Going For Ect

[Anna Roberts]

Well, it's finally come to this. I've been on a dozen different medications over the past three years, I've been in CBT/therapy for five years, I've tried EMDR, I've tried hypo-therapy, I've tried getting on my knees and praying it away, all to no avail. My depression and PTSD have done nothing but worsen to the point where I am no longer functioning and had to consider the one thing I swore I'd never resort to - Electroconvulsive Therapy.

Of course, after doing some research, I found it not to be the barbaric practice of days of old, but I think I would have been willing to try it at this point even if it truly were as medieval as I first believed. I made the decision to go speak to my physiatrist about referring me to someone who could perform ECT about a month ago, and after a seemingly endless wait, I'm going to be going for a consultation with an ECT specialist this Thursday. My doctor explained to me that it might not help the other symptoms of my PTSD, but it doesn't matter to me because the depression has been the absolute worst, most devastating, most debilitating symptom of my PTSD.

It almost doesn't seem real. After five years of battling depression and two years of dealing with PTSD, it seems the end is finally in sight. I honestly never thought I'd live to see the day, but I'm still so bitter that I had to go to these lengths to overcome the trauma of being bullied so mercilessly for so many years.

So, I suppose my question to anyone reading this would be: What are your experiences with ECT? Did it help you? Is there really reason to hope that this will be the thing that finally works? Also, how long did you have to wait between the consult and getting the actual ECT treatment?

 

[Forgetful]

After 45 years of MDD and 7 hospitalizations I received ECT while on a phych ward. I too was willing to try anything. Because it was done during an inpatient stay I didn't have any wait time.

They told me before the first session that it may affect my memory. I asked (jokingly) if they could erase specific memories. Of course they couldn't. They hooked me up to an IV and placed something in my mouth to prevent me from biting my tongue. Through the IV they gave me a muscle relaxer (to prevent my muscles from tensing up too much thus reducing some pain afterwards) and a general anesthetic to knock me out. The sessions were only about 20 min lon from start to waking up in recovery room.

I received 12 treatments. 3x a week for 4 weeks. The only side effect I had was feeling tired for the rest of the day.

It really helped my MDD but it also significantly affected my short term memory and some long term memories.

I hope it works well for you.

 

[Anna Roberts]

After 45 years of MDD and 7 hospitalizations I received ECT while on a phych ward. I too was willing to t...

Thank you for sharing your experiences.