The AfterMeth: Gay Men Recovering from Crystal Methamphetamine and Chemsex Addiction

Dallas Bragg
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  • Self-Improvement
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Vision:  To eradicate crystal meth addiction and chemsex misuse, especially among the gay male population.  Mission:  Using the power of social media, The AfterMeth will increase awareness around the characteristics and effects of crystal meth and chemsex on the community of men who have sex with men, provide stories of hope to inspire struggling users and produce a repository of tools to be used by the loved ones of men who want to break free from the addictive patterns of chemsex. Join Dallas Bragg every other week. You can find The AfterMeth Podcast anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts. Find answers to:How can I stop relapsing?How can I heal my addiction?How does crystal meth addiction affect gay men?How can I get sober?

  1. 1 day ago

    EP 3:47 Self-Empowered Chemsex Recovery with Damon

    Send us Fan Mail Supplemental Study Guide: https://www.recoveryalchemy.org/newsletters/blog/posts/selfempowered Host Dallas Bragg sits down with Damon Hunter — former public health professor, social worker, and harm reduction content creator — for a candid conversation about why the U.S. still flinches at harm reduction and what it actually looks like in practice. Damon traces the country's fear of drugs back through a century of racially motivated drug panics and explains that language like "meth mouth" and "tweaker" does nothing but perpetuate stigma and push people who are already marginalized further away from help. He shares his own story with disarming honesty: coming out in a rural, deeply religious environment, being introduced to Tina through Grindr, a spiral into use that led to a federal embezzlement charge, house arrest, and prison — and the turning point that finally worked, an ADHD diagnosis in his late twenties and a psychiatrist willing to treat it with a stimulant medication. Eleven years of abstinence later, he's clear that his path was his own, not a prescription for anyone else, and that criminalization is never the answer. The second half turns to what fills the space after Tina. Damon credits building queer community as the single biggest protective factor in his life — he volunteered at a rural LGBTQ youth center, made lifelong friends, and met his husband there — alongside education, hobbies that keep his hands busy, dogs, and a small circle of people he can call without judgment. He and Dallas walk through sexual reintegration in real detail: the planning, conversations, and exit strategies that let him return to bathhouses and kink without substances, including going back to the very bathhouse where he first used. They discuss what supportive partners should actually ask ("Where are you at? What do you need from me?"), why a slip is not a reset, screening potential hookups, and drug checking with FTIR machines and Good Samaritan laws. Running through it all is Damon's core argument: pleasure is intrinsic to chemsex, and any public health approach that ignores it — or leads with shame instead of information — will keep failing the men it claims to serve. Contact Damon: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedamonhunterx/ The AfterMeth: Join our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theaftermeth/ Dallas Bragg Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/newsletters/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drdallasbragg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdallasbragg/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drdallasbragg YouTube: The Aftermeth Podcast X: https://twitter.com/Drdallasbragg Free online course to End the Relapse Cycle: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/e7c2Eo22/checkout Meth-Free Blueprint EBOOK: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/o8qFhK5i/checkout

