Dallas Bragg discusses a study showing sexual violence is common in chemsex environments, where drugs like meth and GHB blur consent and impair memory. He offers harm-reduction strategies: set boundaries beforehand, bring a trusted person, plan your exit, and use a signal if you need help.
All right, there's a study that just dropped in the Journal of Sex Research, and it confirms something that a lot of us in the chemsex world already knew in our bodies, but we never had words for. Sexual violence inside chemsex spaces is common, and most of the men it happens to don't even recognize it as violence. Not because they're in denial or broken, but because the substances blur the lines, because the culture normalizes it, and because many men feel that because they used meth or mef or monkey dust or GHB, They deserve the violence. That is not true. Here's what's actually happening in your brain. Meth kills your ability to make sound decisions in real time, and it can escalate behavior in yourself and the men around you in ways nobody planned for. GHB, GBL can drop you into a blackout where you cannot consent to anything, and yet things happen anyway. For those of you in recovery wrestling with this, The substances you took do not make you responsible for what someone else did to your body. What happened in that room deserves more than your silence. Find a therapist who understands sexual trauma and the chemsex world. You don't have to carry this alone. If something feels off in your body about what happened and it can't— and you can't get it off your mind, I want you to begin to name it. For those of you who are tapering off or you're still using, here's what the research says you can actually do to protect yourself before you walk through that door. Negotiate what you're open to before the session starts, not in the moment, before. Go with somebody you trust. Have a buddy with you in the room who knows you and you're in agreement. Pre-plan your doses. Know what you're taking and how much. Have an exit plan. Decide ahead of time what your signal is if something feels wrong. Smaller gatherings mean clearer consent. The bigger the party, the harder your boundaries should be. Wherever you are in your journey, I want you to know you do not deserve to be in pain, hurt, and shame. I want you to find some liberation and some freedom. If you want some referrals on some therapists or some other resources that can help, give me a DM and I'll try to help you out.
