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The AfterMeth: Gay Men Recovering from Crystal Methamphetamine and Chemsex Addiction
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 Dr. 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?
The AfterMeth: Gay Men Recovering from Crystal Methamphetamine and Chemsex Addiction
EP 3:9 Feeling is Healing: A Trans Woman’s Perspective with Amanita
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Study Guide: https://www.recoveryalchemy.org/newsletters/blog/posts/feelingishealing
In this powerful episode of The AfterMeth Podcast, Dallas welcomes Amanita Calderón-Cifuentes — a Colombian trans woman, PhD in molecular biomedicine, and HIV research and advocacy officer with Trans Europe Central Asia — as the podcast's first transgender guest. The two met at the International Chemsex Conference in Antwerp, and their conversation picks up with the same warmth and intellectual depth that marked their connection there.
Amanita brings a perspective that challenges the conventional recovery narrative: as someone who has navigated 11 years of drug use, including periods of psychosis and problematic methamphetamine use, she speaks from lived experience rather than abstinence-based ideology. Drawing on the foundational framework of drug, set, and setting, she offers a nuanced account of why people use, how biological versus psychological addiction operate differently, and why a one-size-fits-all approach to recovery often sets people up to fail.
What makes this conversation particularly resonant for Dallas's audience is Amanita's unflinching exploration of the deeper drivers of drug dependency — internalized shame, minority stress, and disconnection from self and community. She reframes recovery not as the act of stopping, but as the ongoing practice of compassion, curiosity, and radical self-love.
For trans people, sex workers, and all those carrying compounded layers of stigma, she argues that the first act of healing is simply accepting that you are in pain — and letting yourself feel it. Dallas reflects on how this mirrors his own work with gay men trapped in cycles of self-hatred and relapse, affirming that true integration requires welcoming the wounded self rather than warring against it. Together, they land on a shared truth: what most people are searching for beneath their drug use is connection — to others, and to themselves.
Find Amanita on Instagram: @pbyamanita
The AfterMeth:
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Dallas Bragg
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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
