Posted by Mark H. on March 15, 2000, at 17:49:27
In reply to Re: Unorthodox shock therapy?, posted by Janice on March 15, 2000, at 17:12:00
Dear Pollyanna, Janice and I have our differences, even though she is one of the people whose opinion I respect most on this list. Isn't that interesting? I mention it because I'm going to disagree with her, although I believe that what she wrote is not only right for her but perhaps for the vast majority of women.
Then there's you! I have always felt that I need to be thrown on the ground -- kind of an all-at-once chiropractic adjustment. When I was in college 25 years ago, I felt like a storm would build up between my frontal lobes, and that I needed it to arc across the gap like lightning from the earth to the clouds. In my twenties, I could accomplish it with alcohol, if I didn't do it too often. The clearing effect would sometimes last for several weeks. However, by my early 30s the "clearing effect" became alcoholic blackouts, and so I gave up drinking completely more than 18 years ago (and no, I never went to AA, I just quit).
In past centuries, depressives were sometimes treated by being thrown from cliffs into the chilly north seas. At other times, insulin was given to induce convulsions (this before ECT came around). ECT, in fact, may be the most crude, damaging and dangerous way of shocking people who need it -- I think we should still be looking for alternatives.
I was saved in my teens at a Christian summer camp where I was walking around with an icepick hyperventilating and trying to work up the courage to kill myself. A counselor took physical control of my body and sat me down, told me to "stay," and sat with me. She was angry, thinking I was just a jerk, and she was surprised when an hour later I thanked her for her help.
Slapping, spanking and other variations, I believe, can be effective and relatively harmless, especially when practiced with your partner in the presence of a counselor and followed-up with check-ins to make sure the man, in your case, isn't getting off into a power or SM trip, and that you aren't inviting escalating levels of abuse in the guise of soliciting a therapeutic "shock."
Human beings are remarkable. My chiropractor has me "manipulate" the wrists of people with repetitive stress disorders. Why? It seems to help them. Do I have any qualifications or special abilities? Absolutely not. It just seems to work.
If being slapped works for you, it can be a loving, stimulating and even erotic way of sharing profound intimacy with another. Does your current partner have the magic touch? If not, you might consider farming it out to a safe man who does, yet who is not likely to form any attachment to you.
poster:Mark H.
thread:27130
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000312/msgs/27141.html