  2. 4 days ago

    EP 3:46 Chemsex Recovery: You Already Want it Enough

    Send us Fan Mail Supplemental Study Guide: https://www.recoveryalchemy.org/newsletters/blog/posts/enough In this solo episode, Dallas Bragg retires a question he spent years asking his clients: "How bad do you want it?" He opens with the story of one of his first clients — a "flight risk" who, with his phone locked down, would drive to Walmart late at night to buy a track phone and get back on the apps. At the time Dallas told him he must not want it badly enough, a response he now names as shaming, counterproductive, and unbecoming of a coach, even when it occasionally landed. What he understands now is that wanting was never the missing ingredient. Every man who comes to him wants out; the man who relapsed on Saturday wanted it just as much as the man who didn't. Wanting is a feeling that arrives on its own — in the 4 a.m. vow, the 6 a.m. apology text, the prayer nobody heard — and it costs nothing. Willingness is a behavior produced on purpose, and it costs something every time. Dallas grounds the distinction in motivational interviewing's split between preparatory language (I want to, I should, I could) and commitment language (I will, I did), and in the intention-behavior gap: how badly someone intends to do something accounts for roughly 28% of whether they follow through, which means about three-quarters of recovery is happening somewhere other than desire. From there he turns to what unwillingness actually sounds like — almost never refusal, and almost always negotiation. He replays a conversation with a client six weeks in who deleted Grindr but kept Sniffies because "it's just browsing," and asks listeners whether they're chemsex free or chemsex free with caveats: I'll stop using but keep the apps, I'll delete the apps but keep his number, I'll go to a group but not that group, I'll do the work but not the hard part. Because the part of us that answers "am I willing?" is the same part that wants it, Dallas argues willingness can only be seen in the rearview mirror: the apps are on the phone or they aren't, the call was made or it wasn't — not a character verdict, just information. He is honest about the grief underneath it all, naming the chemsex scene as the first place many men ever felt wanted, and the loss of that social world and sexual template as real rather than dramatic. Since willingness is a fluctuating state that no one can summon at 3 a.m. with the midbrain running the show and the prefrontal cortex offline, it has to be decided in advance — written-down if-then plans (if he texts, then I do this specific thing) that create a 1% interruption in the pattern. The closing line is the whole episode in a sentence: you don't need to want it more, you need to take the action. A supplemental study guide is linked in the show notes. The AfterMeth: Join our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theaftermeth/ Dallas Bragg Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/newsletters/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drdallasbragg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdallasbragg/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drdallasbragg YouTube: The Aftermeth Podcast X: https://twitter.com/Drdallasbragg Free online course to End the Relapse Cycle: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/e7c2Eo22/checkout Meth-Free Blueprint EBOOK: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/o8qFhK5i/checkout

  3. 10 Sept

    EP 3:45 How To Stop Repeating Patterns in Chemsex Recovery with Juan

    Send us Fan Mail Supplemental Study Guide: https://www.recoveryalchemy.org/newsletters/blog/posts/repeating Host Dallas Bragg welcomes Juan Galan — spiritual teacher, identity alchemist, and life coach for gay men — to tackle one of the most common questions in chemsex recovery: "Why do I keep doing this?" Juan explains that repeated patterns aren't character flaws but nervous-system responses — trauma-formed survival mechanisms that have lived in the body for years and can't simply be thought away. He walks through his "remembrance method," a four-stage path: the trance (identity fused to the pattern), the witnessing (seeing yourself repeat it but unable to stop), the descent (the hardest stage — going within to face shadows, shame, and exiled parts through shadow work and breathwork), and the return (reclaiming your true essence and purpose). A recurring theme is that "every collapse is divinely orchestrated" — that addiction, relapse, and heartbreak are initiations happening for you, not to you. Both host and guest share personal stories of separating mind from body — noticing the urge to reach for validation, Grindr, or substances, then pausing, breathing, and staying present rather than numbing the feeling. Juan offers practical anchors like the "window of tolerance" and the "90-second rule" (a trigger, if you name it and stay with it, passes in about 90 seconds). The throughline is compassion over shame: patterns once protected you, healing is a spiral rather than a straight line, and progress means reacting the old way less often while forgiving yourself when you don't. The episode closes with an invitation to go deeper through Juan's "Five Days to Come Home" mini-program and a reminder that lasting recovery means descending into the body — not just quitting the substance. Contact Juan:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healingwithjuan/ Free Private Podcast Experience: https://juangalan.co/private-podcast-experience/ 5-days to Come Home Challenge: https://juangalan.co/coming-home-challenge/ 1:1 Mentorship: https://juangalan.co/coming-home/ The AfterMeth: Join our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theaftermeth/ Dallas Bragg Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/newsletters/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drdallasbragg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdallasbragg/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drdallasbragg YouTube: The Aftermeth Podcast X: https://twitter.com/Drdallasbragg Free online course to End the Relapse Cycle: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/e7c2Eo22/checkout Meth-Free Blueprint EBOOK: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/o8qFhK5i/checkout

