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Episode 20
The High-Functioning Addict
A Foraging Teacher on How Plants Saved His Life
Guest: Robin Halford — forager, somatic teacher and founder of EatWeeds
Trigger Warning
This episode contains themes of addiction, homelessness and drug use. Please be aware before listening.
Episode Description
Robin Halford spent years running a digital marketing training company — 15 hours a day, 7 days a week. He also spent years as a drug addict, hiding it well enough that he could stand in front of professional chefs, deliver a three-hour session, and nobody would know. High functioning, in the specific sense that he could still do the work. But as Robin says: the rest of your life is a shit show.
By the time he hit rock bottom, his wife had divorced him, he’d lost his house, his daughter didn’t want to see him, he had a granddaughter he wasn’t allowed to meet, and none of his friends wanted him around. He ended up homeless for over a year — not a rough sleeper, but wandering Britain, teaching plants in exchange for a bed and a meal.
In this conversation, Robin traces his story from a brutal childhood and an early calling to the priesthood, through 20 years of using, through getting clean in a Buddhist recovery community in Thailand, to the work he now does with plants — teaching people to forage, to heal, and to feel their body again through direct sensory experience.
This is a conversation based in reality, not romanticism. It goes to some dark places and comes back with something real.
Timestamps
00:00 That’s What Happens When You’re a Really Good Drug Addict
01:21 Talk Ten — Quickfire Questions with Robin
03:37 The Calling to the Priesthood — Running Away From His Body
07:20 A Brutal Childhood — Not Unusual, But Real
07:50 Religion as a Drug — A Way to Bypass the Existential Void
08:30 The Independent Catholic Bishop and the Contemplative Group
10:15 The Out of Body Experience — The Choice to Come Back
12:45 Belief Systems and Why He Left — I Want Direct Experience
14:30 Setting Up EatWeeds in 2008
16:00 The Digital Marketing Company — 15 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week
18:30 When the Addiction Started to Take Hold
21:00 The High-Functioning Addict — Delivering Three-Hour Sessions High as a Kite
24:00 Eye Drops and Masking — How He Hid It
26:00 The Friends Leaving — Can’t Deal With You, Rob
28:00 How Good Could You Be If You Weren’t Using?
30:30 Getting Clean in a Buddhist Recovery Community in Thailand
31:30 The Fear That He Wouldn’t Be Able to Create Without the Drugs
32:00 Get Out of Your Head, Come to Your Senses
33:00 The TED Conference in Edinburgh — Better Sober
35:00 Losing Everything — Wife, House, Daughter, Granddaughter
37:00 Homeless for Over a Year — Teaching Plants for a Bed and a Meal
40:00 Not a Rough Sleeper, But Homeless Nonetheless
42:00 How Plants Became the Route Back Into His Body
44:00 The Radio Analogy — Turning Up the Volume on Feeling
46:00 The Practices That Kept Him From Dying
48:00 Trauma in the Body — Monsters in the Dungeon
50:00 Life Is the Workshop — Not a Process Weekend
52:00 How Are You Behaving Every Day? That’s the Practice
54:00 The Car Crash — Nine Lives Used Up
55:27 Dom’s Closing Reflection
You can find Robin at;
IG:https://www.instagram.com/robinharfordofficial/
Resources
If this episode has raised issues for you:
Narcotics Anonymous UK: 0300 999 1212 — ukna.org
Alcoholics Anonymous UK: 0800 9177 650 — alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk
Samaritans — free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: 116 123
All previous Torque episodes available at
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Original music composed and used with permission from Alex Tilley
Video Editing for Socials assistance provided by Lily O'Connor
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