Real harm reduction doesn’t happen from an armchair or behind a desk. If we actually want to keep people safe in the chemsex scene, we have to ditch the moral panic, drop the textbook clinical jargon and talk honestly about what is really going on behind closed doors.

That insight comes directly from my own life. I grew up in Knowle West in Bristol and on paper, I had it all together. I spent over ten years climbing the ladder in marketing and advertising, managing big operations and keeping a thousand plates spinning. But behind that easy-going exterior, I was running on empty. Between early sexual trauma, undiagnosed ADHD and the everyday exhaustion of navigating minority stress as a young gay man, drugs quickly became my armor to quiet down a brain running at full volume.

By 2014, that road led straight into the chemsex scene. What started as weekend escapism spiralled over ten years into multi-day chillouts, extreme poly-substance use, terrifying drug-induced psychosis and losing the career I’d poured my heart into. People often assume chemsex in the UK is strictly a London thing but I can tell you firsthand that it’s happening everywhere.

Finding recovery in January 2025 gave me my life back, but it also showed me the massive gaps in the system. Having to do my first 100 days on my own because there was zero specialised support in my city was tough. The turning point was finally connecting with people who got it - peer workers who knew the language of the scene so I didn't have to waste energy translating my trauma.

That safety and connection changed everything for me. Today, combining that decade inside the chemsex scene with professional training in trauma-informed care and coaching, my work is about cutting through the awkward clinical silence. I step into rooms with NHS teams, sexual health clinics drug and alcohol services and public health commissioners to give them the cultural fluency, straight answers and practical tools they need to meet people with dignity instead of detachment.

I didn't just walk through the fire; I took meticulous notes on the way out. Now, I’m handing a map to the practitioners doing the work and to every man that’s still trying to find their way through the flames.

Declan