  4. 7 Sept

    EP 3:44 Combating Euphoric Recall: The Post-Use Video

    Send us Fan Mail Supplemental Study Guide: https://www.recoveryalchemy.org/newsletters/blog/posts/post In this short solo episode, Dr. Dallas Bragg shares one of the most effective tools in his coaching program: the post-relapse video. He traces its origin to his own bottom — returning home after an arrest to find his house ransacked by the men he'd been using with, no car, no job, eviction looming, and no one left to call. With nothing else to do, he propped his phone on the dresser and recorded himself in that moment of raw despair. Rewatching it later, sober, was excruciating — and that was exactly the point. The video became a way to interrupt euphoric recall, the powerful pull he describes as the midbrain hijacking the prefrontal cortex, telling every convincing lie ("I'm just getting on Grindr to look around," "I'm just taking Friday off") until using feels inevitable. Safeguards like blocking apps or handing over car keys create a pause; the video is what wakes you up inside it. Dallas then walks through the practical protocol. Record before you sleep, while the crash is still on you and nothing in you wants to use — three to five minutes, answering seven prompts: what do I see, how does my body feel, what actually happened in the last 24 to 72 hours, what am I feeling, what's on my phone, what did this cost me, and what does my future self need to know. Making the video isn't enough; the real work is watching it sober, with full attention, every day for 90 days — the step where most men fall short. He also suggests recording a second video from the opposite state: the grateful, resolved version of yourself a few days out, when you realize what you didn't lose. A free companion form is linked in the show notes, and Dallas invites listeners to try the protocol and report back, with deeper episodes on euphoric recall coming soon. Tool Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NplnE58He_wnpuOrmuFtj4m4CdSIie1U/view?usp=drive_link The AfterMeth: Join our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theaftermeth/ Dallas Bragg Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/newsletters/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drdallasbragg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdallasbragg/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drdallasbragg YouTube: The Aftermeth Podcast X: https://twitter.com/Drdallasbragg Free online course to End the Relapse Cycle: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/e7c2Eo22/checkout Meth-Free Blueprint EBOOK: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/o8qFhK5i/checkout

  5. 3 Sept

    EP 3:43 Three Types of Chemsex User Profiles with Dr. Lockwood

    Send us Fan Mail Supplemental Study Guide: https://www.recoveryalchemy.org/newsletters/blog/posts/profiles In this returning-guest episode of The AfterMeth Podcast, Dallas Bragg welcomes back Dr. Patrick Lockwood for a wide-ranging conversation that opens with an unscripted reflection on connection itself. The two men explore how easy it is—especially for busy professionals and entrepreneurs—to let productivity crowd out relationships, and how a simple weekly text can chip away at isolation. Dallas is candid about his own instinct to distrust kindness and question people's motives, while Patrick shares the opposite reflex of gratitude, and together they land on the familiar recovery truth that the opposite of addiction is connection. It's a warm, meandering start that sets an emotionally honest tone before the episode turns to its central idea. From there, Patrick unpacks a framework he developed with a colleague, Mel, for understanding the different core motivations behind chemsex: numbers, who use drugs and sex to numb intolerable psychological pain and shame; connectors, who chase euphoria and a sense of belonging; and dissociators, who use to escape the self entirely, often in the wake of severe trauma. He draws a careful distinction between numbing—dulling a pain one is still in contact with—and dissociating, a total flight from the self, and both men stress that these categories are meant to help people feel seen rather than to pathologize or pigeonhole. They discuss how someone can shift between types over time (a connector becoming a dissociator after trauma, or after an HIV diagnosis) and why identifying one's underlying motivation can point toward the right support, including trauma therapy when the injury runs deep. Dallas closes by floating the idea of building case studies so listeners can recognize themselves in someone else's story, and reminds listeners of the supplemental study guide accompanying every episode. The AfterMeth: Join our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theaftermeth/ Dallas Bragg Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/newsletters/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drdallasbragg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdallasbragg/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drdallasbragg YouTube: The Aftermeth Podcast X: https://twitter.com/Drdallasbragg Free online course to End the Relapse Cycle: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/e7c2Eo22/checkout Meth-Free Blueprint EBOOK: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/o8qFhK5i/checkout

