EP 3:53 LGBT Foundation: Voices of Chemsex

Send us Fan Mail Supplemental Study Guide: https://www.recoveryalchemy.org/newsletters/blog/posts/foundation This episode of The AfterMeth Podcast is unlike any other. Instead of a clinician or author, Dallas Bragg hosts a panel of three people connected to the LGBT Foundation in the UK, each with a direct, lived relationship to chemsex, brought together with help from Reese, the Foundation's sexual health coordinator, whom Dallas met at the chemsex conference in Belgium. Hugh moved from Derry to Manchester alone and watched crystal meth take his jobs, his housing, and nearly his life before spending two and a half years finding himself again. Patrick, also known as Kitana, came from Barbados at 17, was diagnosed with HIV at 20, survived a devastatingly abusive relationship that left him with a rare early-onset dementia, and used meth to block it all out before becoming a leading HIV and dementia advocate. Luke runs NeuroQueers, a community for queer neurodivergent people, and brings a more sporadic history with meth and cocaine alongside a longer battle with alcohol. What follows is raw, funny in places, and relentlessly honest. The panel talks about sexual assault while on chems and the shame that keeps men from asking for help, what comes flooding back once the substance is gone, why therapy is essential and why it can also trigger relapse, and how recovery differs for neurodivergent people who have to break both the addiction and the routine of using. They share what sober sex has actually been like, the importance of being honest with a partner about what you have been through, and why the way someone responds to "I relapsed" can change everything. Running through it all is a single thread: tell someone, face what you were numbing, find the people who get it, and take responsibility so you can finally forgive yourself. A supplemental study guide is linked in the show notes. Contact: Reece Boulton Email:  reece.boulton@lgbt.foundation Website: https://lgbt.foundation/ The AfterMeth: Join our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theaftermeth/ Dallas Bragg Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/newsletters/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drdallasbragg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdallasbragg/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drdallasbragg YouTube: The Aftermeth Podcast X: https://twitter.com/Drdallasbragg Free online course to End the Relapse Cycle: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/e7c2Eo22/checkout Meth-Free Blueprint EBOOK: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/o8qFhK5i/checkout