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I was recently recommended for ECT and I was told I should go online and find a support group or something to get info about this treatment. I’m pretty scared to go through with it but I’ve tried everything else.
After about 240 something views and no responses, I just wanted to thank you to everyone on this board for depression for being so helpful. 240 people and no one can even write a helpful or supportive note?
Just write "Good luck" and I would of felt like I had finally found some help...
I have heard that ECT does work but it is intense therapy. Have you tried all other options for depression already? I would use this as a last resort but for some, this is the only thing that works.
Posts: 4 | Location: North Dakota | Registered: 10-08-2007
Originally posted by virgsgirl: I have heard that ECT does work but it is intense therapy. Have you tried all other options for depression already? I would use this as a last resort but for some, this is the only thing that works.
I really have tired everything else I can (and doctors) think of. I went to Shands Gainesville FL, who are pretty famous for their psychiatrist department, and this is the only option I got. I’m pretty much lost right now. I’m addicted to Xanex and an alcoholic person about to turn 20. I’m too young to kill myself, but I’d rather died than get my personality and memory shocked out of me.
I’ve really given everyone anti-depressant and other options (like Lithium) a chance. But ECT… I don’t know. Ernest Hemingway said "Well, what is the sense of ruining my head and erasing my memory, which is my capital, and putting me out of business? It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient..…”
If you have tried every thing else, this is a good try. You won't go brain dead. It isn't that bad. It might even help with your drinking. ECT can do wonders more than you think. I would try it and see. Most people use this as a last resort. Sounds like you are at that point. Do it a couple times. Let me know how things go.
Posts: 4 | Location: North Dakota | Registered: 10-08-2007
Hello- I just found this web site and was sadden to see no one responded to your questions or your fears. If you would like to talk, email me at sava1025@hotmail.com. I am thinking of ECT as well but not sure either. I am sorry to hear you are having such a tough time and alone. Not a good combination. Someone does care about you, me. Take care of you. Teresa
Slaker, I'm having trouble navigating this site so please forgive me--I'm not really an embecile, I just play one on TV. About fifteen years ago I had ECT, without realizing it at the time. I was an inpatient at a "behavioral health" center and have come to the conclusion with my "now" therapist that I signed many papers upon entering the facility and and obviously one must have been to allow my assigned doctor to perform whatever therapy he deemed necessary for my particular case. It has been only within the last six months or so that I realized I had, indeed, had ECT at the orders of Dr."Let's Have Fun Watching Human Seizures" so many years ago. Slaker, I have very little memory now--long term AND short term. The memory loss has produced so much sadness, regret and anger in my life and frankly, I can't see myself ever letting that go. He was a dr. just out of med school. Our "sessions" were no longer than ten minutes every other day in which he constantly checked his watch and never once looked me in the eye. HE, I'm sure, is the exception, for most psych drs are extremely compassionate people. And that is my own experience with ECT. PLEASE get a second (or third opinion) before you agree to ECT. It is not reversible, and I don't know you, but I care about people--especally ones like you who I identify with. Take care, and try not to act out of desperation.
it is effective therapy in my opinion. done in the post op under well monitored conditions. but, this is a big but. your memory will never be the same. i personally lost so much of when my children were little, some before marriage and the ability to lay down new memories. also, found out later i was bipolar that was further supported by the fact that after each session, i became completely out of control. the depression was relieved, ultimately. and ultimately, treating bipolar depression and flucutation in moods was the key for me. as well as learning to live side by side with those symptoms that plagued me, learning what those were and expecting them to some degree.
On ECT: I feel an obligation to be truthful about my experience with ect but i tend to get wordy so please indulge me. I was 45 years old, a wife and mother of one 11 year old. I have always been B/P but at this point I was depressed. My doctor did not know what else to try so he said ect would be the next step. the decision was left up to us but he strongly urged. First of all, my dr. was very decent and capable. I'd been seeing him for about 10 years and I felt I could trust him. That being said, it was always a BIG fear that if I didn't abide by their rules and instruction (I mean the medical establishment in general) that I wold be considered Non-compliant. When this is written in your medical history, it relieves most everyone from helping you. This means the insurance company might not want to cover you (BIG PROBLEM) and it follows to all future psyce care. I can't even imagine the legal implications down the road having been flagged as 'a problem child'. I'm just here to say that no matter who says 'it is your decision' consider all things. My main question to my dr was "will it cure me". He then called the RX a non-curative procedure. Well ask yourself: are you willing to put yourself at this kind of risk (psychological surgery) for a band-aid that serves no other purpose than to shock you out of your CURRENT BUT PASSING depression. When all medications fail, the only other tool in the drs treatment plan is surgery, but it is non-curative. Are you willing to be tagged "non-compliant" by not having ect? It's America, we have choices--probably. The saga continues. If anyone comments and wants to know more, I'd love to be able to shed some personal light on the subject. Marylee
