# Drop > Drop is the low, flat mood that follows an intense scene, often one to three days later. It affects both roles and usually passes within a couple of days. - Canonical URL: https://consensualspanking.co.uk/glossary/drop/ - Section: A–Z - Updated: November 2026 (2026-11-01) - Audience: consenting adults over 18 only. Everything on this site concerns consenting adults over 18. Short entry, because the site has full pages on both versions. What you need from a glossary is this: drop is real, it is usually delayed, and knowing it is coming removes most of its sting. --- ## In short - Drop is a delayed low after intense play, commonly one to three days afterwards. - Sub drop affects the receiving partner. Top drop affects the person delivering, and is far less discussed. - It is usually short. Persistent low mood or thoughts of self-harm are something else and need real support. - Samaritans 116 123, free, any time of day or night. ## What it means Drop is the comedown. After a scene that went well, a person can find themselves flat, tearful, anxious, embarrassed or oddly hollow, and the timing rarely cooperates. The evening was good. The morning after was fine. Then Tuesday afternoon arrives and everything feels bleak for no reason anyone can point at. It comes in two named varieties. Sub drop, in the person who received, and top drop, in the person who delivered. They feel different and they are caused by overlapping but not identical things, which is why they have separate pages here. - [Sub drop, and why it is delayed](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/guide/sub-drop/) - [Top drop](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/guide/top-drop/) ## In practice The single most useful thing I do about drop is warn people it exists before anything happens. Ten seconds during negotiation. If you feel strange on Tuesday, that is a known thing, it is not a verdict on the evening, and it goes away. That sentence has saved several people I know a fortnight of quietly deciding they were broken. Beyond that: eat something, sleep properly, keep the first message the day after short and warm, and do not schedule anything demanding for two days after a heavy session. If you play with people you do not know well, arrange in advance who you can text on Tuesday, because that is the day you will want somebody and the day it feels least reasonable to ask. ## The usual mistake Expecting it the same night. Same-night flatness happens, but the classic presentation is delayed, and the delay is exactly why people misread it as an unrelated bad mood or as evidence that they regret what they did. Assuming it only happens to the person who was hit. Top drop is common and almost entirely unsupported, because nobody thinks to look after the person holding the implement. And treating every difficult feeling afterwards as drop. Sometimes the low mood is information. If something happened that you did not agree to, or a limit was walked past, that is not a chemical comedown and it should not be filed as one. > ## If it is heavier than a bad couple of days > > > > Samaritans, **116 123**, free, 24 hours, any reason at all. Mind has practical information at [mind.org.uk](https://www.mind.org.uk). If what is troubling you is what someone else did rather than how you feel, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is **0808 2000 247**. ## Read next - [Sub drop, and why it is delayed](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/guide/sub-drop/) - [Top drop](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/guide/top-drop/) - [Aftercare](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/guide/aftercare/) - [Grounding](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/glossary/grounding/) ## Common questions ### What does drop mean in BDSM? Sub drop is a low, flat, tearful or anxious state that follows an intense scene, often arriving one to three days later rather than the same night. It typically lasts a day or two and passes on its own. The delay is what makes it confusing, because by the time it arrives most people have stopped connecting it to the session. ### When is low mood after a scene more than drop? Usually a day or two, sometimes up to about a week for a very heavy scene. If low mood persists beyond that, keeps returning after every session, or comes with thoughts of harming yourself, it is not drop and it needs proper support. Samaritans are on 116 123, free, at any hour.