Your therapist asked once, moved on, and you let them. 90 minute session, $350: https://calendly.com/eugene-berezin/consultation Eugene Berezin is a Washington State Registered Hypnotherapist who works with gay men in demanding careers on divorce, addiction patterns, codependency, and starting over. This is a replay of a LinkedIn Live I did with Rachel Hulstein-Lowe, LICSW, about how substance use gets missed with gay and bisexual men. Most of it is about the question itself. Your therapist asks whether you drink and how many, you give a number, everyone moves on, and what a client actually hears in that moment is "are you an addict or not." Not everybody is ready to answer that, especially when it isn't why they called. We also cover the substances that don't come up in a standard intake, the spiral from sexual enhancement into coping, why shame makes people minimize, and what to do when the club every other week is the only place you feel safe. One thing I want to be clear about. I don't treat addiction independently. If you're in active addiction, you need a treatment provider, and with a letter from your provider I can work with you as a hypnotherapist on specific challenges as part of your care team. If you're the partner, or the ex, or the one holding it all together, I can absolutely work with you directly. And if you're past treatment and building your sober life, sobriety coaching is exactly what I do. ON THE POPPERS AND ERECTION PILLS POINT AT 14:28 Poppers are nitrites. The FDA warns they can cause extreme drops in blood pressure, decreases in blood oxygen, seizures, heart arrhythmia, coma and death on their own: https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/nitrite-poppers Sildenafil is contraindicated with nitrates for that same blood pressure reason, and the FDA keeps a running list of over the counter sexual enhancement products found to contain undisclosed sildenafil, which is why a pill bought at a gas station is not a known quantity: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/medication-health-fraud-notifications/sexual-enhancement-and-energy-product-notifications If you take nitrates or you are being treated for heart conditions, talk to your prescriber rather than guessing. FOLLOW RACHEL Rachel Hulstein-Lowe, LICSW, is a therapist and parent coach in Needham, Massachusetts. She works with gender diverse kids and their parents, she coaches parents nationwide, and she is the reason this conversation happened. https://www.rachelhlowe.com https://www.rachelhlowe.com/for-gender-diverse-kids-and-their-parents https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelhulsteinlowe/ WORK WITH ME Book a 90 minute session directly and pick your own time, $350: https://calendly.com/eugene-berezin/consultation Or send a request through my site and I'll reply within one to two business days with intake paperwork and a link where you pay and pick your time in one step. Sessions there are $250 for 60 minutes. I work online across the US. https://www.goodhypnotherapy.org/ What clinical hypnosis actually is: https://www.goodhypnotherapy.org/what-is-clinical-hypnosis/ Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/eugene-berezin-seattle-wa/1087810 Instagram: https://instagram.com/gayhypnotherapist CHAPTERS 0:00 Why nobody asked you properly 1:00 Introduction 3:41 Why Rachel Hulstein-Lowe and I are talking about this 5:03 Who I am and how I got to addiction work 6:10 Why this one is personal, addiction in my own family 7:09 Substance use walks into the room and it gets missed 7:28 How clinicians rush the intake question 9:23 Are you an addict or not is what the client actually hears 11:30 What is the substance actually doing for you 13:40 Poppers, G and crystal meth, what gay men reach for 14:28 Poppers with erection pills can be lethal 16:51 The spiral from sexual enhancement to dependence 20:25 Shame, minimizing, and the therapeutic alliance 21:24 Motivational interviewing and listening for change talk 23:31 The tells, sleep, appetite and rapid weight loss 25:35 Build your addiction referral network before you need it 26:46 The disconnect between addiction and mental health care 28:18 Community clinic or concierge, matching the level of care 29:09 Where to find me 30:32 Building a practice outside the insurance system I'm Eugene Berezin. I trained in clinical psychology in Moscow, ran a full private practice there, then spent a decade in US tech before going back to this work. Washington State Registered Hypnotherapist, license HYPN.HP.70073119. #substanceuse #harmreduction #gaymen