I was a heroin addict and had given up on myself. Then suddenly, briefly, I felt a desire to live

At my lowest point, I sought self-annihilation. I was saved at the last moment by two of the few people I had not pushed away

This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan review – the trip of a lifetime

This fascinating insight into our relationship with mind-altering plants weaves personal experimentation with cultural history

Marc Thompson: how an HIV diagnosis at 17 helped him change Britain

In 30 years as an activist, he has fought to stop black gay men being forgotten, broken taboos about homosexuality and campaigned to make life-changing PrEP medication available on the NHS

‘The ketamine blew my mind’: can psychedelics cure addiction and depression?

This week sees the opening of the first UK high-street clinic offering psychedelic-assisted therapy. Could popping psilocybin be the future of mental healthcare?

CBD will go on sale in Australia, but first manufacturers will have to prove it works

While CBD has been approved for over-the-counter sale, there are regulatory hurdles to clear before it actually appears in pharmacies

‘I needed to fix myself for my kids’: breaking the cycle of domestic abuse

Families with complicated lives are being helped by a project that supports both parents during their child’s first two years

Covid risks making society more unequal than since early Victorian times

As life expectancy stalls and infant mortality rises, abolishing Public Health England will only make things worse, says public health expert Gabriel Scally

How can I stop being attracted to deeply damaged men?

My father was an abusive alcoholic and everyone I have been involved with in recent years has had addiction issues. How can I escape this negative pattern?

How do I teach my son not to take drugs when I did myself?

You need to focus on what you’ve achieved in beating your addiction, says Annalisa Barbieri. Be calm and factual: tell him how it really was

‘Social mothers’: the women who helped a Brazilian city halve its child death rate

Sobral had one of Brazil’s highest infant mortality rates, but a groundbreaking health scheme has drastically reduced its number of child deaths

‘I didn’t know if he’d recover’: NHS staff on the patients they’ll never forget

From physios working with stroke survivors to radiographers identifying 7/7 victims, it isn’t just doctors and nurses who form bonds with patients

DIY drugs: should hospitals make their own medicine?

The long read: If pharmaceutical companies rapidly inflate the price of their products, is there an alternative? One Dutch chemist thinks so

Rabbits may hold key to solving mystery of human female orgasm

Study suggests climax may be an evolutionary hangover – but crucial questions remain

‘My mother-in-law called me Walter White’: how magic mushrooms rescued me from grief

After our daughter’s death I was overwhelmed by pain and anxiety. Microdosing home-grown mushrooms helped me cope

‘They broke my mental shackles’: could magic mushrooms be the answer to depression?

New trials have shown the drug psilocybin to be highly effective in treating depression, with Oakland the latest US city to in effect decriminalise it last week. Some researchers say it could become ‘indefensible’ to ignore the evidence – but how would it work as a reliable treatment?