My situation, as always, is a little up and down. At the moment, I’m considering another possible stint in a psych hospital, in hopes that when I do make my final move out on my own, I won’t have so much instability, etc. At least that’s the plan. And the other two times I’ve been in, I’ve had ECT (electroconvulsive therapy or electroshock) recommended, but I’m forever running the opposite direction. You see, it’s always scared the living hell out of me (much like taking lithium does) because I envision something straight from Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory haunting my nightmares. Which I know isn’t true, but still.
So, I’m wandering all over the web and reading stuff here and yon to get a better grasp on it. Perhaps this time I can make an informed decision and, if necessary, take them up on the offer. If it truly would help to make me better, more permanently, than I’ll just have to suck up and do it.
All that said, anyone here ever had it done? Known someone who has? What kind of side effects are there? How long-term are the benefits? What else can you tell me? Anything at all would be much appreciated.
A friend of mine who is also a physician had ECT, and speaks gratefully of having the opportunity to get it. He has no regrets. He was nearly non-functional from severe depression, which did not respond to any intervention; various meds combined with cognitive and behavior therapy left him no better. This went on for years, and he was unable to do his job, or be a husband or father.
Since his ECT over a decade ago, he says he’s been relatively free of the clinical depression, has worked gainfully as a doctor, and has been a successful full-time parent and husband. He’s weathered the deaths of both parents with normal grief and been able to move on. He currently takes on psychiatric med now, a mood stabilizer rather than an antidepressant.
He’s said that he may have lost a bit of memory, but says that his depression was so severe that weeks and even months were mostly choppy blanks anyway.
That’s his tale. It’s the only one I know from a close friend. I could share patient anecdotes, which have been about 90-95% favorable about the experience, but I’m sure you can read that in the standard literature.
I tell my patients (I am not a psychiatrist) that if their pshrink recommends it and nothing else has worked after a decent interval of trying, and life sucks bad the way things have been, consider it.
Thanks MLS, I’ll check out that book. And Qadgop, although I’d heard some anecdotal evidence supporting a positive outcome after undergoing treatment, I had no idea that it could be that far reaching. However, if this next stay brings it up as a possibility (after doing more research on it), then it’s probably a definite that I’ll give it a try. In my situation, with almost a decade misspent, this point would be well worth it even if it temporarily made things worse to hit over-all better. I did know that there could be some memory loss, but I’ve been dealing with that for the longest time now anyway. Functioning with less depression would be worth anything.
So, if anyone else has any more input, please don’t hesitate. I really am grateful to have the Doper community to come to. Thank you all.
Oh, and Chefguy… I wondered that too after it had posted and taken away my all caps.
My sister in law fell into a cycle of depression several years ago. Over the course of about a year, she got worse and worse, and was hospitalized three or four times for a few weeks at time.
Despite the constant medications, time in the hospital, support from family, etc., she continued to grow worse. After another year or so she was almost completely incapacitated by the problem.
The doctors finally recommended ECT. She had (I think) six treatments, and then a few months later another six.
Since that time she has been much better, at least as far as the depression is concerned. It has been several years and she seems fairly stable. She lost some memories, especially from around the time of the treatments. But with all the medication and whatnot, those times were pretty much lost anyway.
During the treatments, she was very upset. She was confused, disoriented, and for the most part didn’t remember why she was having the treatments, or even that she had not only given her consent but had wanted the treatments. This was very hard on her on and on us. This only lasted during the couple of weeks it took to get the six treatments, and for a few days after, but those were tough days.
So it seems to have helped her, but at some cost and it wasn’t easy. Definitely a last resort kind of thing in my mind.
Keep running, at least until you’ve done lots of research and read everything you can get your hands on written by folks who’ve been through it — both the good and the bad experiences.
There’s a large message board composed entirely of shock recipients posting their experiences, I’ll link to it if I can find the bloody URL again.
I don’t think this is the original site I had in mind but it’ll do. Reviews both positive and negative about ECT from those who’ve had it.
As you’ll see, some credit ECT with saving their life and rescuing them from a never-ending black depression; others blame ECT for permanent brain damage and memory loss and describe it as the most horrific experience of their life.
My own take on it is that the remedy it offers tends to be temporary (depression “recidivism” tends to occur with lots of shock recipients); there’s at least some solid-looking clinical evidence that ECT lifts depression (when it does) as a side-effect of permanent brain damage — that minimal brain damage, in a very generic sense and as caused by any of a variety of things, tends to induce what the clinicians call “euphoria” as a side effect, and that ECT is just one such cause. And that it does fairly often cause permanent memory loss and permanent flattening of “affect” (your ability to feel much of anything very strongly), other symptoms of brain damage.
But I’m not a neurologist or a clinical researcher and you should do your own investigations.
