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Chemsex (PNP) is a term created in 2001 by David Stuart, a man who has been helping people who cultivate it for several years. Chemsex means taking drugs or alcohol to enhance your sexual experience. Read about the dangers and where to seek help.
Chemsex: what is it?
Chemsex(or PNP for "party-and-play") is the most common ( although not always) with at least two people - these practices are always accompanied by taking drugs or drinking alcohol.
A more precise definition of chemsex covers three specific types of drugs that people take on drugs - these substances are: GHB / GBL (colloquially known as the rape pill), mephedrone and methamphetamine. Chemsex is practiced especially often by one group of people - it is about homosexual men (MSM - men who have sex with men).
Why are these mainly the three types of drugs mentioned above? As David Stuart explains, once also a chemsex practitioner, today he helps others, including at 56 Dean Street Sexual He alth Clinic in London, chemsex practitioners believe these drugs work best. They make it a lot of fun, and the person doing it does not feel tired. According to Stuart, heroin or ecstasy work differently: the former makes a person feel safe, does not want to go crazy, ecstasy, in turn, is supposed to evoke large amounts of empathy in people who use it, encourage mutual confessions, and this is not what chemsex is about.
More than half of the people who practice chemsex do it at least once a month.
It is often, and not entirely true, mentioned that chemsex was born or only grown in popularity in recent years. The combination of sex and drugs or alcohol is not a novelty - today it has simply gained a new definition and form.
Chemsex is closely related to "gay on-line hook up culture", a new way of making friends by gay men - smartphones and the apps available on them, intended only for the gay community, make it much easier to arrange a "party -and-play ".
As it follows fromAccording to a study commissioned by the creators of the Gay Star News website and the world's largest gay app, Blued1 , as many as 82% of over 1,000 respondents use the app to make an appointment with chemsex. Hence the frequent information in the descriptions of gay profiles: "chem friendly" (I agree to chemsex) or "chem unfriendly" and "no chem" (I do not agree to chemsex), denoting a person's attitude towards this type of behavior.
The chemsex has become famous thanks to the VICE UK production under the same title - the film was made in 2015 and was about London gay men practicing chemsex. It has aroused various opinions: from the fact that it is bold, iconoclastic, to the fact that it exaggerates sensationalism and presents the matter in too dark a light. Certainly, however, chemsex brought the light of day.
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Chemsex: What are the dangers?
There are risks associated with having group sex while under the influence of drugs. Not only with those in the form of HIV and hepatitis C infection, the risk of which increases with the administration of the drug with the use of injections, i.e. arrows. 10% of the participants in the chemsex study mentioned above contracted HIV during this practice. Overall, 30% of the subjects were carriers.
Chemsex can also result in sexual abuse (in one in ten respondents), 60% of gays have experienced anxiety, depression through chemsex, up to 1 in 10 people have had to go to an emergency room, and 3 in 10 people use drugs and masturbate. Moreover, 1 in 4 of those surveyed know someone who died from the combination of this type of sex and drugs.
See also: PrEP (pre-exposure HIV prevention) helps prevent infection
Chemsex: How to get help?
While a lot is said about chemsex in Great Britain, this problem is still not being given sufficient attention in Poland. People who practice chemsex and seek help can find a lot of information - thanks to Michał Pawlęga's translation - on David Stuart's website: http://www.davidstuart.org/choosegoal-pl
Helpful data can also be found on the website: http://bezryzyka.info/chemsex.html. You can find there, among others a list of consultation and diagnostic points from all over Poland where you can test for HIV and get answers to troubling questions.
Worth knowingImportant addresses
National AIDS Center
ul. Samsonowska 1
02-829 Warszawa
tel .: 022 331 77 77
Unification of the Positive in the Rainbow (for LGBT + seropositives and others)
ul. Golden 7/21
00-019 Warszawa
e-mail: [email protected]
tel .: 602 328 088