^^^^^ THIS ^^^^

A healthy, caring response from an open, out front hammer

Totally agree with that. The psychologists who just use simple common sense seem to be the best ones. Conversely, those who rely on (or produce) far-out theories in pedantic, peer-reviewed publications tend to rub me the wrong way. Of course this may be my own acknowledged prejudice.

The biggest relevant psychological issue is probably "shame." But as long as you're not harming anyone, I see no more reason to be ashamed than a coin collector or postcard collector should be ashamed about their obsessive hobbies. It's just a very niche interest. If it makes you happy, who cares what people think? If others don't understand it, maybe they weren't meant to.

So my biggest concern is there may some psychologists who view such harmless interests as "disorders," or things that need to be "cured." If anyone ever comes across a "professional" who even approaches that outlook, please RUN far in the other direction! As long as you're harming nobody, there's nothing wrong in having an intense interest in something a bit uncommon. It's in our differences, after all, that make us unique, beautiful, and special.

You're not wrong. A LOT of people have problems and have had different ones for as long as human nature has been around. Mud play as a fetish is perhaps uncommon. But look over history at what has been "common" in the past. Murdering other people for amusement was "normal" in the Roman Empire. Gladiatorial games were to them as common as football (either American or European style) is today. Ghengis Khan's warriors played polo with the severed heads of his enemies. And I won't even start to get into what the Aztecs considered "common".

So "common" in human history isn't always what its cracked up to be. And playing in the mud (or food, or whatever your preference) in your clothes, whether cheap out-of-date but once formal fashion wear from the thrift shop, or even brand new, expensive clothing bought just to destroy the first time you put it on (so long as it's your money paying for it) may not be considered "common" but there are FAR worse traits in human nature that have been indulged by humanity under the flags or banners of one type or another.

So if it makes you (and the person you are sharing it with, if anyone) happy to have fun, then don't worry about what society wants to tell you what THEY "allow" or not. The last couple of decades of the trend in modern civilization to long for submission to "Authority" has brought on much of the angst that we see the effects of today. Technology has brought us a lot of things like here, but it has also brought us things like facebook, twitter, and other echo-chamber subsets of web locations that encourage the idea of acceptance through kowtowing to those who profit from control of others for their own agenda. Don't submit to something that against who YOU are, because rarely does anything good come from it for YOU; only for the ones demanding that you MUST do so or you are a Bad person, Abnormal, Uncommon... against the NORM.

If WAM is your way of rebelling against some of that, then good. Hell; even if it is just YOUR way of finding some Joy in your life that is NOT in serving someone Else's "common" ideas, then don't let it stress you out and DON'T let anyone else guilt you into submission for THEIR demands. Because there will always be someone, some group, some ideology that insists that their "cure" or their "cause" or their political agenda only will work if EVERYONE ELSE is FORCED to accept it, to submit to it, to take their poison, and to publicly embrace it as their own truth even if they don't agree.

If you want something to resist, resist that. Be the fly in the ointment; be the monkey in the wrench. Be YOU. And if a part of you is WAM, then let that be.

Blimey. I didn't know how much I needed to read this thread until I just read this thread!