What is Aftercare? BDSM is not just a physical experience - it isa deeply psychological experience as well. In order to give power over yourself to another person and truly submit to them, you need to trust and feel safe with them, The experience of truly entering a scene and feeling surrendered to a scene can engage certain neurotransmitters that activate your brain's reward center, causing euphoria and pleasure. The come-down from that can be the opposite people experience feelings of depression and alienation. Aftercare can be physical (helping your partner out of their restraints, bringing them food & drink, snuggling, wrapping them up in blankets, massaging them with pain-reducing or anti-inflammatory creams) and emotional (communicating, providing assurance, checking in on their emotions).