It might be worth considering why you are using drugs. We know that students use different drugs for many different reasons. In some cases, this can be when they are struggling with other issues in their lives and use drugs to help manage their mental health.

You can talk in confidence with the Student Support Advice Team about your drug or substance use. Your conversation will be confidential in line with our confidentiality policy.

• If you are using to help manage your mental health, you could consider support from your GP, talk things through with a Support Advisor or seek specialist support from our Mental Health workers

• If you are using to help with sleeping difficulties our Advisors can offer interventions that can help with this, or you might want to get advice from your GP

• Your substance use might be motivated by helping you manage stress. Its often worth trying to solve the root cause of your anxiety. If this is caused by money worries, speak in confidence with a Student Money Advisor who will be able to help unpick the problem and may be able to identify additional funding for you. If you are having other personal difficulties consider sharing these with an Advisor. Exercise can be another coping strategy for managing stress and you can get other tips on our Be Well campaign.

• The SU, working with the charity Developing Health Independence (DHI), offer free and confidential drug-testing kits that can determine if a sample of your drugs is what you think it is, as well as providing safe drug advice, weekly in The SU building.

• Team Bath have a ‘Clean Sport Policy’. If you require support around drugs in sport, questions around the policy or need advice around banned substances for your sport visit the Team Bath Clean sport page. For wider information about image and performance enhancement drugs, including anabolic steroids, IPED Info developed by Public Health Wales provides factual information and harm reduction advice.

• Talk to Frank is a government website that provides factual information about drugs.

• Release is an independent charity providing a national centre of expertise on drugs and drugs law. Release provides a free confidential and non-judgemental national information and advice service in relation to drugs and drug laws. Its teams who operate the helpline and respond to your queries are highly knowledgeable lawyers and drug professionals who are on-hand to help and advise you.

• The Loop is a not-for-profit community interest company established in 2013, which provides drug safety testing, and welfare and harm reduction services at nightclubs, festivals and other leisure events.

• The Drugsand.me website provides accessible, objective and comprehensive guides to help reduce the short and long-term harms arising from using drugs.

• The Welsh Emerging Drugs & Identification of Novel Substances Project – WEDINOS for short – provides a mechanism to collect and test unknown, unidentified or new psychoactive substances and combinations of substances. Samples may be submitted by anyone in Wales. Following analysis of samples, WEDINOS produces and disseminates accurate and harm reduction information regarding the chemical profile of the samples and the legal context, via its website, press release health alerts and the quarterly bulletin ‘PHILTRE’.

• If you want to access some advice or support from a local organisation which is separate from the university then Developing Health and Independence is the Bath area Drug & Alcohol Harm Reduction Service. They are currently offering a phone service for University of Bath students.

• To find support if you are a distance learner, on placement or in vacations you can also find a local drug treatment service

• Help4Addiction is a large addiction helpline, offering a completely free support from a team of highly accredited experienced counsellors. They offer support not only to an individual with addiction but also to those around them.

If you are worried about someone else’s substance use (whether they are another student, a friend or a family member) you can also seek advice from our Wellbeing Advisors.