And of course, substance abuse problems are a whole nother ballgame. But if a person has been drinking a glass of wine with dinner every night for 10 years, then I'm not going to tell her that I consider her incapable of doing BDSM after dinner. I am not qualified to comment on non-alcohol drugs because I, of course, never do anything illegal. But for all your drug-related questions, the website Erowid.org is often very useful. * TlIness. I don't have any particular observations about how being sick changes my experience of S&M, but it definitely does. When I get sick and I have the option to reschedule a date, I always do. * Aaand finally, menstrual cycle. I haven't tracked my cycle with enough care to know exactly how it affects me S&M-wise, but I'm pretty sure it does. As one of the good people at EduKink once observed, "The great part about playing with a woman is that you have 28 different partners, one for each day of the month!" ok oe This can be found on the Internet at: http://clarissethorn.com/blog/2011/01/30/body-chemistry-and-sm/ ok ok ok S&M: [theory] Going Under This was originally published in 2011. People have asked me whether there's any actual research out there on the altered states that some people access through S&M; as far as I know, there isn't. It's also worth noting that a lot of dominant partners go into another kind of "zone" that's sometimes called top-space. ok oe Going Under "Come back," an S&M partner said softly, the other day, pushing my hair out of my eyes. I blinked and shook my head in a futile attempt to clear it. "That's weird," I said. "Someone else used to say those words to me when I was coming out of subspace. I... that's weird.” "I'm not surprised," he said. "It's a natural thing to say to you. You go under so fast, and so deep. You're so far away." "Not all the time," I said. "And not with everyone. You're good at putting me there.” He smiled. "You bring it out in me.” HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_018493