Ok we received an ask about someone who was having trouble reaching sub space. @spoiled-lil-kitten mentioned (in a different ask) that there is a chemical element to sub space. Being that I am the resident Sadist on staff, I have done a bit (read a lot) of reading on the subject and will try to give you a highlight reel of what I have learned.
***WARNING CONTAINS SCIENCE***
What is happening when sub space is reached by means of physical and or emotional PAIN is essentially an opioid high.
Yep, you read that right. A good scene is like mild morphine straight to the brain.
A recent study at U of M also concluded that the same is true for emotional pain. So for all you humiliation and verbal degradation lovers these tips are for you too.
Let me nerd that out for you…
There are four opioid receptors in our brain: mu-opioid (MOR), kappa-opioid (KOR), delta-opioid (DOR) and nociceptin(NOP). Increasing these receptors or the molecules that bind to them will produce an opioid high. These effects are most commonly found in the ventral striatum, amygdala, midline thalamus, and periaqueductal gray regions of the brain.
Depending on what receptors you increase the analgesic effect will be greater or lesser.
The MORs are the ones that heroin and morphine act on.
DORs are the receptors that most of your antidepressants latch on to.
KORs I’ll be honest I don’t know much about KORs except that they cause dysphoria when activated and counter a lot of the effects of MORs
Now wasn’t that fun?
Ok so what?
Well, the ask was about not being able to hit sub space. Here’s why all that up there matters. There are things you can do that will activate those receptors so that you can be “primed” before a scene to enter sub space.
Here goes:
Cold exposure also increases “Heat Shock Inducible Factor”, which increases opioid receptors. Specifically, mu and delta opioid receptors, the same receptors that heroin and morphine work on. By increasing these receptors, our innate opioids are more likely to bind to receptors and activate them. So when the flog hits and the brain says kill the pain there will be more receptors available to flood. Meaning… take a cold shower before a scene.
Get some rest… Sleep deprivation decreases mu and delta opioid receptor binding in the limbic system, which controls emotions to increase feelings of pleasure
Have a drink. Drinking alcohol induces opioid release in the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex, areas of the brain implicated in reward valuation. Just A drink. If you over do it you will negate the effect.
Take magnesium. Studies show that magnesium amplifies the analgesic effect of low-dose morphine in conditions of sustained pain this will allow our natural opioids to be more effective.
Melatonin. Melatonin exerts its analgesic actions by increasing the release of beta-endorphins.
Hold your breath (or have someone hold it for you 😈) Chronic intermittent hypoxia decreases pain sensitivity and increases the expression of Heat shock Inducible Factor, which increases opioid receptors. Specifically, mu and delta opioid receptors increase.
She is exhausted. She is nowhere near done. Her day morphs to night unchanged, save the sun moving aside
for the moon.
She is spent. She has nothing left. She has given her all, yet again failing to hold anything in
reserve.
She is empty. She feels hollowed out. She only wants to stop the madness and fall soundlessly into
a restful sleep that will not come.
She crawls from the bed, She approaches on hands and knees, His eyes speak His concern long before His voice.
She does not answer Him in words. She is too depleted to meet the intensity of His eyes. She curls up at His feet, hugging His leg, closes her eyes
and finally finds her peace.
Here, she can leave herself. Here, there is no room for baggage. Here, she is simply His, nothing more, nothing less, and
tonight, that is all she needs.
SAP 2016 – for my Daddy
This. Damn.
Simply His …
He is my refuge. I am exhausted, but nowhere near done!
He enables me to fight on.
The next round will come soon enough, but for now, He is enough …
These words describe what it has been for me recently. Cancer sucks.
This is what Dominance in the face of my current battles looks like.
Sir's submissive 