XBIZ Amsterdam was busy, brilliant, exhausting, and incredibly special.

We started both mornings with our Breakfast of Champions, sponsored by the generous and wonderful PaySite. Just as they were in Miami, the breakfasts were a huge success.

There’s something so special about starting a busy show surrounded by a beautiful group of people, sharing breakfast, conversations and connections before the madness of the day begins. One person even told us it was the best networking they did during the entire show. I’ll take that.

These events are always about connection for me. They give us the opportunity to spend time with our community, reconnect with familiar faces and meet people we may have only ever spoken to online and sometimes the conversations I have at these events are a powerful reminder of just how much those connections can mean.

Every so often, someone will stop me at an event, take me to one side, or find a quiet moment in the middle of all the chaos, and tell me that Pineapple Support saved their life. Those words never get easier to hear.

I still have absolutely no idea how you’re supposed to respond when someone tells you that. I hug them, smile, usually say thank you and try to process the enormity of what they’ve just trusted me with, while attempting to form an appropriate human response. And I carry those words with me for a very long time.

During the three days of XBIZ Amsterdam, four different people said them to me. Four people.

It feels like equal parts blessing and sadness. I’m incredibly grateful that Pineapple was there when they needed us, while at the same time being painfully aware of what each of those people must have been going through to reach a point where they were considering taking their own lives.

An Industry That Can Feel Incredibly Lonely

The adult industry can be an incredibly lonely place, we can be surrounded by people, followers, fans, colleagues and constant online interaction and still feel completely alone, and when someone does decide to reach out for help, finding support that understands the realities of working in the adult industry isn’t always easy.

Finding someone who doesn’t judge you, sexualise you, try to rescue you, or reduce everything you’re feeling to the work that you do can be incredibly difficult. Sometimes you don’t need someone to understand every part of your life, you just need them to see you as a human being who is struggling and deserves support.

That has always been at the heart of Pineapple Support. Creating a place where people in our industry can ask for help without having to defend or explain who they are first. Where they can access therapists who understand and respect their work, and where they know they will be treated with dignity, compassion and without judgement.

September is Suicide Prevention Month, and those four conversations in Amsterdam were a very real reminder of why this work matters.

Grateful That We Are Here

I am so incredibly grateful that Pineapple Support exists, but Pineapple doesn’t exist because of one person. It exists because of every therapist who chooses to work with and understand our community, every sponsor and donor who makes it possible for us to provide care., every volunteer who gives their time, every member of our team who works behind the scenes, every company that shares our resources, every event that gives us space and every person who tells someone else, “Pineapple is there if you need them.”

I’m grateful that I get to attend these shows and meet the incredible people who have trusted us enough to let Pineapple be part of their mental health journey, and more than anything, I hope Pineapple Support continues long after my days. I hope that no matter how much our industry changes, there will always be somewhere people can turn where they know they will be heard, understood and supported without judgement.

Sometimes what we do is about therapy sessions, support groups, workshops, breakfasts and conversations, and sometimes, quite literally, it is about keeping someone here.

Thank you to everyone who makes that possible.