the other.

Starting in around 2013 I began to notice a rise in people who associated with dynamics that intended to downplay the kinky aspects in favor of more “pure” motives.  The first community that gained momentum on this front was the domestic discipline community.  On numerous occasions I have encountered people that claim it isn’t sexual or about kinks and has nothing to do with sadism or masochism, but it is about authority and accountability.  It feels like these claims are often made to prove how different (and usually morally superior) it is to practice this lifestyle in such a way.  I don’t mean to go all negative on the DD crowd, but I have always struggled with this logic since for spanking to be consensual (which makes it non-abusive) and for people to choose to engage in such a lifestyle, there must be something they like/want/need about it.

I have no problems with people that choose to live their lives in this way.  I do start to get wary when people choose to use those choices to judge others and/or use it as justification to make others feel inferior and/or to make themselves feel superior.

Since I first noticed this growing trend I began to see a similar type of thing happening in other communities as well, often creating new terms and names to differentiate themselves.  In other cases, they took existing terms and arbitrarily changed the meaning to suit popular belief of the crowd adopting it (and yes, this is a pet peeve of mine).  Head of Household, chastity practitioners, Taken in Hand, and FLR/WLM are some examples of other communities that seem to try to separate themselves from the kinky roots of the lifestyle.

On some levels I understand why people wish to do this.  They want to a version of D/s that can be introduced to the mainstream.  They want something that will shatter preconceptions and stereotypes and give a moral foundation for the lifestyle they choose to lead.  In many ways I see this as an attempt to achieve feelings of normalcy.

That being said, the world is already fucked up enough.  It is easier for a man to be publicly gay than submissive.  In both cases that same man has to be wary that people may attempt to hurt them because of who they are.  Personally I don’t think that the solution falls in making D/s seem more vanilla, I think it is in making people feel okay about being D/s and working for a more tolerant society that will accept our choices.  I’m guessing at least one person will read that last sentence and think, “good luck, dude.”  Will it happen easily?  No.  Is it possible?  Yes.  Look at how acceptable it has become to be kinky in the post 50 Shades era.  The same thing that lifestylers want to grit their teeth about at what an awful portrayal of D/s that is, it did in fact accomplish something significant by providing a mainstream outlet that helped to slightly relax the anus of society at large.

I will also note that I have written and helped authors write a lot of material on how to “sell” the lifestyle to a vanilla partner.  You talk up all of the merits that make it seem amazing and downplay anything that might make them freak out or storm off in disgust.  I have sold “conversions” to vanilla friends with surprisingly good results.  However, at its core, I know that I love this life because it gets me off (both physically and emotionally).  I know that I am selling the least offensive and most attractive version of the product and this makes absolute sense when encountering someone who isn’t looking to buy it.  However, when surrounded by a group of kink-aware, kink-friendly, and kink-embracing people, I am okay with revealing that I really just enjoy the hell out of it.

Changing gears a bit, I am going back to the idea of kink vs. submission.  I will start with my own definitions.

Kink – a “not directly sexual” act or environment that leads to arousal.  Basically, if it isn’t a naked body (or body part), intercourse, oral sex, stimulation by hand or toy, kissing, petting, etc. and it turns you on, it probably falls into the category of a kink. 

Submission – the act of power exchange where you relinquish control/authority to another person. 

When looking at it in this way, many things overlap between the two.  They can be both kink and submission.  There are also items that may be one or the other depending upon how the dominant feels about it.

It’s easiest to toy with some examples.  If a Domme requires you to address her as Mistress, addressing her with the appropriate title becomes submission.  If that act also turns you on, it is also a kink.  If a Domme restrains you, allowing her to do so is submission.  If it turns you on, it is also a kink.  However, if you want her to restrain you or address her with a title and it turns you on but she doesn’t like that sort of thing, it is a kink and not submission.

This gives some idea of the “line” that defines them.  If it turns the sub on, it is a kink.  If the dominant wants it, it is submission.  It can be both.

