Celeste43
Posts: 3066
Joined: 2/4/2006 From: NYS Status: offline
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Aftercare is required but just as important is beforecare and planning. Make sure you are fully hydrated and have been eating properly. Don't play when you're tired. Bring water, juice, fruit, cheese and crackers. Milk chocolate. Take breaks to drink and eat and nap. Pack a lunch box or a small cooler if there's no fridge. Fruit, cheese cubes, crackers, juice boxes, chocolate, water bars. You are right to be concerned. The body and brain chemistry we play with is pretty involved. Blood sugar, hydration, endorphin, adrenaline, serotonin - all of these can be negatively impacted by play. I'm sure you know as a mood disorder sufferer how important it is to pay attention to your body. If you don't sleep, your mood suffers, just as it will from alcohol, fatty foods only, no sunshine, no exercise, dehydration. The same thing applies here, take time to check in with your body. Are you hungry, stop and eat. Lonely. stop play for talk and cuddles. Angry, address the problem immediately because anger turns into depression in females. Tired, stop for rest and a nap. But just because he is accustomed to heavy play does not mean that you will be subject to all of that first thing. Nor should you be. I am a great believer in starting things slowly so he can learn your reactions and so can you. And if he starts right in with things without slowly bringing you to that level you won't be able to handle it. Those of us with mood disorders must be able to stop play if necessary simply because picking up the pieces afterwards could concievably involve being checked into the nearest psych ward. The worst subdrop of my life happened when we ate dinner early, played all of the evening, most of the night and through the next morning. No sleep, no snacks, no water - no intelligence used. He was as worn out as I was despite the fact that we both enjoyed it thoroughly. We had to part and spent the afternoon on and off the phone, both of us weepy. These days we don't play longer than four hours straight. Then naps and food, and we always have bottles of water nearby. And then we start back in.
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