Chemsex Addiction Therapy | GHB & Sexualised Substance Use
A private space to explore compulsive patterns and reclaim emotional clarity
The intersection of drugs, sex, and emotional disconnection can create a cycle that feels exhilarating, secretive, and ultimately unmanageable. For many, what begins as a pursuit of pleasure, connection, or escape becomes an isolating, high-risk pattern that affects self-worth, relationships, and mental health.
GHB (or G), crystal meth, and mephedrone are among the most common chemsex drugs used to enhance sexual activity, lower inhibitions, and prolong intimacy. While often linked to specific LGBTQ+ networks, the impact of sexualised drug use reaches far beyond subcultures or nightlife scenes. Behind closed doors, many are struggling with confusion, shame, trauma, or addiction.
At Addiction Therapist London, I provide specialist psychotherapy for individuals affected by chemsex-related behaviours, offering a discreet, trauma-informed space to unpack the emotional and psychological dynamics at play. Whether you’re in crisis or seeking to understand your relationship with sex, substances, and self, therapy can offer a way forward.
What Is Chemsex Addiction?
Chemsex addiction refers to the compulsive use of chemsex drugs such as GHB, methamphetamine (crystal meth), or mephedrone in conjunction with sexual activity, often prolonged, high-intensity, and emotionally disconnected.
This pattern may involve:
- Extended sessions involving multiple partners or hook-up apps
- Substance use to lower inhibition, enhance arousal, or escape reality
- Feelings of shame, disorientation, or physical depletion afterwards
- Difficulty engaging in sober or emotionally connected intimacy
- A sense of “needing” chemical support for confidence, arousal, or validation
Over time, individuals may experience:
- Memory loss, blackouts, or compromised consent
- Increased risk of STIs, including HIV
- Emotional detachment or avoidance of sober intimacy
- Escalating secrecy, isolation, or loss of control
- Compulsive repetition despite distress or consequences
Some clients describe feeling like chemsex addiction nearly destroyed their sense of self not only physically but psychologically. And yet, many continue due to a complex web of emotional need, trauma, and chemical reinforcement.
The Emotional Drivers Behind Chemsex
The substances used in chemsex are not the root of the problem, they are the mechanism. Beneath the surface often lies a combination of:
- Internalised shame around sexuality, identity, or desire
- Attachment wounds, including rejection, abandonment, or neglect
- Early trauma (including sexual, physical, or emotional abuse)
- Loneliness, anxiety, or depression that feels difficult to voice
- Struggles with emotional regulation, intimacy, or connection
- Disconnection from one’s body, values, or boundaries
For some, these patterns exist alongside porn addiction, where compulsive sexual behaviour becomes reinforced both online and offline, further blurring emotional boundaries.
Therapy is not about pathologizing these behaviours. It’s about understanding what they are trying to manage, replace, or silence.
Who This Therapy Is For
This service is designed for individuals who:
- Feel caught in a cycle of sex and drug use they cannot control
- Experience guilt, regret, or emotional crash after chemsex sessions
- Use substances to access confidence, connection, or arousal
- Have lost time, health, or stability to addictive behaviours
- Are questioning their relationship to desire, identity, or safety
- Have noticed crossovers with other addictions such as porn addiction, alcohol addiction or substance misuse
- Feel deeply isolated, ashamed, or afraid to seek help elsewhere
You may not identify with the term chemsex addict, and that’s okay. Labels are not required to begin therapy. If something doesn’t feel right; emotionally, physically, relationally - that’s enough.
The Therapy Process
Our work together will focus on what’s happening beneath the behaviour, not just managing it.
You can expect a confidential, culturally sensitive process that may include:
- Psychodynamic therapy to explore trauma, identity, and emotional history
- Psychoeducation on how GHB, crystal meth, or mephedrone affect the brain, attachment, and intimacy
- Tools for emotional regulation, grounding, and reducing dissociation
- Relapse prevention strategies tailored to your triggers and lifestyle
- Boundary work and support rebuilding trust in self and others
- Harm reduction strategies for safer choices while navigating risky sexual behaviour
- Referral to consultant psychiatrists, GPs or accredited medical detox services where physical dependence, withdrawal risk, or complex health needs are present. This ensures any medical or pharmacological support is delivered safely by qualified medical professionals, while psychological therapy continues alongside.
