Just got home from dropping a friend off at rehab. He's 33, nice man, was really good looking before all the party balloons (what I call the nasty thing meth does to your skin) started popping up all over him. He had dropped out to work from necessity at a young age, went back to school and got his GED and then some IT certifications. He made his living while going to school fixing puters. Then he got a new roomie and the spiral downward started. He says meth makes him piggie. I say so would a blindfold. But I hear this all the time from seemingly educated, very muscular, hot men who think they need chems to release their inner piggie.
Now I have been smoking pot since I was 16 which was a long time ago. So I experimented with a lot of drugs when I was younger. Nowadays I smoke a joint once in awhile and rarely drink so I don't want to come across as pious, judgemental or a hypocrite but what meth is doing to gay men is scary. When my ex and I first broke up 3 years ago and I discovered on-line meeting I kept running into these words I didn't understand. Tina, Christina, party, you've seen them all in personal ads. In Dallas it is rampant among gay men and seems to be growing. It scares the bejesus out of me the number of really hot young men who take this drug so casually.
How much fun is it really? Tina, Party, PnP, Christina and all the other aliases.
Here is what these folks are doing to themselves:
He was the nicest, most intelligent, most responsible person you ever met. He was a gifted pianist and computer programmer, he had a perfect attendance at work and had a small side business selling bath plumbing that was growing fast. He created the most successful gay BBS in Boston and wrote the entire thing himself and also wrote a computer program that would predict the future of stocks and was he was making even more money that way. I was very proud of him.
He'd give you the shirt off his back to help you and truly expected nothing in return, he was the type of person you'd want for a close friend.
I didn't have a father or many friends growing up and I would look up to him.
Then he had a sex trick who introduced him to meth and that changed it all. I noticed he started getting irritated all the time and more agressive. This sweet gentle man would suddenly snap at someone and argue for any reason. And he couldn't stop talking, he would go on and on for hours and then go into side stories because he was high.
I guess it makes you lose all sense of time and inhibitions, and you cant sleep for days. He would see hallucinations.
This responsible man I knew ended up just walking out of his great job he loved for years with no notice, stopped working his business and ran it into the ground, went through all his money, hadn't paid taxes for years, was months behind on his mortgage payments and it caught up to him. He hung himself in his bedroom.
Oh, and the trick who introduced meth to him ended up setting fire to his own home in an attempt to collect the insurance money so he could buy more. When you're on meth everything makes sense to you and nothing is irrational; you'll do anything and take money from anyone to buy more.
I live in Fort Lauderdale and see guys like this fairly regularly, homeless and walking around with a backpack and nowhere to go, looking for the next party.
So that shit will really ruin your life.