this is bbc news, the headlines: paralysis continues in the us congress with the republican leader in the house, kevin mccarthy, faling in his 11th attempt to get elected speaker — the session has now been adjourned and voting will continue on friday. a small group of republicans has been derailing attempts to elect him. three mexican security personnel have died following the arrest of ovidio guzman—lopez, the son of �*el chapo�*.

there've been further revelations by prince harry about his life in britain's royal family. his new book isn't due out until next week — but parts of it have already been made public. it contains a series of claims, including an allegation his brother prince william physically attacked him. now on bbc news: addiction — a mental health crisis? a warning this programme deals with upsetting themes. hello. hi. tony. jeremy. it is april 2021 and i am in north—west england meeting tony. covid rules apply. we still have our masks on. with a bit of luck we're getting the end of it. thankfully we hit it off and that is good news because for the next year or so i will see a lot of him. when we finish with this what would you like people to understand about you and people like you that we do not understand at the moment? we feel love and hate like everybody else,

we are people just like everybody else. we are human beings. most drug addicts have a reason that they are addicted. for tony, birkenhead is home. just across the river from liverpool. there are drug problems here, yes, but also an understanding of this inextricable link between addiction and mental health problems. this is a community with its own challenges but also its own answers as i'll be finding out. there is nothing wrong with this except for the c# key. tony has invited me around to his flat. he is busy and i have been roped in to help. fit it in that way. oh, yeah. and then just lengthways. his music keyboard needs fixing.

i can't sell this because it's too important, see. i want to find out what's at the root of tony's problems. he is 58 now. but it all started when he was a teenager and his mum and dad both died. things happen like bereavement of your parents or your mates when you are a teenager. that can turn you into schizophrenia and that is what happened to me. does this help you with mental health and stuff. most definitely! if tony's problems start with schizophrenia they are linked to, and complicated by, heroin. and he has been on it for more than three decades. how have you been? up and down. i have been using too much heroin. have you? i'd left it alone for a couple of weeks before i saw you and i can do that again but i have let myself down. i look at it like i am self—medicating rather than just getting high. itjust helps me to cope. you say self—medication do you think, possibly,

from your point of view, your mental health is better with the drugs and it would have been without? definitely, yes. what might have happened if you hadn't? i would have killed myself. i felt pretty low. how much time do you spend in this flat alone? all the time, nearly every day. i live here. i sleep on my own and i wake up alone. i am not good with women. i have no self—confidence so i am just single. it's the best policy for me. you are tough on yourself, made. do you consider yourself a failure? yeah. yeah, definitely. you don't have to spend much time with tony to understand that his key worker, john, is a vitally important figure in his life. when you was using the crack, the impact it had on your mental health, how manic you went, everything used to get to you a health of a lot more than it does now.

it's less frequent than it was. john knows that getting tony stable and settled is a long—term commitment. now are you happy in your own skin? i have had to be. you just wonder where he is going with it all. it depends on what tony wakes up on, what day and obviously he has adhd and paranoid schizophrenia, underlying i think he is autistic as well but he has never had that looked into. john keeps across tony's medication that tony gets from his psychiatric nurse for his schizophrenia. he also just gets him. you know that's something you shouldn't be doing, don't you? john is just one small part of a drug support network here that includes nhs services and specialist recovery programmes and voluntary organisations. and then there is the mental health side. it is crucial. in the wirral, 72% of the opiate users and 84% of the alcoholics who are in treatment here, are also living with serious mental health conditions.

that is why i have come to seejoe. you cannot see it in yourself sometimes when you look in the mirror. he is the manager at companeros. it might look like a coffee bar and it is a coffee bar. it's a bit scouse, isn't it? but look again. this place is also, essentially, a nhs funded a&e for those in mental health crisis. you're doing amazing. i am not strong enough to fight against my head. can you keep yourself safe?

