Testimonial Angelika Sontheimer: diarrhoea, stomach cramps, insomnia, underweight

“I was desperate: Years of diarrhoea, stomach cramps and insomnia and virtually no healing results. My life was a daily struggle for survival.

 

I was pretty desperate before I came to Thilo Keller. I had been looking for cures for years, but got nowhere with the diarrhoea, stomach cramps and insomnia. At some point, the insomnia also affected my psyche – I lost the joy in life, I could no longer laugh and cried a lot. Extreme mood swings were my daily companions, I never knew how my day would turn out, I woke up in the morning in tears and often all I wanted to do was cry all day. My life was a daily struggle for survival and I was a physical wreck.

I didn’t know what to eat anymore and I didn’t understand my body.

My previous therapists wanted to treat me with antidepressants, but I didn’t want that. I didn’t know what to eat anymore and didn’t understand why my body sometimes reacted with diarrhoea and sometimes not. And then there were more and more intolerances and allergies. It started with hay fever and later I was diagnosed with fructose intolerance, allergies, lactose intolerance and histaminosis. This scared me even more and there wasn’t much left to eat afterwards.

The colonoscopy was negative, the doctors didn’t know what to do and said it was all psychological – I was just imagining things – and sent me to a psychologist.

I read a lot about histaminosis, bought appropriate cookbooks for cooking and baking without gluten, but still almost nothing worked and my body reacted to nearly everything with diarrhoea and/or stomach cramps. The first glimmer of hope for me was when I worked with Karin Haemmerle and through her I learned about Thilo Keller. Our first conversation was about sugar and starchy foods – this was my first learning experience – until then I had regularly eaten rice and potatoes as I tolerated them well. Now I knew how to handle rice and potatoes better.

What helped me a lot was the probiotic CALM. I had tried probiotics before but they didn’t help as much.

The counselling also gave me peace of mind, knowing that I was being guided by someone who knew how to do it. The probiotic helped me to tolerate lettuce and chicory again and to rebuild my diet bit by bit.

Another big step forward was testing for food intolerances, for example I didn’t know that mushrooms or turmeric and ginger just don’t suit me.

I kept trying that because it’ s said everywhere that it’ s so healthy, but I only dared to leave that out after the test had confirmed my physical feeling. Little by little, my body and my digestion became more stable.

I can sleep through the night again!

I started working with Thilo Keller on 23 April 2020. From 2 May 2020, I was already able to sleep through the night. I used to be afraid of the night and afraid of falling asleep. Today I find it wonderful to snuggle up in bed in the evening. On 7 May 2020, I wrote in my diary, “mild constipation, good bowel feeling.” For many years, that was something I couldn’t imagine ever feeling again.

I learned to cut out coffee.

What was very good was that I learned to leave out the coffee. In the meantime, I can be in the company of coffee drinkers and I don’t miss anything when I don’t drink coffee. That alone has been good for calming the bowels. I had a real coffee addiction – especially in social situations like the coffee break together at work.

After the body started to function better again, the counselling sessions also revolved around psychological issues and personality development.

After my body had calmed down further, our conversations revolved more around psychological issues and personality development. It started with working on my self-esteem and standing by myself, also with my new diet. “I’m worth feeling good about myself.” “I’m worth saying no to what doesn’t make me feel good.” “Without sweetness in life, life is not fun – Without cake in life, life is more fun.” Those were some of the sentences that got me thinking. Thilo Keller’s tip to waste less energy in conversations with justification was also very helpful for me. Bit by bit I regained my self-esteem and my confidence.

 

Being guided by the body – goal achieved!

At some point Thilo Keller also encouraged me again to try things out and experiment, to listen to my body and to let myself be guided by its feedback. Thilo Keller said that one goal of working together was for me to learn to listen to my body again and we definitely achieved that this year.

My weight was way too low and now it was slowly going up

In the beginning, one of my major issues was being underweight, my weight was going down worryingly before working with Thilo – this was on top of my anxiety and dwindling physical fitness. The weight loss stopped after a few weeks of working together and together with strength training that Thilo Keller had recommended to me, the weight slowly went up, it really went up after I worked on more issues.

 

When I think back a year, my development is unimaginable.

Going shopping used to be torture for me: you have to deal with food and spend time on it. When I went shopping yesterday, I had a feeling of wow, this is beautiful and I felt joy while shopping. When I think back a year, my development is unimaginable: from no joy, no laughter to an inner radiance and confidence. In our conversations, Thilo Keller always encouraged me to keep at it and keep going, and gave me many valuable tips on how to deal with my difficulties differently. I don’t think I could have walked this path alone – I would have lacked the emotional support, the knowledge about body and nutrition would not have been tailored to me and the accompaniment of my personal growth into a fulfilled life was just right.

 

Conclusion: I was on the verge of giving up and after almost 1 year of support with Thilo Keller I am living a fulfilled life.

I am deeply grateful to Thilo Keller. His empathetic, confident and understanding manner and also the many laughs in our conversations. Thilo never forced anything on me, he helped me to find and go my way.

I really tried out a lot of things beforehand, but nothing really stuck. There were too many individual pieces of the puzzle. Thilo helped me to find a path that made sense to me and to put all the pieces together. He accompanied me for 1 year and I think it went insanely fast, especially when I think about the fact that I had been very bad for 8-10 years before and nothing I tried helped: colonoscopy, blood tests, from doctor to alternative practitioner to alternative practitioner, to marriage counselling, to trauma therapy. “If only everyone had your good blood results…” is what I was told. But three times I was on the verge of taking antidepressants. Once I almost checked myself into the psychiatric hospital, I was about to give up. All the previous therapies have given me valuable knowledge, but Thilo Keller put it into a meaningful context for me, so that I could apply it and have an overall picture for myself.

A very big thank you to Thilo Keller.