‘I have been struggling with life for years. On paper I have a very good life, but in practice I rarely feel happy,” Dennis writes. ‘Feelings of emptiness, loneliness and unrest prevail. In recent years, these negative feelings – which cost a lot of energy – have worsened. I know they’re wrong, but I can’t get them out of my body.’
Dennis says he has tried everything: medication, psychologists and a move back to Enschede. Nothing helped him. “It is likely that years of experimenting with medication during my adolescence damaged certain things in my head. I have since resigned myself to it,” continues the presenter, who wants to live for a few more years “to benefit everything and everyone that is dear to me.” to leave behind. ‘After that I take control of my own life.’
Dennis tells his story in the book Dennis Schouten: Damaged on the way to death. The biography was written by Andries Jelle de Jong and will be available in bookstores from April 2.