A total of 29 men self-identified as HIV-infected and 17 self-identified as uninfected. Focus group transcripts were analyzed using consensual qualitative research techniques. Alcohol, crack cocaine, and crystal methamphetamine were the primary drugs mentioned by participants. Participants described alcohol use and drug transactions, use, and addiction as motivating sex with men, allowing and rationalizing same-sex activity and unprotected sex, and facilitating access to male sex partners. Service providers and policy-makers may be guided by these findings toward building maming competency among direct service staff. Use of club drugs Klitzman et al. The pharmacological effects of these drugs include physical, emotional, and psychological health consequences e. Beyond annual events, such as circuit parties, drug use is common in gay communities and peopel specific gay venues. In contrast, general population drug use rates are much lower, with just Contrary to popular belief, MSM are not at higher risk of developing alcohol use-disorders than men in the general population, although they are less likely to abstain from drinking alcohol altogether Bux, Nevertheless, alcohol must be considered when assessing sexual risk behaviors among MSM, particularly in communities of color U. In recent years, however, Blacks have reported slightly higher rates of current illicit drug use 9. Blacks also experience more frequent and more severe consequences of drug and alcohol use, including poorer physical health outcomes and more severe social consequences, such as higher incarceration rates Ronan, ; Staples, ; U.
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Yep, the entire human race has a mind that drifts to the gutter at least some times. Eyes glued to the screen during that Game of Thrones scene yes, the one where Theon Greyjoy gets naked with two drop-dead queens? Hand travel between your legs at the thought of a multi-person orgy? Why can group sex be so hot? The idea of multiple people wanting to have sex with you is part of the turn on. Threesomes, orgies, and the like also create sensory overload. Every fantasy falls into 1 of 3 categories, according to Engle. If you want to share with your partner — but not necessarily enact this fantasy — start by asking for consent to incorporate this kind of lingo in bed. What do you think? Actually want group sex IRL? Good news. Establish boundaries for those interactions. And that vulnerability has arousal potential. From spanking and blind folding, to electroplay or needle play, BDSM contains a wide range of sexual activities. Sex on a beach or mountaintop. Boning in an airplane bathroom or while wearing a butt plug.
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Discover more of our picks. It was another regrettably familiar wake-up for Sarah Hepola. Much of her memory from the previous night was blank. She remembers talking to people at a party, but then after that a shadow drops over her memories. How did she get there, where was the stamp on her hand from? Who bought the pizza?
Who was the man beside her? This sort of memory loss happened time and again to Hepola — and from a very early age. She was experiencing alcohol-fuelled blackouts — a colloquial term with potentially serious consequences.
As the word suggests, in this state all memories of the night turn dark after a point. Some drinkers experience less severe, fragmentary blackouts where only pieces of memory are lost. Evidence suggests that blackouts among alcohol drinkers are very common, especially for university students Credit: Getty Images. Scientists are now revealing more about why blackouts occur and why it affects some more than others — helping them to better understand and hopefully prevent the many negative consequences.
Until recent studies showed otherwise, for many decades it was believed that only alcoholics reached the state of being blackout drunk. A bizarre series of experiments — which never would be ethically approved today — revealed some startling insights.
In the late s, a researcher called Donald Goodwin recruited alcoholics in hospitals and job centres to identify what happens when a drunken memory disappears. He found that out of alcoholics, more than 60 experienced regular blackoutssome total and some fragmentary. He also revealed that individuals experiencing a blackout can act in a remarkably coherent manner. But 30 minutes later, these events were forgotten. In one he showed participants pornography, then asked detailed questions about what they had seen.
In another, with a frying pan in hand, he asked individuals if they were hungry. When they answered, he told them that the pan had dead mice inside. The drunk subjects had forgotten these memories after 30 minutes and could still not recall the events the following day. They could, though, recall these events up to two minutes later, revealing that their short-term memory was working.
For many decades it was believed that only alcoholics reached the state of being blackout drunk, we now know that is not the case Credit: Getty Images. Though these experiments were performed with alcoholics, they set the stage for understanding how even non-alcoholics act during a blackout.
They remain influential in part because today — for obvious ethical reasons — scientists cannot ply participants with alcohol to induce memory loss. They must largely rely largely on questionnaires of past events instead. That chunks of memory are completely lost during a blackout goes some way into revealing what is going on in the brain. People with severe damage to this area cannot create new memories. Alcohol therefore shuts off brain circuits central to making episodic memories memories of specific times and placesexplains White, who has studied the process on a cellular level with rodent brains.
We now also know more about other factors that influence blackoutssuch as drinking on an empty stomach or when sleep deprived. Another major risk has to do with how fast alcohol is consumed, as the quicker we gulp the faster our blood alcohol level spikes. A blood alcohol level of between 0. That level could be reached by having 15 or more standard UK drinks over four hours, depending on sex and body weight.
