Alright, "knismophilia" might be a more accurate term, but I had to get people to look in here some how.
I was having a conversation the other day with a deceptively brilliant individual (whom I won't give the satisfaction of naming 😉 ) with a few equally brilliant observations on the TMF and tickling fetishists overall. And although every rule has an exception, there was a point made that got my noodle cooking about something I myself had noticed about us as a whole: we all seem to have significant experience with anxiety...and does that explain our affinity for the nicest of cruelties?
Give you an example. I have two neices. The oldest has been willful, assertive, athletic, and independent since she could crawl; the youngest is needy, jumpy, attention-hungry and effeminate. She's also a nervous wreck who needs prozac to stay calm. Now the oldest doesn't care for tickling, so I leave her alone; the youngest LOVES being tickled, doesn't even put up a fight beyond squirming, and takes her time before she tells me to stop. The more I tickle her, the more active, energetic, and happy she gets.
Now, I suffer from anxiety myself (not that I need meds...I think), and as a 'ler, my fixations can be pretty lengthy and fairly intense. By contrast, the learned individual who (unknowingly) inspired this thread has VERY little in the way of self-doubt or anxiety and doesn't have quite the intensity or fixation that I have. I wonder if there's a connection.
There's been threads on the forum about how tickling is cathartic for those involved; how it causes relaxation and stress relief. One guy mentioned how a ladyfriend related a half-hour session to 3 hours of exercise. A lovely lady TMFer I've tickled regularly suffers from nightmares; after a few hours of torture, she slept like a log. So maybe there's a connection between anxiety and the need for tickling, once the cathartic connection is made.
What do you think? Is anxiety necessary for having a tickling philia? And is the intensity of that anxiety proportional to the intensity of the tickling urge?
I was having a conversation the other day with a deceptively brilliant individual (whom I won't give the satisfaction of naming 😉 ) with a few equally brilliant observations on the TMF and tickling fetishists overall. And although every rule has an exception, there was a point made that got my noodle cooking about something I myself had noticed about us as a whole: we all seem to have significant experience with anxiety...and does that explain our affinity for the nicest of cruelties?
Give you an example. I have two neices. The oldest has been willful, assertive, athletic, and independent since she could crawl; the youngest is needy, jumpy, attention-hungry and effeminate. She's also a nervous wreck who needs prozac to stay calm. Now the oldest doesn't care for tickling, so I leave her alone; the youngest LOVES being tickled, doesn't even put up a fight beyond squirming, and takes her time before she tells me to stop. The more I tickle her, the more active, energetic, and happy she gets.
Now, I suffer from anxiety myself (not that I need meds...I think), and as a 'ler, my fixations can be pretty lengthy and fairly intense. By contrast, the learned individual who (unknowingly) inspired this thread has VERY little in the way of self-doubt or anxiety and doesn't have quite the intensity or fixation that I have. I wonder if there's a connection.
There's been threads on the forum about how tickling is cathartic for those involved; how it causes relaxation and stress relief. One guy mentioned how a ladyfriend related a half-hour session to 3 hours of exercise. A lovely lady TMFer I've tickled regularly suffers from nightmares; after a few hours of torture, she slept like a log. So maybe there's a connection between anxiety and the need for tickling, once the cathartic connection is made.
What do you think? Is anxiety necessary for having a tickling philia? And is the intensity of that anxiety proportional to the intensity of the tickling urge?
