Kees has moved about 26 times in his life and lived in Suriname with his parents for a while in his younger years. There he twice experienced an exorcism in the church, he reveals to presenter Beau van Erven Dorens. “You have to imagine, you are a boy of 12 or 13. We were then in the center of Paramaribo. There you have the Moravian Church and that sermon was about the devil. And during the final prayer someone suddenly started screaming.”
When Kees looks up, he sees a woman screaming and vomiting. “And it is pulled forward and it falls to the ground. And that pastor really started screaming: ‘Devil, get out, get out.'” The crime reporter says that this event had a lot of impact on him. “So I was always afraid from that moment on: that can happen to anyone. It can happen to me too.”
However, Kees only suffered greatly from this traumatic experience after his time in Suriname. “When I was in the military service, so after high school. Then I suddenly stood in the bar and they played videos. Some kind of horror movie also with an exorcist. I watched that and then I felt it coming back. And I suffered from that for five years. Just anxiety attacks. Panic.” He even calls it a ‘depressive period’. Despite his fears, Kees has not sought professional help. “I didn’t want to see a psychiatrist either, because I think: he’s going to confirm it in a bit and then I’m really crazy.”
Instead, Kees has tried to heal himself from his fears. “I thought myself out by taking the risk, because at a certain point I didn’t dare to drive through a tunnel anymore. I think: if I’m about to faint [door een paniekaanval, red.] then I hit an edge. Am I dead.” That’s why the crime reporter decides to drive through the tunnel ten times on purpose. After he does this, he feels liberated again. “And you know the best part about this?” he says to Beau. “I’m happier after that become.”
2023-08-31 19:55:58
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