Wanted to come back to this thread now, since this past week I had my first really bad sub drop experience. It kind of felt like the feeling I have right before a panic attack. And yes, we did aftercare and everything -- I think the thing that was different from usual was that the scene was really clearly demarcated from "real life", so as opposed to continuously dealing with the emotions as I moved back into a regular level of consciousness, it was kind of like this:

during: oh shit this is intense. I'm really gone here. I'm in trouble...
immediately after: okay, that wasn't real... everything's okay... we're all hugging and laughing and eating chinese food. Let's just not think about that for a while...
the next day: wait, that really happened, didn't it? I was really vulnerable back there. How did I let that happen?! Is it going to happen again?!

and I, um, went out and drank wine until it went away. Remember, kids, I'm not a role model.