Using Tina can iso­late you from the rest of soci­ety.
If you’re seri­ous about quit­ting, you’ll need to recon­nect with men again.
Talk­ing about it and ask­ing oth­ers for help is an essen­tial step.
You can do so with fam­i­ly mem­bers, friends or with men who’ve been through the process.



– Fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends
– Sup­port groups
– Get­ting help
– Chem­sex health­care sup­port



Fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends

Those close to you are like­ly to have lit­tle or no idea about the extent of your drug use.
But do not try to stay sober in the clos­et!
You need peo­ple around you to sup­port your new lifestyle.
They can’t offer sup­port if they don’t know what you’re going through.

Trust those who main­tain their sup­port.
Con­fide only in peo­ple out­side the sex scene.
Always be com­plete­ly hon­est.
You’ll find that it actu­al­ly brings you clos­er.
Talk­ing open­ly about it can bring up some of the under­ly­ing emo­tions.

The Ver­slaafd aan Jou Foun­da­tion offers infor­ma­tion, advice and sup­port to friends and fam­i­ly mem­bers of (ex)users.
For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it: verslaafdaanjou.nl



Sup­port groups

Reach out to men who’ve expe­ri­enced what you’re going through.
Shar­ing your expe­ri­ences will allow you to sup­port one anoth­er, and you’ll feel less lone­ly.
You’ll also be able to dis­cuss things that you can’t talk about with friends or fam­i­ly.
Seek inspi­ra­tion in men who’ve man­aged to quit and now enjoy a life of sobri­ety.
It helps to see live evi­dence that it’s pos­si­ble to quit for good.
At the same time, you can also be of ser­vice to oth­ers.
It’s also a good place to make new, sober friends.

Ini­tial appre­hen­sion about sup­port groups is a com­mon reac­tion.
You may think such meet­ings aren’t for you.
How­ev­er, most men even­tu­al­ly find them a great source of sup­port.
Just lis­ten­ing is enough to help you expe­ri­ence a bond and feel sup­port­ed.
These meet­ings will show you that you needn’t go through this alone, and that there are men around to help you.
Try a few dif­fer­ent groups to see which feels most com­fort­able.
Once you find one, stick with the group for at least three months to get the most out of it.

Read more about the var­i­ous sources of sup­port:

    • Nar­cotics Anony­mous
      NA meet­ings take place in many places in the Nether­lands.
      They are group meet­ings for men who’ve quit drugs and want to remain sober.
      The meet­ings involve lis­ten­ing to one another’s sto­ries.
      Those who’ve been sober for long often act as men­tors.
      The meet­ings are attend­ed by ex-users of any kind of drug.
      You don’t men­tion which drug you used.
      The con­nec­tion with sex isn’t dis­cussed, either.
      Men of all ages, social back­grounds and sex­u­al pref­er­ences attend the meet­ings.
      Spe­cial LGBT meet­ings exist in some of the larg­er cities with size­able gay scenes.
      For more infor­ma­tion on NA meet­ings, please vis­it na-holland.nl
  • Crys­tal Meth Anony­mous
    Ams­ter­dam offers a ded­i­cat­ed group for men who’ve used Tina: Crys­tal Meth Anony­mous.
    It’s sim­i­lar to NA, except here the con­nec­tion between Tina and sex is on the agen­da.
    The group meets every Sat­ur­day between 12:30 and 13:30 at Jacob Obrecht­straat 92 in Ams­ter­dam and every Tues­day between 19:00 and 20:00 at Sint Jansstraat 41 (Trea­sure House) in Ams­ter­dam.
    For more infor­ma­tion, please vis­it: crystalmethanonymous.nl (in Dutch)
  • Main­line Chem­sex drop in
    Main­lines chem­sex team offers one-on-one con­tact as well as  group dis­cus­sions for gay and bi-men who’ve quit tak­ing chems dur­ing sex.
    In a pri­vate and con­fi­den­tial set­ting,  men can talk freely about things like lone­li­ness, sex with­out chems and how to han­dle dat­ing apps.
    The empha­sis is on shar­ing expe­ri­ences.
    The drop in takes place every 1st wednes­day (for guys who quit/would like to quit) and 3rd wednes­day (for guys who still use and are look­ing for self-con­trol) of the month between 19:00 and 22:00 hrs at Fred­erik Hen­drik­straat 111 in Ams­ter­dam. You don’t have to sign up to par­tic­i­pate..
    For more infor­ma­tion and dates, vis­it: mainline.nl Would you like one-on-one con­tact (also pos­si­ble dur­ing office hours)? Mail to chemsex@mainline.nl 
  • Chem­sex coach De Regen­boog
    The Rain­bow Group Ams­ter­dam (De Regen­boog Groep) offers coach­es for men who’ve quit tak­ing chems dur­ing sex.
    They lis­ten with­out judg­ing, pro­vide what­ev­er help they can, and are there for you if you need com­pa­ny for social activ­i­ties.
    They offer all this on the basis of their own expe­ri­ence.
    All the coach­es are knowl­edge­able about Tina and slam­ming.
    They know the ropes because they them­selves have been depen­dent on drugs in the past.
    They know exact­ly how demand­ing absti­nence is, and how eas­i­ly you’re trig­gered when you’ve only recent­ly quit.
    Your coach helps you to fig­ure out how to achieve your goals.
    For more infor­ma­tion or to request a coach: deregenboog.org (in Dutch)




Get­ting help

You may con­clude that you need pro­fes­sion­al assis­tance with quit­ting.
Such help is avail­able through a vari­ety of sources.

❗Tina and slam­ming are rel­a­tive­ly new phe­nom­e­na in the Nether­lands.
Not all drug sup­port ser­vices are famil­iar with the use of chems dur­ing sex.
That doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t want to help you.
Lots of men ben­e­fit from main­stream drug sup­port ser­vices.
Just don’t expect them to be deeply knowl­edge­able about your spe­cif­ic con­cerns.
By talk­ing to pro­fes­sion­als, you will be get­ting things off your chest, and they will be able to offer you infor­ma­tion con­cern­ing depen­dence.
As a bonus, you’ll be expand­ing their knowl­edge.

There are lots of drug treat­ment facil­i­ties in the Nether­lands.
Check out a few and enquire about their meth­ods to see which feels right for you.

Your basic health insur­ance pack­age cov­ers a wide range of treat­ments and con­sul­ta­tions.
Check your health insur­ance pol­i­cy before­hand to make sure you’ll be reim­bursed.
Reim­burse­ment is always con­di­tion­al upon a refer­ral from your GP.

Whichev­er treat­ment you choose will begin with one or more intake inter­views.
Only then will an appro­pri­ate method of treat­ment be rec­om­mend­ed.

Inpa­tient care, out­pa­tient care and week­ly one-on-one ses­sions are com­mon frame­works of treat­ment.
Inpa­tient and out­pa­tient care usu­al­ly con­sist of indi­vid­ual and group ses­sions.
Some also include some form of move­ment ther­a­py, cre­ative ther­a­py or med­i­ta­tion.

Inpa­tient care gen­er­al­ly takes four to six weeks.
After which you will typ­i­cal­ly be asked to join the out­pa­tient or week­ly ses­sions.

Check afkickkliniekwijzer.nl (in Dutch) or zorgkaartnederland.nl (in Dutch) for facil­i­ties in your region.
Alter­na­tive­ly, you may choose to be treat­ed at a pri­vate clin­ic abroad.



Chem­sex health­care sup­port

Here is an overview of the pro­fes­sion­als who are famil­iar with chems and sex, and with the relat­ed con­cerns and treat­ments.