INCLUSION
OUT IN THE COLD
On the rare occasions when chemsex is covered in the mainstream media, mental health issues don’ t tend to figure. A recent report, however, offers a very different perspective
A report by London Friend and LGBT HERO has revealed that mental health issues like trauma, loneliness and isolation are the biggest chemsex-related concerns for LGBTQ + people in London( DDN, May, page 5). With nearly threequarters of the 334 survey respondents citing the mental health impacts of chemsex, the findings paint a‘ stark picture of unmet need’, the organisations say.
A supplementary report heard from service users at Antidote – the specialist LGBTQ + drug and alcohol support service operated by London Friend – as well as healthcare professionals supporting people with chemsex issues. The results challenge some common assumptions, the organisations say, with survey respondents
‘ consistently’ linking their drug use to coping with poor mental health. This meant that chemsex was‘ often rooted not just in risktaking behaviour, but in unmet emotional and psychological needs’, the report states. So were the findings a surprise?‘ Not really,’ London Friend chief executive Monty Moncrieff tells DDN.‘ Very often when chemsex starts to cause difficulties for people we find there’ s underlying mental health issues – around half of our clients already have a mental health diagnosis, but far more experience issues around their identity, shame and stigma around chems use, and very frequently loneliness. Chemsex helps people connect in the moment, but if any of these issues are underlying already they can be exacerbated by chems use and the comedowns.’
HIGHER RISKS ONS analysis of mortality statistics from 2021 to 2024 by sexual orientation found that lesbian, gay and bisexual people had a 2.8 times higher risk of death related to drug poisoning than the heterosexual population. Overall rates of substance use tend to be higher in the LGBTQ + community – whether because of the more central role of the bar and club scene, or self-medication to cope with mental health issues – but some chemsex drugs carry a high risk of potential harm, such as the danger of overdosing on even small amounts of GHB / GBL.
The most common chemsex substances alongside GHB / GBL tend to be mephedrone and methamphetamine, with the latter associated with more and more cases of psychosis, Moncrieff says.‘ We see it
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14 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • JUNE 2026 WWW. DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS. COM