Grindr, chemsex and self-esteem

Recently, I was invited to contribute as a featured speaker to the Let’s Talk About Gay Sex and Drugs open-mic event at Ku Bar in Soho. The theme of the event was ‘control’, which was defined broadly to include all forms of control that we may or may not have over ourselves, others and the events that surround our lives. I decided to focus on self-control and approach this from the perspective of self-esteem and self-efficacy. By self-esteem I mean your sense of self-worth, that is, feeling good about yourself and feeling that other people value you. Homophobic prejudice, which can lead to internalised homophobia, can severely undermine our sense of self-esteem. By self-efficacy, I am referring to the feeling that you can do things that matter to you and that you can stop doing the things that you think are bad for you. There are events that can cause you to question your self-efficacy, such as the desire but inability to leave the ‘chemsex’ scene.