i think. you think so? my head won't let me. the idea is that anyone can come through these doors, no questions asked, no delays. well done. i'll go and get you a brew. when someone comes in here in crisis, we don't want them to wait an hour or two to see someone. at the moment, without this place, they'll go to a&e. if they go there they will wait for six or seven hours. this is a safe place, they can come in and have a tea or coffee but ultimately they need to feel like they are being heard and listened to. in there like that. it is a big achievement to give anything up. i am on 30—a0 cups of tea a day. ask most people here and they will tell you this link between mental health and substance abuse is real. for dude, it was the booze. lager, vodka, everything, do you know what i mean? anything i could get

my hands on, really. that was five years, six months and four days ago and counting. dude has been off the drink since then. sometimes he is strong enough to volunteer and make the coffees, support others in crisis. but he is still working on his own recovery. i suffer a lot of ptsd and i was self—harming, i have nightmares and stuff like that. i don't sleep well. i get help from these. there is stuff in your past that has been difficult — then there's booze and now it is recovery? now it is recovery, yeah. which is hard but i think it is hard for anybody, do you know what i mean? there is nothing easy about it. thank you for talking to us. thank you, man. good for the gaff. keep yourself safe and try to get back to us if you can. i was drinking every single night. - i came here as a 40—year—old

man whojust did not know. where to go. rob is another who arrived here in crisis. forjoe and his team it is all about making that first crucial connection, especially with men who can find it hard to ask for help. parts of my family, parts i of my circle of friends don't understand how ill i was, - how close i was do you know what i mean? and this place did. they got it. they understood when i sat. at home crying in the shower on my own, these get it. and something this simple can save lives. can save lives. you really believe that? i know it. i'm living proof. i'm here, aren't i? if this wasn't here, i wouldn't be. - it is that simple. there is one that is in the pipeline, share that one. the human touch. all right, sam. take it easy, mate. important stuff.

i am in birkenhead spending a year getting to know tony. schizophrenic, addicted to heroin, but so much more than that. of course, tony comes with plenty of baggage but it's not all bleak. do you want a hand with these ones as well? yes please. today we are out on the town. as soon as we get them out it will start raining again, you know? it probably will, won't it. a street showcase of his photography. i can be here for two or three hours and nobody even stops to look. it has been both a passion and a therapy. you take the pictures? ido, yeah. after setting up, a chance to catch up and when tony says dabbling, what he means is using heroin. how have you been, mate? i'm 0k. i'm still dabbling but i haven't been as good as this for years. it has taken me a while to

get off the cocaine. crack cocaine? i packed that in nearly a year ago. a year in september it will be. the beginning of september last year i stopped. so off the crack, and that is a relief because that was a thing that actually was threatening tony's life. here, hold this. and on you as well. 0k, he's still on the heroin. but tony's mental health come a long way since the really bad times. i spent a decade in and out of psychiatric units and all over the country. i kept running away from birkenhead. i walked from here to oxford. did you? it took me five days. six days and five nights. i learned to sleep in daytime and walk at night because it was too cold to sleep at night even in the summer. tony told me often that he wants to get off all non—prescription drugs

and it would be great to see him get a fresh start away from the heroin and away from the stigma that goes with it. i get called a junkie and a crackhead and what can you say? it is true, i am. it is not nice to be called it, but at the end of the day that is what i am. but if there is abuse there is also kindness. you're a good man, i mean that. thank you, take care. and compliments. that is the nearest i have got into a sunset. it does him good. he spends a lot of time in that flat on his own and when he is out on the street, he says a lot of people give him compliments and i don't think people give him compliments about much in his life so it is nice to hear them say that that is a nice photograph, nice picture. it is good for him. the lesson i'm getting from birkenhead is that none of this is easy but it is worth the effort.

at the spider project they have been at it for decades and mal bowen has been here from the start. here, there are activities and support to fill the hole that is left when the drugs and the booze are history. and there is growing recognition of the vicious circle that links mental illness and substance abuse. pick any file you want of the membership. every single file had depression, anxiety, all kinds of mental health issues, every single one. literally every single one. and the need became apparent of people coming through the door more and more in crisis. more so than ever felt we needed to do something about this, really. so they did do something. mal and business manager caroline founded the mental health crisis cafe companeros, with an ethos that anyone

and everyone would be welcome. we had stigma and fear ofjudgement, is that a barrier for people coming through the doors? they've carry that judgement with them and then they come in and worry that they will have that, that that label will continue. so it is really important to get it right when they first come through the door. are you right, tone? not too bad. on a sunday afternoon in september... i'm interrupting your lunch. ..i am back with tony. having a look at the diagram, the arrow is going back in time. why is that? how does that work? does it go back in time from the future? often when i catch up with him, he seems to be having a good day, he seems to like the company. patient�*s they describe the universe. the standard model starts at that period of time, ten to the —43 seconds.

