As a gay man who has maintained sobriety for 22 years, I’m perpetually intrigued by the challenges that so many face in coming to terms with their own substance use/abuse issues.

The modes and methods that people use are as varied as fingerprints.  Some will follow a spiritual awakening, some focus on health and fitness, some choose a 12-step program.  Some will take a mix-and-match of any of these methods.  These answers all assume that you have access to the resources you need to start with.  There are many in LGBT communities across the Midwestern United States that do not have access to what they need to find their recovery.  They don’t have access to an affirming environment where they can be themselves and deal with the abuse/addiction issues openly and without self-censorship.

I set out writing “A Chemical Dependency Conundrum” with four questions in mind:

1. What are the main causes of chemical use/abuse within the LGBT community?
2. What are the current obstacles faced by the LGBT person if they do seek out sobriety?
3. Is the LGBT community more or less prone to relapse than heterosexual society?
4. What can we do as an outreach organization to remove the current hurdles out there?

Leading off with those four questions, I let the data take me wherever it saw fit.  Some of the results are startling, and ultimately heart-breaking.  Brandon Bennett, president of Back to the Basics Please shared his thoughts:

“”Addiction” in our community is not so cut and dried.  There are many multi-faceted reasons for various behaviors, maladies, and diseases.  These issues are not skin deep.  they deserve a hard look, hard science, and serious objectivity!  The one size fits all conundrum of treatment has got to end and we must explore all options.”

I would very much like your feedback after reading this article, so to provide all an open forum to do so I have started a forum thread here.  Add your thoughts, comments and criticisms – all viewpoints are welcome.  If we begin a dialog on how best to help those that need it, then the time spent writing this paper was well spent.

You can access the full text of “A Chemical Dependency Conundrum” here.  Throughout the article, all external sources I used for data are footnoted and hyperlinked.  Great steps were taken to ensure accuracy, and this project would have taken a lot longer had I not had the time and talents of Brandon Bennett and Becky Cohn to double check my work. Should there by any errors or omissions, they are entirely my responsibility.

If you’re interested in receiving a download copy of this, please contact me.  I will also be developing presentation materials on this data.  They are not completed yet, so please check back for updates or email me.

Daniel MacDonald,

Director of Development/Public Relations – Back to the Basics Please (BTTBP)