Ah the nature or nurture question....

For me I can remember being quite young and playing with the kids in my neighborhood with the other kids. When playing, the other little girls would fight over who would be the princess that day, I on the other hand always wanted to be the prince's servant .
I fantasied about being controlled and other various things at a very young age, before they were sexually arousing.
Though through life I found my self in some pretty nasty situations. Some I must admit I put myself in because I didn't realize there was a healthy way to act out my feelings, others by peer dumb luck. Though I believe some of those situations furthered my desire for submission

I do believe that it solely depends on the submissive in question. In my experiences many submissive people I have had contact with have been in abusive situations. I throughly believe a lot of those situations were brought about by not realizing their true nature and seeking out people to fulfill their needs in unhealthy ways. Then there are some that simply became so use to being submissive in situations completely out of their control that they truly need some form of submission to feel whole and complete they don't know how to function otherwise, stumbled on this wonderful world of bdsm and found a healthy way their needs could be met and hopefully have found or will find someone to help them work through their issues. I've also met submissive people who have never experienced anything other than consensual abuse. It's truly an individual situation, not one size fits all.

Casie