I had an incredible experience during my stay at Clínica Galatea. Your professionalism, dedication and warmth overcame my initial resistance to being hospitalized. I’d like to emphasize how important the group is in strengthening your therapy.

I’ll be eternally grateful to you. I was lost, but now I’ve awoken to a new life. Using your tools and with hard work, I’ll enjoy it. Thank you.

It’s hard to put what I have to express into words. I just want to say that I’ve been saved, and it’s thanks to you. Thank you, 1,000 times. You never get tired of helping those who, like me, need it.

This reflection doesn’t come from the position of “patient of”, “ill with”, “suffering from”, etc., or from the verbs “I am” or “I have” (referring to an addiction problem and/or a mental disorder). It’s comes from the person I am, who I continue to be and will be, with my own characteristics, traits, peeves, and a few “emotional singularities” that sometimes limit my daily life or even my very existence.

This change in terminology may seem insignificant, but it’s amazing how the brain receives and processes this change in linguistic information. This way, we don’t fill it with more negative concepts.

(…)

I wanted to talk about the stigma of suffering from an addiction or a mental illness. On its own, this concept has certain negative connotations, and in addition to associating or labelling a person with a diagnosis, it involves value judgments from those around you, whether in your professional, personal or family environment or just in general. People forget about the person behind of all that, and the circumstances that led them to their current situation.

The same sort of stigmatization promotes rejection and/or isolation in our environment and in ourselves, and exogenous stigma is just as damaging as endogenous stigma, since the latter eats away at our being and our essence as a person. Sometimes, it contributes to the failure to accept those with disorders, which are hidden under layers and layers of sadness, guilt, shame, anger, despair, etc.

I wonder how we reach this extreme, and why. Some lifesavers must have appeared along the way, and maybe we rejected them to keep from being discovered and because of “what they’ll say”.

Isn’t it worth it to fight to recover our essence as individuals? My response: of course it is!

And Galatea is the perfect place to begin personal reconstruction.

Thank you to the Galatea team.

It’s a clinic with personalized, warm treatment, where your identity and confidentiality are always respected. You feel welcomed and cared for by the therapists and professionals, without losing your identity. The multidisciplinary team is extremely well-coordinated, even at difficult moments.

A few months ago, in a Primary Care seminary, Doctor Rodríguez Sendiz began by telling us that he had just come from a meeting with PAIMM management. He talked about PAIMM and what an excellent resource it was. As he spoke from the dais, I sat in the audience and couldn’t keep from thinking that if I was sitting there (and wasn’t dead or locked up) it was thanks to Clínica Galatea and PAIMM, along with other resources. As a sick doctor, I felt shipwrecked, and I didn’t even have debris to cling to, until (thanks to an excellent psychiatrist) I learned about Clínica Galatea. Then, I knew I wasn’t alone. I had the privilege of receiving treatment with amazing professionalism, quality care on all levels, and –above all– respect for the patient, who is never infantilized for suffering from a mental illness. The comfort and the quality of the facilities help you to feel dignity once again, with the capacity to forge ahead. I have nothing but gratitude for both the institution and all of its professionals.

My hospitalization was a fantastic experience. I felt cared for by all the professionals on the Galatea team. My treatment and my time there couldn’t have been any better, and I really benefitted from it. I ended up there thanks to a psychiatrist’s recommendation.

My company doctor put me in contact with the clinic. I had a serious addiction to cocaine, and it was the salvation I’d been looking for for a long time. I felt sheltered by all the professionals that are part of the program (psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors and nurses). Thanks to the therapy, I had access to knowledge that gave me the tools for abstinence, an abstinence that has lasted for seven years now.

My time at the clinic was an unforgettable experience, both positive and useful. The service is excellent. The professionals that cared for me (psychiatrists, psychologists, nursing staff, auxiliaries…) are highly qualified and extremely competent, with a human touch. In summary: for my point of view, it’s definitely worthwhile.

Words can’t describe the excellent treatment I received from all the health professionals. They do an exceptional job. They helped me like I never thought anyone could. I’ll always be grateful to them for having changed my life, teaching me that the biggest change is within me.

In the world of healthcare, people still make plenty of extremely unhealthy value judgments. Recognizing that you have a problem probably won’t be well received by the team you work with; it’s incongruent, but it’s true. For me, remaining anonymous and having the guarantee of confidentiality were essential. I hope these extremely necessary programs become well-known in the world of healthcare; as the saying goes, the shoemaker’s children often go barefoot.

I think it’s a good idea to ask for help, or to accept it when you can’t go it alone. Not all mental health professionals or institutions have the professional and human quality I experienced when I was under the treatment of the RETORN program. In 2000, I discovered it through an external consultation, and then I received outpatient care. I was hospitalized for the first time on April 18, 2017, and I want to thank all the professionals that used their knowledge and their kindness to make me love life and myself again. They showed me that everything can be learned, and helped me change my habits so that I came to value everything around me. Thank you to everyone who helped my body and my soul enjoy peace once again.