  6. 31 Aug

    EP 3:42 The Three Pillars of Chemsex Recovery

    Send us Fan Mail Supplemental Study Guide: https://www.recoveryalchemy.org/newsletters/blog/posts/pillars In this solo episode of The AfterMeth Podcast, Dallas Bragg lays out the three pillars he considers essential to chemsex recovery: consistency, proactivity, and certainty — three overlapping circles whose intersection is a chemsex-free life. He opens by naming the strange, uncomfortable stretch of time that follows quitting, the liminal space where a man suddenly has hours, energy, and attention back and no idea what to do with them. Chemsex, as Dallas frames it, was never just a drug; it was a culture, a subculture, an identity. Leaving it means living in between selves for a while, and the boredom so many men report in that gap isn't laziness — it's the absence of a compelling enough vision of who they're becoming. This episode is for the man who has quit and feels like he's buffering, and equally for the man who keeps getting almost all the way there before relapsing every two weeks, every month, every six months, and can't seem to clear that last hurdle. Practically, Dallas builds each pillar into something a listener can act on this week. Consistency means committing to one daily action and one daily communication — journaling, the gym, a check-in, whatever feels like the path of least resistance — and treating the first missed day as a red alert rather than a small slip, because the miss itself is data about a subconscious pattern already in motion. Proactivity means running recovery like a business: sitting down on Sunday, putting on what Dallas calls the meth thinking cap, and mapping out exactly when, how, where, and with whom you would use this week, then building safeguards, blocks, and unbreakable plans around that danger zone before motivation drops. He extends the same audit to the calendar year — anniversaries, breakups, holidays, Pride, birthdays — and ties it back to re-entry planning for the weeks after travel or a partner's absence. Certainty is the hardest of the three: the reframe that life is happening for you, that a use is a data point and a learning episode rather than a verdict on your worth, and that the spiral of lost days and disappearing after a relapse does more damage than the relapse itself. Dallas points listeners to his free Reframing Relapse course, notes that the supplemental study guide for this episode — along with journal prompts, exercises, and a full topic archive — lives on the blog at recoveryalchemy.org (drdallasbragg.com now forwards there), and invites questions and reactions in the YouTube and Spotify comments or by DM. The AfterMeth: Join our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theaftermeth/ Dallas Bragg Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/newsletters/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drdallasbragg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdallasbragg/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drdallasbragg YouTube: The Aftermeth Podcast X: https://twitter.com/Drdallasbragg Free online course to End the Relapse Cycle: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/e7c2Eo22/checkout Meth-Free Blueprint EBOOK: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/o8qFhK5i/checkout

  7. 27 Aug

    EP 3:41 Chemsex Recovery: The Breakthrough Moment with Domtopics

    Send us Fan Mail Supplemental Study Guide: https://www.recoveryalchemy.org/newsletters/blog/posts/breakthrough Episode 3-41, "Breakthrough Moment," of The AfterMeth Podcast welcomes London-based DJ and harm reduction advocate Dom (known online as Dom Topics), whom Dallas first met through the interconnected web of chemsex advocacy on Instagram before sharing coffee together in London. Dom brings a distinctive vantage point shaped by more than a decade volunteering with Impulse, an organization working globally to engage, connect, and support gay men across the pillars of substance use and harm reduction, sexual health, mental health, and social justice. Rooted in his own experience moving through London's nightlife and chemsex scenes, Dom frames harm reduction not as an instruction to stop but as meeting people where they are, offering balanced information and education rather than judgment. He and Dallas explore why gay men have built an entire subculture around chemsex, what that subculture reveals about what may be missing from mainstream queer life, and why telling someone simply to quit so often backfires. At the heart of the episode is Dom's account of the "breakthrough moment" that turned a summer of reclaimed fun into a decision to get sober. Having found that his work, finances, social life, and confidence remained intact even while using, he began to wonder what his life could look like without substances at all. The turning point arrived at an after-party where every marker of a "successful" night was present, yet he found himself drifting room to room, sensing there was nothing there for him, and chose to leave by taking one deliberate action at a time despite his body screaming to stay. Dallas reflects this back through the image of trying to milk a dry udder, the futile effort to recreate a peak experience that never returns, and the two dig into the practical wisdom of sitting in discomfort, playing the long game, and rebuilding community rather than forcing isolation. They close on the steadying role of consistent, non-judgmental friendships, including the women who quietly held space through the chemsex years, and Dom's advice for returning to nightlife sober by finding a trusted anchor for the night. Contact Dom: https://linktr.ee/domtopics The AfterMeth: Join our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theaftermeth/ Dallas Bragg Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/newsletters/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drdallasbragg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdallasbragg/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drdallasbragg YouTube: The Aftermeth Podcast X: https://twitter.com/Drdallasbragg Free online course to End the Relapse Cycle: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/e7c2Eo22/checkout Meth-Free Blueprint EBOOK: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/o8qFhK5i/checkout