- Optional integration of Art Psychotherapy to access deeper emotional processing
- Partner or family support sessions where appropriate and safe
- Referrals to LGBTQ+ affirming medical services, sexual health clinics, or addiction recovery groups such as Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous where relevant.
Where relevant, I also collaborate with specialist sexual health services, psychosexual therapists and LGBTQ+ affirmative healthcare providers to ensure that support is safe, integrated and appropriate to your needs.
In my professional opinion, compulsive chemsex patterns are rarely about pleasure alone they are often about pain, disconnection, and the absence of safe spaces to feel. Clients often tell me this is the first time they’ve ever been able to speak freely, without fear of being judged, medicalised, or misunderstood.
Therapy is about reclaiming that right, to be heard, understood, and supported. This isn’t about shame or abstinence. It’s about autonomy, having the emotional clarity and support to make choices that align with your wellbeing.
Why It’s So Hard to Talk About
Many individuals navigating chemsex addiction may appear outwardly composed and high functioning. They come from all walks of life, including professionals, creatives, entrepreneurs, and those in less visible roles, yet often carry private worries about being judged, misunderstood, or exposed. Other’s carry the added weight of cultural, religious, or racialised shame around sexuality or drug addiction.
You might be wondering:
- “Is this bad enough for therapy?”
- “Will I be told to stop everything immediately?”
- “What if I’m not ready to change?”
The answer is simple: if you’re asking these questions, you deserve a space to explore them. Therapy is not about punishing you. It’s about making sense of your experience and offering choices.
Chemsex and Trauma: A Complex Relationship
For many, chemsex is intertwined with past trauma, sometimes explicitly, sometimes unconsciously. The effects of trauma may show up as:
- Emotional numbing, avoidance, or hypersexuality
- Seeking intense sensation to override emotional flatness
- Repetition of risky sexual behaviour or emotionally unsafe experiences
- Using GHB or other substances to “switch off” vulnerability
- Difficulty saying no or maintaining consent under influence
- Sexual compulsivity as a way to manage unacknowledged pain
- Concurrent challenges such as porn addiction, alcohol addiction or other forms of substance misuse
Addiction in this context becomes a way to regulate what was never allowed to be felt. Healing means learning how to feel safely again, in your body, in your relationships, and in yourself.
Working with LGBTQ+ Clients and Intersectional Realities
Chemsex addiction does not exist in a vacuum. It is shaped by cultural dynamics, systemic oppression, and the emotional inheritance of living in marginalised bodies.
Many clients I work with face:
- Shame linked to homophobia, transphobia, or religious repression
- Complex trauma from early life, school, or community rejection
- Neurodivergent patterns such as masking, sensory overwhelm, or dysregulation
- A lack of culturally appropriate spaces to discuss intimacy, sex, or drugs
My approach is affirming, inclusive, and tailored. There is no assumption, no stereotype, and no judgement.
Complete Discretion. Grounded Care. A Way Forward.
No matter your background or circumstances, you deserve a space where you can speak freely and feel truly heard.
At my Harley Street Medical Quarter practise, St Pauls in the City of London and online, I work with individuals who have never told anyone what they’re experiencing, not friends, not family, not GPs. Many say it’s the first time they’ve felt heard without being analysed or shamed.
What If You're Not Sure You’re Ready?
That’s okay. Change doesn’t start with action it starts with awareness. You may not be ready to stop. You may not even be sure what you want. What matters is having a space to explore, ask, reflect, and be met with respect.
If you're ready to begin untangling your relationship with chemsex or are simply curious about what healing might look like I welcome, you to reach out for a free confidential 15-minute consultation.
Book a complimentary consultation or a private therapy session.