Chemsex addiction treatment probably isn’t something you ever expected to be searching for. But if you’ve ended up here, something has changed.
Maybe it’s your own use. The occasional weekend has turned into sessions that swallow whole days, comedowns that wipe out most of the week, and a sex life you can’t picture any more without G, Tina or M-Cat.
Maybe it’s someone you love. You’ve noticed the missing weekends and the mood crashes, and you’re only just starting to understand what’s been going on.
Or maybe you’re a GP, sexual health clinician or therapist looking for specialist residential treatment for a patient caught up in chemsex.
You’re in the right place.
You don’t need to find the right words before you call. Just tell us what’s happening.
0808 168 2433 Confidential. No obligation.Chemsex addiction isn’t like most drug problems. It’s tangled up with sex, intimacy, identity and, very often, shame. Many people feel they can’t be honest with their GP, their family or even their closest friends about what’s really happening. Drug services aren’t always set up to talk about sex, and sexual health services aren’t set up to treat addiction. So people fall through the gap, often for years.
At Gladstones Clinic, we provide CQC-registered residential treatment for chemsex addiction at our small, 12-bedroom clinic in the Cotswolds. Our clinical team will get to know your use, your health and your life, without judgement, and build a treatment plan around what’s actually going on.
You don’t need to find the right words before you call. Just tell us what’s happening.
Call Gladstones Clinic now on 0808 168 2433. Confidential. No obligation.
Chemsex addiction rarely looks like addiction from the outside. You might be doing well at work, going to the gym and seeing friends. The sessions are “just weekends”. Nobody else needs to know. But the weekends have been getting longer, and the gaps between them have been getting shorter.
You may recognise:
You can’t remember the last time you had sex without using
Sober sex feels flat, awkward or even frightening
A session that starts on Friday night still hasn’t finished by Monday
You’re dosing G by the clock, or setting alarms so you don’t miss a dose
You’ve “gone under” on G, or watched someone else go under, and still carried on
Opening an app is enough to set off cravings
You’ve missed work, calls or plans because of a session or the comedown
You’ve had sex you wouldn’t have agreed to sober, or can’t fully remember
You’ve started slamming (injecting), or found yourself thinking about it
Most of the people you see now are people you use with
The days after a session bring crushing anxiety, shame or emptiness
You’ve promised yourself “never again” more than once
You don’t need to tick every line on this list, or wait until something terrible happens, to deserve help. If you’ve told yourself this weekend would be different, and it wasn’t, that’s enough of a sign.
Ready to talk?
Call 0808 168 2433. We’ll listen first and judge nothing.
People who haven’t lived it often assume the answer is simple: just stop using drugs when you have sex.
But chemsex is two addictions wrapped together. Over time, your brain links sex, pleasure and connection to the drugs, so giving up the drugs can feel like losing all of it at once. For many people, chemsex stopped being about the high long ago. It became the easiest way to feel confident, wanted or close to someone, or to quiet shame, loneliness or past hurt.
And the access never switches off. The apps are on your phone at 2am on a Tuesday, and the people you’d turn to for support may be the same people you use with.
Maybe you’ve already tried to stop. Deleted the apps, blocked the numbers, made it a week or a month, then one message brought it all back. That doesn’t mean you’re weak. It means you’ve been trying to do something very hard without the right support.
Residential treatment gives you distance from the apps and the scene, and the space to understand what keeps pulling you back. Chemsex often overlaps with compulsive sexual behaviour, which we also treat through our sex addiction programme.
Chemsex drugs carry serious physical risks, and some of them are easy to underestimate until something goes wrong.
The gap between a dose of G that feels good and one that knocks you unconscious is very small, especially with alcohol.
If you’ve been dosing around the clock, stopping suddenly can trigger severe, sometimes life-threatening withdrawal symptoms, so please get medical support rather than stopping alone.
Days without sleep can bring paranoia, anxiety and even drug-induced psychosis, followed by a crash of exhaustion, low mood and cravings. Find out more about our crystal meth addiction treatment.
Chemsex raises the risk of HIV, hepatitis C and other STIs, so your sexual health is part of your assessment with us from day one.
Call 999 immediately if someone has passed out and can’t be woken, is having a seizure or is struggling to breathe. Tell paramedics exactly what has been taken, as this helps them give the right treatment quickly.
