Endorphin drop is one of those things that is widely experienced, and pretty well understood by science, but is weirdly only talked about in niche subfields like neuroscience and sports medicine and, interestingly and importantly, the BDSM subculture.
Endorphins are essentially natural opioids that your own body produces to regulate certain functions. The main things which cause your body to produce endorphins are:
If you’re thinking, huh, that’s a kind of weird list of some things which seem related and some things that kind of don’t? You’re right! The human body is full of weird kluges, and a lot of times chemical signals that are body uses for one thing get reused for something else entirely. But importantly, anything that causes big endorphin rush can result in a proportionate endorphin drop.
You know about that “runner’s high” athletes sometimes get? You know about post competition crashes? Those are endorphin highs and their associated endorphin drops.
What about how the worst day following a major surgery is often the second day, not the day you actually wake up with the newly sutured wound? Endorphins help to mask the pain, and then they run out; it’s a high, followed by a drop.
What about when you’ve been mentally “in the zone” under a deadline crunch, and then you finish and immediately can’t even think anymore? Endorphin high, followed by endorphin drop – this is really common across a huge variety of activities and experiences.
And the effects of all of these can stack and combine! So if, for example, you’re combining sex and pain in a BDSM scene, or if you have sex after working out, or if you attend a comedy show immediately after a really stressful day at work while you are also on a diuretic, you’d be much likely to experience an endorphin drop following that than doing any of those things completely on their own.
Also, since endorphins are endogenous opioids, things which affect opioids affect them too! For example, if you give someone narcan, while the narcan is in their system they will temporarily: find the experience of laughter to be unpleasant, find urination to be deeply unpleasant, not enjoy sex, and and not be able to naturally cope as well with mental stress or physical pain.
Everyone should learn about this! It’s a commonly experienced phenomenon that affects a lot of people, and being aware of strategies to cope with it can really make all the difference. I once got pretty severe runner’s drop while traveling and let me tell you, it was a miserable time. And you know what made it better? It was remembering what BDSM enthusiasts suggest for aftercare, and applying those principles to my current situation, even though it wasn’t the result of sex: I bought a little chocolate to eat, I drank some juice, and I texted a friend who I trusted, told them what was happening, and asked them to reassure me, because hey, it might have been something I knew was completely irrational, but getting a text back that no, my friend didn’t hate me, and no, I wasn’t worthless as a person helped.
This is a natural part of human biology and as a culture, we need to stop shaming people for it!
