2023-10-20 11:21:41
Her childhood was a complete trauma. Now Juliane Kaltenegger would like to manage her everyday life with the help of an assistance dog. She is collecting money for this in an online fundraiser. Photo: private
“Unfortunately, I had to experience many traumas in my life that severely restricted my life,” writes Juliane Kaltenegger. The 22-year-old, who lives in Ingolstadt, initiated an online fundraising campaign via the internet platform betterplace.me to collect money for an assistance dog that could make her life easier.
The fact that the young woman, as she writes, suffers from “complex post-traumatic stress disorder” with “dissociative disorders and depression” is not surprising if one delves even slightly into her story.
“The horror parents from Ihrlerstein”
What Juliane experienced as a small child will leave its mark throughout her life. “The horror parents of Ihrlerstein” was the headline of a tabloid newspaper at the time in its report on the court hearing against the parents.
Although there were repeated complaints against the parents, it took years until the eight children were removed from the run-down house in the Kelheim district. The Donaukurier also reported on the case.
“My parents abused me mentally and physically for years,” says Juliane Kaltenegger in an interview with our newspaper today, around 15 years later. She goes public to raise awareness of her fundraising campaign for an assistance dog. So far only 500 euros have been received.
The assistance dog specially trained for them costs around 30,000 euros. She often receives support on the Internet, but there are also very negative comments and “stupid sayings”. “You’re too pretty to be sick,” one wrote to her.
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We’ll spare the shy-looking young woman from telling you exactly what triggered her trauma. “You can read all of this on the internet,” says the 22-year-old. After she and her siblings left their parents, Juliane lived in an institution for children.
“That’s where things continued to some extent.” At the time, she was “the only girl in the group with all boys.” Was raped. “No one really cared about it.”
Wounds in the soul
The wounds in her soul are far from healed. Juliane has been receiving psychiatric treatment for years. Has had two hospital stays. She shows her severely disabled person’s card, which confirms that she has a 50 percent disability. Provides documents from doctors and clinics to prove that she is really sick and the reason for her fundraiser is genuine.
Juliane Kaltenegger has been fighting for a therapy place again for two years. She tried within a radius of 100 kilometers. Vain. Either you are “not responsible”, there is a long waiting list or you only get a place if you are at acute risk of suicide, she was told.
“I can’t go to a clinic all the time.” She may have a chance in November through the university outpatient clinic in Ingolstadt.
Animals can sense when an attack is about to occur
How she expresses what is meant by the technical term “dissociative disorders” is as follows: “When I’m alone or have an appointment, I’m scared to death and break out in a sweat. I’d like to run away.”
She begins to panic weeks before an appointment. She often begins to tremble and convulse. “Then I see things that happened before.” Some people, but also smells or noises would trigger this.
“I don’t like leaving the house,” says Juliane. She is therefore totally dependent on her boyfriend, with whom she has been living for some time. The 25-year-old is also at the press conference. Supports his girlfriend wherever he can. But he’s not always there, for example when he’s at work. It is precisely in such situations that the assistance dog comes into play.
“The dog is trained to meet my needs,” she found out during a visit from dog trainer Jutta Heibel from Oberschneiding. The dogs for training as assistance dogs come from their own breeding. If she was outside and had a seizure, the dog could take her to a quiet place.
Like a dog with epilepsy, he can sense early when a seizure is about to occur. “A trained assistance dog could enrich my life. I could manage my everyday life with his help. “It could take me out of dissociative states, wake me up from nightmares, give me security and protect me from myself when I’m no longer in the here and now,” she writes on the Fundraiser page. Her doctors also recommended such a dog. The costs for this will not be covered by the cash register.
Because of her illness, Juliane had to give up her job as a warehouse logistics specialist. Finding a new job – for example in an office – is difficult, she says.
Maybe it will work with the assistance dog. It wouldn’t bother anyone under the desk, it would probably quickly become “the office’s favorite”, and it would be a huge support for Juliane.
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