Depression Community

Thank you Susie Margaret. I can relate to this post and to the one you did below. I had a similar experience about 3 years ago. I was in and out 4 different times in a short period of time except the last one was several weeks. ECT saved me. I wrote my story somewhere recently but can not find it. LOL. Life is doing alright and going forward. I do not wish to ever do ECT again but... yes it is an option. It worked. 13 jolts some inpt and some outpt and lots of vegetating. I can not remember anything about the first hospital stay which was a week and very little about the second. That is kind of wierd. My spelling has taken a hit and I can see things in my house and do not remember who gave them to me. That was very difficult but I had to let it go...

I found that when I wrote my story there I followed with a bit of a down mood. Not a good time in my life and I am still hoping to move forward even in my 5th decade.

Thanks

@anon_18066 what you described is what I fear (doing ECT and losing memories). I read earlier on this thread that someone said memory loss is more linked to having 2 sides shocked, I'm wondering if you did both sides? At this point I've tried more medicines than I can count and am considering taking a leave of absence from college because it's just too much. ECT might be an option I'm scared out of my mind to take, especially if it affects my academics.
Thanks for your story and curious to hear if you did treatment on both sides of your brain (that's so crazy to even type...).

over the past several years, i have had numerogmaus ect treatments because this was the ONLY thing i would respond to. i stopped about a year ago due to family worries about effects they had noticed which turned out to be medication. i have done all i can, but the treatments are the only thing that works for me. they are scary and there is such a stigma about depression and ect treatments that you can't really discuess it openly. what i need is information on long term effects or hazards of having long term treatments. i hope someone out there can enlighten me as to anticipated future side effects.

hello, 2LT --

i had my ECT treatmts in 2004, and it is now 2010, so i guess i am qualified to give you the benefit of my experience with future side effects as they have applied to me from then until now!

i haven't had any long-term side effects that i am aware of; however, it does turn out that i have forgotten some relatively memorable things, such as a two-day trip i took with a friend to a music festival, which is something i would never forget normally!

i keep discovering things like this, but i'm not sure if they are part of the general fog that surrrounded me that whole time when i was hospitalized and then had ECT treatments (about four months), or if they are attributable to the ECT treatments themselves. so far, nothing i've discovered that i forgot has been so significant as to hamper my daily life except for a few "what are you talking about?" moments.

i had 12 treatments, 3/wk, starting out inpatient and ending up outpatient.

an acct of my experience with ECT is at http://forums.webmd.com/3/depression-exchange/resource/9?@guest , eighth post down.

-- susie margaret

Please tell all patients about the memory loss and cognitive disabilities they are likely to have. My doctor made it sound real easy too. I would never have done it had I known it could be more than short term issues.

For me it got to a point that medication wasn't helping my depression. The depression was so bad that I had to be hospitalized for my safety.

I've had over 50 ECT treatments and I would do it again if I had to.

Now I'm looking into TMS, where your not asleep, your given no medication, there is no pain, no memory loss, you just have to have the procedures daily for 6 weeks.

If you have the TMS procedure and it works then you won't have to take medication anymore and right now I take 11 different medications for one thing or another.

Good Luck
BB

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your experiences with ECT. I've yet to read the information in the article mentioned by the 'expert' here, but plan to soon.

Not many people here have mentioned their age. Being in my mid-50s, I know some of my memory loss or trouble with recall is due to my age and from being treated for cancer a while back. Also plain old depression can cause memory loss. I've had times in my life where I couldn't absorb and retain new information -- I'd read a page in a book, but couldn't remember what it said.

I've suffered from major depression all my life. I wasn't diagnosed until my late 30s. I've been in some sort of therapy since college. It took 1.5 years to find a medication combo that helped me. It also made me more receptive to therapy, so I made more progress.

I relapsed after being treated for cancer. That was 10 years ago. I was approved for SSDI (disability) because I couldn't handle working. This year I started sleeping more - during the day, due to depression. I've had the same psychiatrist and therapist since the early '90s. I kept telling my psychiatrist (medicine maintenance) I was so tired of dealing with all these things related to depression - would I ever have a chance at being happy again? She suggested ETC.

From what all of you have written, I see that everyone reacts individually to ETC and there aren't any particular clues that let you know what will happen to you in advance.

My main concern is making sure Medicare will pay for everything and finding people who can help me while I'm going through outpatient treatment. I have no family, partner, or children. Some friends, but most pulled away when I relapsed. Hard to make new friends or be a friend to someone who is chronically depressed.

Did any of you go through this treatment and live alone at the time? Should I try and find someone I can pay to be with me in between treatments? I want to see if Medicare will cover the expense of having a health care worker be with me for a few hours a day.

I hope ECT will help 'jump start' my mood. I hate knowing what I need to do to have a healthy life, but not having the desire or energy to do it. What's most depressing to me is the thought of being like I am now for the rest of my life.

You all are very brave.

Babes55557

I had ECT treatments back in 2004 and I honestly believe it helped with my depression I still do have some short term memory loss but It could be due to age also I'm now 58 years old and going though menopause and this is hell. I had a total of 8 treatments my son and brother signed me out they thought I was out of it but it was only temporary. I wish they would have let me stay and complete the treatments but it didn't work out that way. All in All I'm doing better then I was. I think anyone that is at there bottom will know and they should try the ECT its a risk for anyone but so much better than wanting to kill myself all the time.
Sincerely,
Dianna

I totally disagree with you I've know others like myself that have had some relief with there depression and became more functional and with me I became more out going and not so fearful of trying things and being around people I've even made pubic speeches and thats not like me at all. I contribute that to my treatments.
I feel bad that you had bad experiences but maybe you need to try more treatments maybe deep down in your mined your fighting help your psyche works in mysterious ways.

I would kill myself before I would EVER consider this barbarity!

I have had ECT in the early 90's and it wasnt like" One Flew over......". T he only bad thing was that my short term memory as affected over a month.