poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
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Ice addiction and HIV: ‘I just felt truly hopeless.’
n the moment when Alex Bartzis’ life fell apart, he found himself lying in bed in “this dodgy house in Redfern” curled up “in a foetal position crying.”
Alex had been struggling for a long time but being suddenly dismissed from his job as a contract worker was the final straw.
“I was so dark and low and I felt truly hopeless,” he recalls.
It was April 2009. Not only was Alex unemployed, he was in debt and grappling with serious mental health issues and drug use. His housemate was another gay man who was “using a lot of crystal methamphetamine too, and was HIV positive.”
“My chance to get out of that situation was snatched away,” he says.
“In the weeks and months after that I used more substances including more Xanax as well and GHB and crystal and had more risky experiences and condomless sex and extreme sex,” Alex continues.
He paid a big price for the downward spiral, contracting HIV.
According to the University of NSW’s 2015 Sydney Gay Community Periodic Survey of 2,846 men, 10.2 per cent of HIV-negative men had used methamphetamine in the last six months. In comparison, more than 30 per cent of HIV positive gay men had taken meth in the same period.
Such is the concern about methamphetamine use among gay, HIV-positive men, that there are two separate presentations addressing the topic at the Health in Difference conference in Canberra today.
One of the people giving those talks is James Dale, senior alcohol and other drug clinician at the Victorian AIDS Council. He explains that key to understanding this issue is how methamphetamine affects people who use it.
Meth or ice allows users “to feel euphoric and connected” and “more open and more adventurous,” Mr Dale says.
He goes on to say many of his clients, are socially isolated, experiencing issues with self-esteem, body image, social anxiety, past trauma and “internalised homophobia.”
Methamphetamine is the primary drug in 64 per cent of gay males who seek help for substance abuse from the Victorian AIDS Council. The majority of those men are aged 30-44 years old.
Explaining it further, Mr Dale says meth “removes self-doubt” and increases “our ability to feel self-worth.”
Alex relates to this in a way that’s visceral. Despite being academic overachiever, he describes a difficult childhood with a critical father who always put him down and homophobic bullying at school.
Alex says the feeling that he “was never good enough” was “compounded when I came out as gay.”
“That stigma and discrimination over years and carrying that shame does make people want to use substances in a feeble attempt to escape the psychological pain,” he says.
“Also, there’s a bit of an element of self-destructive behaviour too because you feel like you’re not good enough or you’re not valued, then you think that it’s okay to destroy yourself,” he adds.
Mr Dale says gay men who already have HIV can be attracted to meth use for other reasons.
“In terms of engaging with other people, with other gay men, when you’re given an HIV positive diagnosis, you can feel very isolated and alone,” he says, and taking methamphetamine “alleviates that.”
Social media plays into gay men’s and meth use, Mr Dale says, because dating apps have changed “the way that gay men communicate.”
“It’s well documented that it [meth] taps into our impulsivity. You’re on an app, you’re on a phone, you’re tapping away. It’s quick, it’s instant,” he says.
During his meth addiction, Alex certainly experienced the social side of the drug.
“On a Saturday night I would be with some friends and we would smoke crystal meth in a pipe, hand it around the group.
“We would also take some GHB, which is like liquid ecstasy … it was considered to be a good combination, a pleasant combination with crystal meth, and then we would go out to a nightclub and just dance,” he says.
Cont -
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...t-truly-hopeless/story-fneuzlbd-1227484835422
n the moment when Alex Bartzis’ life fell apart, he found himself lying in bed in “this dodgy house in Redfern” curled up “in a foetal position crying.”
Alex had been struggling for a long time but being suddenly dismissed from his job as a contract worker was the final straw.
“I was so dark and low and I felt truly hopeless,” he recalls.
It was April 2009. Not only was Alex unemployed, he was in debt and grappling with serious mental health issues and drug use. His housemate was another gay man who was “using a lot of crystal methamphetamine too, and was HIV positive.”
“My chance to get out of that situation was snatched away,” he says.
“In the weeks and months after that I used more substances including more Xanax as well and GHB and crystal and had more risky experiences and condomless sex and extreme sex,” Alex continues.
He paid a big price for the downward spiral, contracting HIV.
According to the University of NSW’s 2015 Sydney Gay Community Periodic Survey of 2,846 men, 10.2 per cent of HIV-negative men had used methamphetamine in the last six months. In comparison, more than 30 per cent of HIV positive gay men had taken meth in the same period.
Such is the concern about methamphetamine use among gay, HIV-positive men, that there are two separate presentations addressing the topic at the Health in Difference conference in Canberra today.
One of the people giving those talks is James Dale, senior alcohol and other drug clinician at the Victorian AIDS Council. He explains that key to understanding this issue is how methamphetamine affects people who use it.
Meth or ice allows users “to feel euphoric and connected” and “more open and more adventurous,” Mr Dale says.
He goes on to say many of his clients, are socially isolated, experiencing issues with self-esteem, body image, social anxiety, past trauma and “internalised homophobia.”
Methamphetamine is the primary drug in 64 per cent of gay males who seek help for substance abuse from the Victorian AIDS Council. The majority of those men are aged 30-44 years old.
Explaining it further, Mr Dale says meth “removes self-doubt” and increases “our ability to feel self-worth.”
Alex relates to this in a way that’s visceral. Despite being academic overachiever, he describes a difficult childhood with a critical father who always put him down and homophobic bullying at school.
Alex says the feeling that he “was never good enough” was “compounded when I came out as gay.”
“That stigma and discrimination over years and carrying that shame does make people want to use substances in a feeble attempt to escape the psychological pain,” he says.
“Also, there’s a bit of an element of self-destructive behaviour too because you feel like you’re not good enough or you’re not valued, then you think that it’s okay to destroy yourself,” he adds.
Mr Dale says gay men who already have HIV can be attracted to meth use for other reasons.
“In terms of engaging with other people, with other gay men, when you’re given an HIV positive diagnosis, you can feel very isolated and alone,” he says, and taking methamphetamine “alleviates that.”
Social media plays into gay men’s and meth use, Mr Dale says, because dating apps have changed “the way that gay men communicate.”
“It’s well documented that it [meth] taps into our impulsivity. You’re on an app, you’re on a phone, you’re tapping away. It’s quick, it’s instant,” he says.
During his meth addiction, Alex certainly experienced the social side of the drug.
“On a Saturday night I would be with some friends and we would smoke crystal meth in a pipe, hand it around the group.
“We would also take some GHB, which is like liquid ecstasy … it was considered to be a good combination, a pleasant combination with crystal meth, and then we would go out to a nightclub and just dance,” he says.
Cont -
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...t-truly-hopeless/story-fneuzlbd-1227484835422