and he enjoys bamboozling me with quantum physics and other deep science stuff. it is just a tiny bit of gap between that and absolute zero. but what i don't get to see is the everyday hard grind of his life. sometimes, when he's having a moment, he sends an e—mail. do you want to read my... "i'm looking forward to dying. i am done with this world, the wars everywhere, religion causing more problems than it solves". yeah, yeah, i remember saying that. "there is no such thing as god, there is no such place is heaven or hell". that's true. "no one cares what happens to me, theyjust want me off drugs. i don't think there is much more to say, except i will try to stay off drugs from now on, but to the detriment of my life".

so you have told me before that you take drugs because you like taking them? they make me feel better than the feeling i get when i'm straight. with all the things that have gone on in my life, you know? but the worst thing about this, the worst thing, you say, "someone will find me. i can't put my neighbour through the ordeal of seeing a dead body. so i can't even and myself without doing harm to others". yeah that's right. "i'm going to bed now. i cannot stop crying". yeah, i remember. that is the deep depression i get in. that's what's wrong with me. yeah. do you feel suicidal? no, not at the moment. but you have your moments, don't you? that's how i felt on that night. it's hard.

all your life becomes just around taking drugs. you don't know anything else. every time i talk to you, i think you are 100% honest with me. ifeel ashamed, i do feel ashamed. your truth today, tony, is not necessarily the same as your truth tomorrow. it isn't, things change for me. you've caught me in a melancholy... ..attitude, and that shocked me. i'm mentally ill, and that's a fact. i wouldn't deny it. i'm good at looking normal, and being normal, but at the base level, i'm just, you know, istruggle to hang on to reality sometimes. i am back in the coffee shop, which is also birkenhead's mental health crisis centre.

so when people are just finding something to fidget with, they are there. they can help, can't they? they really can. i'm meeting roxy. i have come straight from a&e, i haven't had a positive experience there. i was discharged after quite a serious overdose. listening to roxy and to others here... do you want to come upstairs? ..it feels like conventional mental health services are stretched to breaking point, and i'm thinking that's why the nhs has decided to fund this place. already in its first six months, it has seen more than 300 people. this is probably the singularly most substantial help that i've had my whole life, and it is not even... it's not clinical, it's not, "ok, this is how you deal with your problems". it's, "ok, how can we guide you through it?" you know, setting small goals that might not even seem like a goal.

i don't think i would have made it past that night of being in a&e for a second time, without having this place. i don't think i would've survived the weeks after, i don't think. i would not have survived the family issues, i don't think i would have survived my own mind. when you've got chronic illnesses, people say, "you need to get out more". where do i go, though? this place isjust wonderful, it really is. it's fantastic. how are you doing after yesterday's conversation? not everyone i have met here has addictive issues, but every day here brings new evidence of the link between mental health and substance abuse. this place is making a difference. # and i say, hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. # i said hey, what's going on? #. i am so proud to be managing a service like this, _

that is making such an amazing impact on people's lives. - people come here because they have a drink issue. i rather than drinking, they come here. - they come in here - rather than self—harm. this is a place where people can go and be safe and be . heard, and ijust wish - they were all over the country, to be honest. can i check your situation, the oxygen levels? back with tony, and it is a big day. have you gained some weight, tony? no, well, maybe a little but... his regular six—month check—in with the doctor. how have things been, tony, since we last met? yeah, all right, still very lonely... it is not easy, this. tony wants to stay on the prescription methadone and amphetamines he says keep him stable. there is no crack cocaine? no, i packed that in a year ago, doctor. the methadone and the

vitamins prescribe... for tony, he has always told me he self—medicates to stop the schizophrenia, and when he stops, there's trouble. you haven't been experiencing any voices, or you haven't been feeling paranoid ? not really, no. the blood tests are looking pretty good. tony has been preparing for more than a week. he has managed to stay off the heroin, and it has not been easy. i've been straight, i gave up pot and everything, i gave up smoking weed, did you know? everything, i stopped, and it felt good to be straight and have a clear head, but at the same time everything else in my life all came into focus. it was murder, it was horrible. bottom line, things have gone ok. tony's support package continues, unchanged, and for him, that means stability. the doctor wants him off the heroin, but there's not much progress on that. it's december.

christmas is coming. but, for tony, that doesn't change much. all i want to do is top up my meter! the constants in his life are drugs... and my electric! ..schizophrenia, and loneliness. how is your self—esteem? my self—esteem is quite low, because i don't have a partner. it'sjust something i have learnt to live with, that i'm not going to have a partner, ever. so all you can do in life is smile and grin about it. this is my sister's wedding. tony often tells me about his family, and now he's found some old cine films. that's my sister. so i would have been born then. she was ten when i was born.