  8. 24 Aug

    EP 3:40 Top Chemsex Trigger: Re-Entry

    Send us Fan Mail Supplemental Study Guide: https://www.recoveryalchemy.org/newsletters/blog/posts/reentry In this solo episode of The AfterMeth Podcast, Dallas Bragg tackles one of the most overlooked triggers in chemsex recovery: re-entry, the fraught return home from a trip, whether vacation, business travel, or even treatment. Drawing on his own lived experience and his work with clients, Dallas explains why this transition catches so many men off guard. After a week riding a "dopamine drip" of novelty, the brain crashes as the plane descends into a familiar, predictable environment; stack sleep deprivation, exhaustion, and a prefrontal cortex knocked offline on top of that, and cue reactivity fires before conscious reasoning can intervene. That's the moment the "meth brain" kicks in, the still small voice that whispers "let me just text the dealer" or "let me fit one in before real life begins." Dallas frames re-entry as a form of shadow work, urging listeners to observe over a full year the triggers they run past on autopilot, and to build safeguards before the moment arrives, so that willpower, a finite resource, is never left to carry the load alone. The heart of the episode is Dallas's free Re-Entry Plan, a four-phase Google Doc tool (linked in the show notes) that he walks through step by step. Pre-departure covers preparing a clean, stocked home and blocking apps from the phone rather than merely deleting them; in-transit focuses on checking in with the body and team, calling out fleeting thoughts to use, and visualizing a proud, meth-free homecoming while still on the beach or the plane. The plan then details the first 30 minutes, first 48 hours, phone safeguards, and emergency protocols, including scheduled video check-ins with an accountability partner, arranging a ride home rather than an Uber, and having a friend stay over, boundaries that feel extreme but are often exactly what early recovery requires. Throughout, Dallas returns to the deeper question beneath the logistics: this isn't ultimately about mechanics but identity. Echoing Mel McCracken's reminder that the phone itself is paraphernalia, he invites listeners to move the "why" from the head into the heart and ask who they want to show up as. Grounded in his program's three pillars of consistency, proactivity, and certainty, the episode is a practical, compassionate roadmap for returning home safe, proud, and at peace. A supplemental study guide accompanies the episode. Form: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oqP8szYxn94281iy2g6uRtOT7v-ESVX0/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=113725342648816625666&rtpof=true&sd=true The AfterMeth: Join our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theaftermeth/ Dallas Bragg Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/newsletters/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drdallasbragg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdallasbragg/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drdallasbragg YouTube: The Aftermeth Podcast X: https://twitter.com/Drdallasbragg Free online course to End the Relapse Cycle: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/e7c2Eo22/checkout Meth-Free Blueprint EBOOK: https://www.drdallasbragg.com/offers/o8qFhK5i/checkout

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About

Vision:  To eradicate crystal meth addiction and chemsex misuse, especially among the gay male population.  Mission:  Using the power of social media, The AfterMeth will increase awareness around the characteristics and effects of crystal meth and chemsex on the community of men who have sex with men, provide stories of hope to inspire struggling users and produce a repository of tools to be used by the loved ones of men who want to break free from the addictive patterns of chemsex. Join Dallas Bragg every other week. You can find The AfterMeth Podcast anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts. Find answers to:How can I stop relapsing?How can I heal my addiction?How does crystal meth addiction affect gay men?How can I get sober?

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