Posted by Adam on September 5, 2001, at 17:29:12
In reply to Re: About to get ECT...., posted by PhoenixGirl on September 5, 2001, at 16:04:21
Hey, PhoenixGirl,
If someone from your therapy group can help you, that sounds like a good solution. I would gladly offer you such assistance, so I think someone from your group (hopefully someone you like and trust) would be more than willing to help you get the essential errands done. It seems to me the logistical and possibly interpersonal issues with getting your parents involved may be a show-stopper. Go see your friend from college, and then get started with treatment. Use your resources at home.
Just as a final suggestion/possible option: Could you not do the ECT as an inpatient? It seems to me that would solve a lot of the travel issues. Take a cab to the hospital, stay in the hospital, take a cab home. You wouldn't be alone, and you really wouldn't have any chores or errands to worry about. You're fed, the bed gets changed, you can talk to nurses or whatever, maybe go to groups. I was in a psych ward, like I said, which has its pluses and minuses (ever see a schizophernic guy have a tantrum and get put in restraints?)...But, despite some rather unusual conversations at meals (which don't need to be a social event if you don't want them to, I would think), I did meet a few nice, reasonably lucid people, a couple of whom I kept in touch with for a while after leaving the hospital. We kept each other entertained while there, anyway. Shock therapy jokes (it seemed like half the people were getting ECT) can be relatively funny when everyone else is going through the same thing. I remember one time, this woman named Mary-Anne, during a conversation, interupted suddenly and said something like "hey, I'm sorry, but who the f**k are you? How did you get in here?...Joking, joking!" Maybe you had to be there. Anyway, doing a full course of ECT for the first time _outpatient_? I'd rather be an inpatient, myself.
poster:Adam
thread:77709
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010902/msgs/77882.html