Blackouts are more common among college students and women Credit: Getty Images. Blackouts are more common in people with lower body weights. Women also experience blackouts more.
They are smaller on average than men and have a higher percentage of body fat, which means their bodies have less water to dilute the alcohol they drink — so their blood alcohol level rises faster.
InAmie Haas of Palo Alto University in California found that women would routinely blackout with three fewer drinks than men. Aside from the sex differences, there could be a genetic component to who is more likely to blackout. Individuals whose mothers had a history of alcohol problems were found to be more at risk.
Another study, this time on more than 1, pairs of twins, found that a genetic link accounted for half the blackouts experienced. The genetic difference seems to play out in the brain. One longitudinal study of adolescents agedled by Reagan Wetherill of the University of Pennsylvania, showed that certain individuals who later went on to abuse alcohol and experience blackouts, were less able to suppress their actions.
This could be seen on brain scans, even before they were drinking alcohol. Alcohol can shut off brain circuits important for making memories of specific times and places Credit: Getty Images. Worse, studies on mice suggest that heavy drinking may even lead to additional changes in the brain.
Equally worrying is that the same people who are more prone to blackouts — teenagers and university students — are at a physically more vulnerable age. One reason for this is that the frontal lobe of the brain is the last to develop, at around Like the risk factors, the consequences of blacking out are not only worse for adolescents, but also for women. These women also showed more regret the following day.
This is because they are risk while they under the influence due to impaired decision making, especially when it comes to assessing potentially dangerous situations, but they are also at risk afterwards because they cannot rely on their memory of what happened.
This means there is a catch Those experiencing blackouts may be more vulnerable to potential perpetrators in the moment. But if they try to press charges after, they also are vulnerable to having their cases dismissed.
Individuals with a history of sexual assault are more likely to be re-victimised if they are in an alcohol-induced blackout Credit: Getty Images. One party being blackout complicates that evidence. Take Canada, where affirmative consent is necessary. In the US, meanwhile, laws vary by state. But New York, for example, says mental incapacitation can legally result only from involuntarily being given a drink or drug, not from having chosen to drink. Sarah Hepola has ample experience of this kind of disconnect.
In historic studies, scientists plied participants with alcohol to induce memory loss. This cannot be done today for obvious ethical reasons Credit: Getty Images. This makes blackouts a useful marker and predictor of other detrimental behaviour. For these reasons, questions about alcoholic blackouts are now increasingly being used in screening tools to quickly get at whether someone is a recreational drinker or a problem drinker.
Mary-Beth Miller, an addiction psychologist at the University of Missouri, found that a simple intervention technique could help blackout drinkers reduce their drinking, a finding she first showed in ex-army veterans and then extended to university drinkers. It is an online questionnaire that asks individuals about their drinking habits, and reports back how much they are drinking compared to others who are similar in age and background.
An online questionnaire that feeds back how a person’s drinking habits compares to others, could help reduce alcohol consumption Credit: Getty Images. Screening questionnaires about alcohol use now routinely ask about prior blackout experiences, which could make it easier to target and find individuals who need help. Simply asking about the amount an individual has drunk was not found to be effective. These interventions are not time-consuming or expensive, making Miller hopeful that she and colleagues can build upon them to develop even more effective interventions.
Other researchers hope that asking about previous blackouts will in turn help reduce other types of risky behaviour. For those who experience regular blackouts, a good first step is to better monitor your own alcohol intake and ask friends around you to do the.
For Hepola, it is only looking back that she could see the warning signs. She has now been sober for eight years and is glad to no longer fall into the black trapdoors of memory loss.
It has made her life a lot simpler, she says. Risk factors We now also know more about other factors that influence blackoutssuch as drinking on an empty stomach or when sleep deprived. Across the board there seems to be inherent brain vulnerabilities, and genetic vulnerabilities, that put a person at risk.
Consent wormhole Like the risk factors, the consequences of blacking out are not only worse for adolescents, but also for women. You have to rely on a preponderance of evidence to determine whether or not consent was given. Screening questionnaires about alcohol use now routinely ask about prior blackout experiences. Blackout screening Mary-Beth Miller, an addiction psychologist at the University of Missouri, found that a simple intervention technique could help blackout drinkers reduce their drinking, a finding she first showed in ex-army veterans and then extended to university drinkers.
Some messed-up behaviours get laughed off and normalised. Read. Open share tools. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Instagram. Sign up to our newsletter. Around the bbc.
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This site uses cookies to improve your experience and deliver personalised advertising. You can opt out at any time or find out more by reading our cookie policy. By now you should know not to trust everything you see online. Despite being one of the internet’s oldest informal rules, the UK wgen seeing a growth in the number of sextortion cases. And new analysis reveals the people behind the blackmailing scams are making thousands of dollars through the practice. Most organised sextortion scams look similar. A victim is approached through social media and after they establish a rapport with the attacker, the conversation turns sexual.
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