As a ten-year-old girl, Natascha Kampusch from Vienna was kidnapped on her way to school. In 2006, after eight years in captivity, she managed to escape. In Ö3-“Frühstück bei mir” she reported on Sunday about her current life: “I drive to the stable almost every day and then I ride. It’s very time-consuming. My books are my main source of income.”
With co-author Judith Schneiberg she recently wrote the guide “Show strength. Coping strategies for a powerful life”. The book will be officially presented in Vienna on Monday evening. In it, Kampusch describes methods that helped her in the years in the dungeon and afterwards, trauma therapy for example: “Even today I’m still in therapy.” During the time she was in captivity, she was particularly helped to think in fantasy worlds.
“The word ‘cellar’ particularly triggers me”
Kampusch told Ö3 that she had drawn a handle on the dungeon door: “I imagined that I could move the handle, that the door could come out, that it wasn’t just locked. And I imagined that some people are coming to save me.” She consciously brought out the memories for the book: “That didn’t bother me, because it was about the experiences that helped me. But sometimes the memory of the dungeon suddenly comes over me. I then experience a kind of hell, but come out of it stronger because I have the certainty that this is no longer the case.” Words also revive the time in captivity: “The word ‘cellar’ particularly triggers me,” she said in the radio interview.
Finding a source of income
Anyone who knows “another source of income” apart from their book projects “should get in touch. Seminars, moderate something, work as a speaker – I would be interested in that,” she continued, according to Ö3. “I envisioned a bigger journalism career, but not everyone is ready to support a kidnapping victim.”
For dealing with crises, she recommends: “All people should be grateful that it didn’t get any worse. I do that too.”
Source: Nachrichten
