The Gift HIV bug chasing documentary

[Guest]

 

[Kimberley]

Old stuff before prep was introduced

[BootmanLA]

5 hours ago, Kimberley said:

Old stuff before prep was introduced

Moreover, it was when single-pill HAART was in its infancy, and only a couple of drug combinations were available - and those weren't nearly as effective as today's treatments.

I have no doubt that there are still some number (how many, I can't fathom to guess) real "chasers" out there. Based on this website you'd think they were everywhere, but I suspect quite a few are people who are turned on by the idea while not actually wanting to experience it directly. 

[timfreo]

Popularity of chasing has gone ballistic 

[BootmanLA]

1 minute ago, timfreo said:

Popularity of chasing has gone ballistic 

When navel-gazing, navels seem enormous.

[garsento]

It is worth noting that the two men profiled in The Gift each died in 2015, one of them explicitly of AIDS.

It is also worth noting that the documentary did not take note if the fact that both men were actively using crystal meth when they made their terrible choices.

 

[cosmaz]

On 8/17/2021 at 11:50 PM, BootmanLA said:

 have no doubt that there are still some number (how many, I can't fathom to guess) real "chasers" out there. Based on this website you'd think they were everywhere, but I suspect quite a few are people who are turned on by the idea while not actually wanting to experience it directly. 

I agree, it's easy to "chase" or beg for poz cum if you are fucking raw on prep but that's not chasing as much as it is fantasizing.  No disrespect, fantasizing is as valid and hot as chasing, it's not the same thing though. 

 

[cosmaz]

On 8/19/2021 at 10:52 PM, torcub said:

the fact that both men were actively using crystal meth when they made their terrible choices.

 

I haven't seen the movie, though I remember the hullabaloo around chasing around that time.  What "terrible choices" did they make and do you know if that's the way they saw their chiices? 

[garsento]

2 hours ago, cosmaz said:

I haven't seen the movie, though I remember the hullabaloo around chasing around that time.  What "terrible choices" did they make and do you know if that's the way they saw their chiices? 

One of the people who was being interviewed kept condemning himself in that documentary for having made the choice to het infected with HIV, saying repeatedly in The Gift and elsewhere that he had not understood what he was doing and that he deeply regretted the decision.

[think before following links] https://www.poz.com/article/A-Boy-s-Own-Story-799-2441

Google his name and you will find multiple interviews with him in which he talks about how his choice to get infected with HIV hurt him in so many ways. Too, I do not think he wanted to die in his mid-30s.

[think before following links] https://www.hemmingsenfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Douglas-Hitzel/

Maybe Kenboy was of a different mind. I do not know, not least since he also died in 2015.

[LoveAndBeLoved]

Inspite of the potential ridicule, hard drugs aren't no joke. They should be legalized in my opinion but I would advocate that we don't do drugs except for medicinal/legitimate purposes. In fact I feel I have gotten semi-addicted to poppers. I sniff when jerking off and I am trying to change that habit. Back to the documentary, truly chasing (not just fantasy) is no joke. It has consequences. Take Prep if you can afford it. Most people living with hiv will discourage bug chasing. This forum represents only a fringe group of the hiv+ community. 

[timfreo]

It's very sad when Bugchasers are still ostracised by the "community" , still pigeon-holed into dark corners as disgusting examples . All while the same community accepts and revels in the pockmarked skin, brain melting, children destroying "wonders" of methamphetamine use. 

[tallslenderguy]

i sort of get how some are into "gifting" or "chasing," though i do not relate. As long as consent is part of the equation, it's their choice.  Personally, i don't want to be sick or feel awful, and that's what happens with AID's.  i don't want to have a chronic disease where i have to take meds every day for the rest of my life, but that's what happens with HIV if you don't want to progress to AID's.  i have never been stoned or drunk in my life. i have been around drugs and alcohol from a young age, so i have seen a lot of their effects, lived with people who use extensively. i'm also a critical care nurse and have cared for more meth patients than i want to count, who have destroyed their heart or brain from meth use. i don't want that either, for me, it is not a good trade off for what ever pleasure i might derive from their use.  

i'm also a Covid nurse and more recently all my patients have been younger people who did not get vaccinated for whatever reason. So far, not one of those people has told me how happy they are to have Covid, each instead has told me they wished they had gotten vaccinated. Each was confident that Covid was something different than it is and the reality of it was a shock.  It's different that HIV, but there is a similar component that fantasy and reality are two different things.  Our ideas and reality do not always aline.