When you’re beginning your journey of drug use, it is easy to get a bit overenthusiastic and end up lost, especially when you don’t have any elders around to help guide you. Akshay spent a lot of time worrying that cannabis and LSD had given him drug-induced anxiety, depersonalisation and psychosis, but he eventually realised that the people who were trying to help him held some negative attitudes towards drugs, and he needed a more supportive — and experienced — community around him.

Alex has been dependent on opioids for 20 years. When conventional treatments did not help him reach his goal of abstinence, he looked to ibogaine treatment. UN interviewed him the week before and 2 weeks after the 7-day guided treatment. Alex’s model of treatment isn’t about not using drugs, it’s about freeing himself from habits that don’t serve him.

We know how hard it is to see a friend having a rough time. So here are some top tips from peer experience that might help you to support and guide someone through this experience