Dallas BraggFormer crystal methamphetamine user, I help men who have sex with men break free from the addictive patterns associated with Chemsex. Currently expanding my expertise by seeking to become a Certified

What’s been your experience with chemsex recovery? Tell us about your experience in the comments!

27 Jul 2026 · 2 min

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In this monologue, Dallas Bragg explains that during chemsex recovery the old identity, which was sustained by chemsex, begins to dissolve while a new, healthier identity has not yet formed. He labels this transitional period “glitching,” a state marked by disorientation, ambiguity, and a deep loneliness that is unrelated to physical isolation. Bragg emphasizes that this phase typically lasts three to six months and warns that the nervous system naturally gravitates toward the familiar, harmful patterns of the past, making relapse an easy but unhelpful choice. Rather than urging speed or comfort, he advises individuals in this liminal space to create a clear vision of the person they wish to become, using that vision as a guiding force to sustain the transition toward a healthier normal.

Chapters

Your old identity, the one Chemsex helped you perform, is dissolving, but the new one isn't formed yet. That gap is where the actual change happens if you want it to. Not before it, not after it, while you're in it. Sometimes I call this state glitching, which helps some men connect more with the feeling. So I'm sure you might ask, how long will this last? Oh, the impatience and the instant gratification. Of chemsex users. This is not gonna happen over a weekend. The shift from an old, familiar, but harmful normal to a new healthy normal usually takes 3 to 6 months. This is— that's just an average of feeling to some degree like you don't know who you are. It's disorientation. It's ambiguity. It's a loneliness that you feel that has nothing to do with being physically alone. You don't know who you are. Some days, a flicker of possibility you don't trust yet either, right? All of that belongs here. And none of that means go back. Going back is the easy move because that old normal, whatever it costs you, however you remember how horrible it was, was at least known. It's predictable. You feel safe. Your nervous system will reach for known over healthy almost every time because it's protecting you with the only data it has available. So if you're in this space right now, somewhere in the gap between who you were and who you're becoming, I'm not going to tell you to hurry up or get comfortable. I'm going to tell you to create a vision of who you're becoming and allow that to pull you through.