How I overcame A LIFETIME OF TRAUMA

After suffering sexual abuse as a child, Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, 47, turned to alcohol before she discovered an unusual solace

- ASHLEIGH PAGE

Standing at the base camp of Everest, I took in the sheer size of the mountain that was towering above me. Behind me lay miles of rocky terrain and ahead of me, a steep ascent.

I knew that one day, I would finish the climb and take in the world from the top. It was 2005, and after years of trauma, a spiritual experience meant that I had finally found my purpose in life - to climb mountains.

Having grown up in Peru, the home of the Andes mountain range, mountains were always in sight around me. But while they were magnificent and beautiful, my childhood years were less so.

From the age of six to 10, I suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a family friend. It traumatised me, and it took a decade of silence before confiding in my family.

When I finally opened up to my mum about what had happened, she was worried about what could happen to me, and encouraged me to leave my hometown at 18. In 1992, I flew to America and settled in Pennsylvania to study Business.

But I wrongly believed leaving home would mean leaving behind my trauma. When it still dominated my thoughts, I turned to alcohol, partying and sex to numb the pain. And even though I had some family nearby I felt I had nobody to turn to. I told my family back home I was doing well. Yet I was spending my nights blacking out and my mornings trying to piece together what had happened.

Meanwhile, I was also struggling with my sexuality, knowing deep down I was gay but still sleeping with men.

When I started work at a drinks company in 1997, I hid my boozing behind a workaholic persona. But when I wasn’t working, I was drinking, and even getting arrested for drink-driving in August 2004 wasn’t enough to curb my addiction – somehow, I managed to hide my arrest from my colleagues.