i can't help thinking that things could have been really different for him, and tony says his sister and two brothers have had successful and fulfilling lives. but tony's mental health and addiction have cost him any chance of the kind of family relationships that he would like, and any chance of a career. the observation i would make is, you are so talented and so intelligent, that is manifestly true, that somewhere in society, the contribution that you could be making, with all your skills and talents, is... it's not, it's not, you can say i'm clever and everything, but give me a job and i wouldn't be able to do it. i'm so clumsy, i will knock things over, spill things, break things. day after day, it doesn't stop. i'm incredibly clumsy. i couldn't hold a job somewhere.

february now, and tony's on the move. ok, i have to go... this is different. i haven't seen him look like this. he's edgy. it feels like he's on a mission. back at the flat, it's clear where he's been, and what he's brought home. tony, you're having a cup of tea, a bit of cake, and some heroin. and some heroin. not the average afternoon break. no. not at all. i've just been looking forward to getting high. you don't mind me seeing you do it? no, not in the slightest. i'm not ashamed of it. if i was ashamed of it, i wouldn't do it, i wouldn't be able to live with myself. it's a means to an end. what is the end? getting my brain where it needs to be. which is? peaceful and undisturbed

by all the thoughts and trouble and schizophrenia. this was going to be my last day with tony, and i had some more questions for him, but he is pretty high now, and distracted. i think i'll have to wait until tomorrow. next morning, we are back on an even keel, and his what i want to know. decades into a drug habit, how come you are still alive? that's a good question. it is a lottery. life is a lottery. it is probability. it is only luck that i'm still here. you know it is dangerous? of course i do, yeah. yeah, it could kill me, it could kill me. this was going to be the year that tony got off the illegal drugs. that hasn't happened.

but he has stayed off the crack cocaine, and his mental health is pretty good. i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for people like john, and the doctors and the nurses that have looked after me over the years, and i appreciate that, and i would like to thank them, anyway, for all the effort they put in, you know. i haven't been the easiest of patients to deal with, because of my illness. for tony, what does success look like? he is much better, and i think, for him, as long as he is not using all day, every day, he is not selling any of his belongings, life isn't unravelling in front of him, i think he is sustaining his life the way it is now, and not only that, he seems a bit more happier in his life now. i know what people think about me, when they see these clips, but i'm ok. i won't rob you. you're safe with me, regardless of being paranoid

schizophrenic. you're not in any immediate danger, put it that way. you know, i've learned so much over the past year. these labels we use — drug addict, schizophrenic, whatever — they don't tell you about the real person, the person living with all of that. tony is intelligent, he's perceptive, but he's also very vulnerable. you know what, this journey has showed me that recovery is different for everybody, and it is finding the right path for the right person at the right time. you can follow more of my year in birkenhead in an extended version, which is available on the bbc iplayer. if the issues raised in this film have affected you, details of organisations offering information and support are available online.

hello there. we've got some noisy weather around at the moment. rain sweeping south—eastwards out of the way, but staying windy in scotland into the early morning. strong winds through the central belt. particularly windy across northern scotland — gusts of 60, 70mph. lots of showers blown in here. after the overnight rain, elsewhere, we're going to find some sunshine around. the winds will ease in scotland, the showers do become fewer and there'll be some sunshine here. western areas will tend to cloud over more through the afternoon. little rain coming into south—west england and south wales. sunshine hangs on for eastern areas. it will be a mild and breezy day, with temperatures 9—12 degrees, but it will get wetter during the evening out towards the west and the winds

will pick up again. and this band of rain will push its way eastwards during friday night into saturday morning. strong southerly winds will keep it on the mild side. we do have that rain moving slowly eastwards during saturday. it's going to be followed by some sunshine and blustery showers that will continue into the second half of the weekend.

welcome to bbc news. i'm rich preston. our top stories: a speaker has not been elected. the longest race in more than 150 years: kevin mccarthy repeatedly loses the vote to be elected speaker of the house. deadly violence in mexico follows the arrest of a leader of an infamous drugs gang. the omicron covid subvariant rapidly spreading across the united states, the most transmissible yet. and prince harry alleges in his new memoir that his brother prince william physically attacked him. there is always been this

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