From drink, drugs and suicide attempts to being happier and healthier than ever: how one woman found what her soul needed, and is helping others do the same
- Gwen Siu struggled with her successful yet stressful life; feeling overcome with despair after leaving her job, she tried to kill herself with alcohol and drugs
- A silent retreat saw her change her diet and lifestyle, which led to feeling happier than she’d ever been – a link backed up by a number of scientific studies
Hongkonger Gwen Siu used to live a busy, fast-paced lifestyle, working in some of the city’s most dynamic restaurants and clubs – often putting in 14- to 16-hour days. She was successful, but she was neither happy nor healthy.
“My life was stressful, and to cope, I chain-smoked cigarettes, took drugs and sometimes drank alcohol until I blacked out,” the 33-year-old says. “After I left my job in 2016, I was unemployed for a while. My physical and emotional health deteriorated, and my self-worth was non-existent.”
Overcome with a sense of hopelessness and despair, Siu fell into a dark pit for a couple of years, culminating in a desire to end her life. “On three consecutive days, I tried to take my life using a combination of alcohol and drugs, but when those attempts failed, I took it as a sign that I had to give life another shot.”
She began to see a counsellor to figure out why she “needed to escape from reality”. The therapy helped, but she still didn’t know how to turn her life around. Burned out and desperate for a break, she attended a silent retreat in the Philippines at the end of 2019.