We provide residential chemsex rehab at our 12-bedroom clinic in the Cotswolds. Because we’re small, our team gets to know each person in our care rather than putting everyone through the same programme.
Treatment starts with understanding you: your drug use, your sexual and mental health, the role chemsex plays in your life and what you want to change.
Before admission, we assess your drug use, including how often and how much G you’re taking, alongside your physical, sexual and mental health. Once you arrive, the priority is helping you stop safely, with medical support for withdrawal arranged where required.
Stopping the drugs is the beginning, not the answer. We need to understand what kept pulling you back into sessions.
Treatment may include CBT, DBT, trauma-informed therapy, individual and group therapy, psychoeducation, mindfulness, and breathing and movement work.
We know talking about sex in a group isn’t easy for everyone. If you’d prefer, we can build your therapy around one-on-one sessions only.
This is the part many people are most afraid of, and the part most services don’t talk about.
For many people in recovery, sober sex feels daunting at first. Low libido, nerves and awkwardness are common in the early weeks. Therapy gives you space to work through that, so you can reconnect with pleasure, confidence and closeness on your own terms.
Recovery doesn’t stop at discharge. Before you leave, we work with you on a plan for the moments that matter most: the first weekend home, the first app notification, the first invitation from someone you used with.
Former Gladstones patients also have access to our continuing aftercare programme.
Different people need different levels of support, so Gladstones offers 7-day, 14-day and 28-day chemsex rehab programmes, depending on your circumstances and assessment.
Our intensive 28-day residential programme gives you the most time to address the addiction underneath the drug use, engage fully in therapy, and prepare properly for life after treatment.
You don’t need to know which programme is right before you call. We’ll work that out together.
Watching someone you love get pulled into chemsex can be frightening, confusing and lonely.
Maybe they disappear for whole weekends and don’t answer their phone. Maybe Mondays are spent in bed and midweek brings dark moods, secrecy or anger. You might have noticed new friends you’ve never met, money going missing, weight loss or small bottles you didn’t recognise.
You may also be learning about parts of their life you didn’t know about, and that’s a lot to take in at once.
You can call Gladstones even if they’re not ready to call us themselves. You don’t have to wait for a crisis, or for them to ask for help.
Tell us what you’re seeing. We’ll listen, explain the options honestly, and help you work out what you can do next, including how family therapy can support you both.
We welcome enquiries from GPs, sexual health and HIV clinicians, therapists, psychiatrists and other healthcare professionals looking for residential treatment for a patient or client affected by chemsex.
Our clinical team can discuss treatment needs, suitability for admission, GHB dependence and any physical, sexual or mental health concerns relevant to the referral.
To discuss a referral, call Gladstones directly on 0808 168 2433.
We don’t reduce anyone to the drugs they use or the sex they have. We want to understand what chemsex is doing in your life, why it’s become so hard to stop, and what needs to change for you to build a life you don’t need to escape from.
If chemsex is taking over your life, you don’t have to wait for things to get worse before you ask for help.
If you’re watching someone you love go through it, you don’t have to wait for a crisis before you talk to us.
And if you’re a professional looking for the right residential treatment for a patient, our team is here to help.
Tell us what’s happening. We’ll help you work out what happens next. Call Gladstones Clinic now on 0808 168 2433 or request a callback. Confidential. No obligation.
Request a callbackChemsex means using drugs, most commonly GHB/GBL, crystal meth and mephedrone, to start, enhance or prolong sex, often over sessions lasting many hours or days. It’s most common among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, but it can affect anyone.
Yes. People can become dependent on the drugs and on the pattern of drug-fuelled sex, with each reinforcing the other. Tolerance, cravings and continued use despite harm are all common.
It can be. If you’ve been dosing regularly, stopping suddenly can cause severe withdrawal, including confusion, hallucinations and seizures. Always get medical advice before stopping.
No. Many people find this the hardest part to imagine. If you’d prefer, we can structure your therapy around one-on-one sessions only.
No. Our chemsex rehab programme is open to anyone affected, regardless of sexual orientation or gender.
Yes. Everything you share with us is treated in confidence, and we’ll explain exactly how your information is handled before treatment begins.
Costs depend on the programme and length of stay. Our admissions team will talk you through the options before you need to make any decision. You can also read our guide to the cost of rehab in the UK or find out about private health insurance for rehab.
