Lady with erotic preference for diapers

Abstract

A patient in her 20s was referred to us for psychological assessment due to her depression and suicide attempts. She mentioned being anorgasmic except when diapered and emphasized her erotic preference for diapers. Her childhood included maternal deprivation in an impecunious family headed by an irritable physically disabled father on social assistance. Given the maternal deprivation in childhood, her erotic fixation on diapers parallels the emotional attachment to diapers observed by Harlow in mother deprived infant monkeys. Etiological hypotheses should also include the paradigm of avoidance learning from theories of behavior therapy. Our patient does not wish to change her sexual preference: in such cases, fetishism is not considered as an illness by DSM5. However, she needs to be treated for pathological levels of depression with suicidal ideation and low self-esteem.

An Exploratory Study of Adult Baby-Diaper Lovers’ Characteristics in an Italian Online Sample

“…In this latter cases, a qualitative analysis made by Zamboni [15] showed that ABDL simulated excrementary functions with food or water to feel excited due to the dirty diaper's contact with their genitals; other individuals can focus on diaper tissue and the tactile feel for diaper touch on the genitals [15]; whereas other individuals use ABDL behaviours as a part of a bondage discipline sadism and masochism (BDSM) sexual practice. In this case, sexual arousal concerns the submission and humiliation that are inside the sado-masochistic relationships [3,9,15]. For example, Zamboni and Madero [18] made an analysis of asexual individuals in the online ABDL community, confirming the hypothesis that ABDL, like BDSM, could represent a way to decrease anxiety and to sexually satisfy a partner.…”

“…The man required psychological counselling because of gender dysphoria but he did not perceive ABDL interests as a distressing factor. Cernowsky and Bureau [9] reported a case of a woman affected by depressive symptoms and ABDL interests who was asking for help only for the former symptoms, not for the latter. Banbury, Lusher, Lewis, and Turner [10] described a case of two adults who practiced ABDL and had a drug addiction, showing that in both cases, either the addiction and the ABDL practices could be considered an auto-medication practices carried out to face sexual abuses during childhood.…”

“…In the first group, ABDL behaviours seem to have a sexual nature and this condition has been named as "Diaperism" or "Diaper Lovers" (DL) [3]. In this group, some individuals are dominated by a fetishist interest in the diaper [9,11,12,17]; other individuals are excited by stool and urine release in a diaper. In this latter cases, a qualitative analysis made by Zamboni [15] showed that ABDL simulated excrementary functions with food or water to feel excited due to the dirty diaper's contact with their genitals; other individuals can focus on diaper tissue and the tactile feel for diaper touch on the genitals [15]; whereas other individuals use ABDL behaviours as a part of a bondage discipline sadism and masochism (BDSM) sexual practice.…”

“…Other scholars associate the erotic fixation and infant regression observed in the ABDL practices to the presence of incontinence [9,11]. For example, Cernowsky and Bureau [9], according to a behaviouristic perspective, have hypothesized that incontinence episodes lived during childhood were associated with negative parental reactions, that these parental behaviours generated negative feelings for children, and that wearing diapers decreased the negative arousal, determining safety and protection feelings, thus reinforcing the association between ABDL behaviours and a positive state. A similar hypothesis was formulated by Zamboni [15], who observed that some ABDL participants reported that their practices were related to their incontinence.…”

“…This interpretation is also confirmed by the data observed by Hawkinson and Zamboni [12] that showed that, in males, the levels of anxiety or a negative mood state were positively associated with the frequency of AB role-play not with DL interest. Finally, according to some scholars [7,9,11] ABDL manifestations could reflect a behavioural spectrum, from paraphilic interest to obsessive-compulsive behaviours. In this perspective, ABDL could be a sub-clinical form of obsessive-compulsive disorder.…”