In all seriousness this also brings to light the double standard that exists towards submissives  If the dominant wants it, it is dominance.  If it turns the dominant on, it is dominance.  No one really questions this or tries to come up with conditional statements to make some things okay and others not.  I have never heard anyone ever say, “that isn’t dominance, it is a kink.”  Do I think this is wrong?  Not really, it is bound to happen when submissives vastly outnumber dominants and it gives the dominant the right to be as selective as they want to be.

Overall, when I give the advice for people to look at submission from more of a service standpoint, it is mostly to help them better understand what a dominant may be looking for.  There are a huge number of subs that have loads and loads of kinks that the majority of dominants have no interest in.  This doesn’t make it “wrong” for someone to be that way, it just means they are less likely to find a match because every “must have” kink reduces the number of potential partners.  I don’t think this makes someone truly superior or inferior to another, it just makes them more likely or less likely to be noticed and chosen by a dominant.

As this is a “thoughts” post, I don’t really have a point to all of this… they are merely the thoughts that came rushing in regarding to this topic.

Reflecting on my spaces

As I have recently come to accept that I do have a submissive little space I am starting to find where the dividing lines fall between my normal submissive mental space and my submissive little space.

The submissive personas that surface within each of them are rather different.  The triggers that get them there are very different as well.

My "adult" submissive responds to a demanding personality, a woman with confidence, expectations of service, bondage, a woman in fur, rituals that symbolize status and respect, and the like.

My little submissive responds mostly to shame, humiliation, ridicule, forced dressing, and ultra-strict behavioral expectations.

While both spaces feel submissive, my personality within each of them varies greatly.  They also feel very different when I get pushed into deeper space.  My adult sub tends to feel less value and worth as it goes deeper.  My little sub tends to feel more neurotic, desperate, and afraid as it goes deeper.

I'm not sure which is best suited for long-term submission as this differentiation is still new to me.

My Depression and Dehumanization in D/s: Harmony of the Soul

I know that I don’t write a lot about the type of D/s dynamics that I crave.  For some reason I fear being judged over what drives my submissive mental space.  The dynamics I thrive under aren’t very popular at this time and it seems that when I talk about them that I tend to get reminded of this more so than opening the door up for conversation.  This may just be my insecurities speaking, but I do care what people think.

By most standards, what I crave comes close to M/s, but I still like to know that I am loved and appreciated and that my love is also appreciated.  In the times like now when I struggle with my depression, I have a lot of trouble accessing subspace in the ways that I normally do.  I believe that much of this has to do with my learned coping mechanisms.  I tend to wall off my emotions a little bit so that I don’t feel as vulnerable or hurt as much when the thoughts in my head turn negative.
While some might think that coddling and extra emotional support would help in these times, this actually causes extra anxiety and I spiral downwards.  I get down on myself for being unable to snap out of the depressed mental state.  Being told that everything is okay makes me feel even worse about it.

In these times I respond better the harder that I am pressed with dominance.  The thoughts in my brain have already devalued me and I feel at peace when I am treated in a way mirrors my own perceptions.  Basically, being treated like I am lower and lesser feels right… and this can go to extremes.  This is when things can cross over into the M/s realm.  This is when I thrive on being dehumanized.

Ignore my feelings.  How I feel is unimportant.  All that matters is that I complete my tasks thoroughly and within acceptable time constraints.  Remind me of this and the promises that I have made.  I promised to obey and to please at all times, not only when I am feeling good.  Pound this lesson home.  Make it so that I desire nothing but the joy of service.

The harder I am pressed, the better it feels.  Take away my name.  Replace it with a number.  Prohibit me from using “I” and “me.”  Replace those with “it.”  I am not an equal.  What I want is not important.  How I feel is not important.  Keep me busy and occupied, free time is a bane of the mind.  Make me earn my worth with excellence in service.  Remind me of this.  Squash the sense of self inside me that hurts.  Press me harder.  Push me lower.  Take me deeper.  I need nothing but to serve.

This is the harmony of my soul.  When I feel this way, I find my heart open back up… and the love that I feel overwhelms me and spills over all of my life.  This is my ultimate anti-depressant.