On The Mend

Davinia Taylor: Recovering from Addiction, Loss & Self-Doubt

On The Mend

Show Notes

This week’s guest is Davinia Taylor, who challenges the traditional narrative of addiction and opens up about her journey from shame and self-doubt to embracing recovery on her own terms.

In this episode, Davinia talks candidly about her realisation that addiction isn’t always tied to trauma, and how understanding the biochemical and genetic basis of her struggle, low dopamine, ADHD, and even Viking ancestry, helped remove the shame she once carried. She reframes addiction from a moral failing to a biological reality, offering a powerful shift in perspective.

Davinia also shares the truth about recovery: it’s messy, it’s imperfect, and it doesn’t always follow the rigid rules we’re told to follow. She opens up about the constant negotiation of active addiction and the exhaustion it creates, and the surprising discovery of true energy, not from alcohol, but through biohacking and ketones, which have become her source of fuel to live, not just survive.

Honest, raw, and deeply human, Davinia’s story is about rebuilding beyond perfection and finding peace in being imperfectly present for the people who matter most.

This episode covers the following themes: addiction, shame, self-acceptance, and vulnerability.

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