Convent Captive Endures Forced Insulin Coma Therapy After Escape Attempt

In November 2025, Mariona recounts her traumatic experience of being held captive in a convent several decades ago. She describes a process of "indoctrination" where she was made to understand that she had "behaved very badly" and then forced to confess and ask for forgiveness.

After around four months, Mariona was allowed to return home to Barcelona for Christmas, but was not permitted to go out alone. Somehow, she managed to escape, but her freedom was short-lived. Within hours, she was bundled into a car with her father and an uncle and driven back to the convent in Madrid.

Once back at the convent, Mariona refused to go inside, but was pulled up the stairs and given a sedative to force her entry. The other young women were warned against talking to her, as she was seen as the "rebel girl" who had tried to run away. Mariona grew intensely lonely and eventually began refusing food.

Mariona's dramatic weight loss resulted in her admission to a psychiatric clinic, where she says she was given two sessions of electric shock treatment, followed by "insulin coma therapy." This involved injecting her with insulin to induce a deep hypoglycemic, coma-like state, in the belief that it could "re-set" her brain and reduce any psychotic or schizophrenic symptoms. However, this "therapy" was being discontinued in many countries due to its potentially lethal nature.

Mariona believes the forced, intravenous "treatment" with insulin irreparably damaged her memory. Suspecting this, she began keeping a diary, which would later inform her documentary about her mother's experience. The doctors' attempts to force Mariona to gain weight, including tying her to a bed until she ate, only added to her despair, and she contemplated taking her own life.