Posted by PhoenixGirl on November 20, 2001, at 16:53:36
Hi everybody. A lot of you might remember me posting on here awhile ago about ECT for my treatment-resistant depression. Well, I went into the hospital about a month ago to begin the treatment. My experience with it is very good, and it works better than anything I've ever tried. First I got three treatments a week for two weeks, and then one more a week later, for a total of 7 treatments. That last one was about a week ago. Seven is a low number of treatments, but they helped a lot. In fact, I'm going to ask my doctor if I can do maintenance ECT (where you go once a month to maintain the effect of the initial intense round), and stop taking medication perhaps. The every-present grip of depression has loosened majorly for the first time since my illness started at age 12 (I'm 23 now). It's hard to describe. I just feel lighter, I like myself more, I'm more comfortable socially, I feel more hopeful, and sometimes I even feel pleasant. It used to take something really good happening to make me feel pleasant, but now I sometimes just feel pleasant going about my day. There is still emotional pain, but it's not as intense and all-consuming. When I feel despair, it's usually about something that's going on in my life, it isn't the usual way I feel anymore. There are a lot of issues in my life that would cause anyone to feel despair, such as poor family relations, bad job, few friends, and permanent vision damage due to my eyes being cut and burned (aka Lasik). But this is the first time in 11 years that I feel I could be making a turn-around. I fear that this effect will wear off, though, and I could be right back in the mess I was in. That's why I will insist on maintenance ECT.
As for the side effects of ECT, they aren't very bad. There's spotty memory loss in the hours around the treatment. In the two weeks of the acute phase of treatment and for a short time after that, I would forget that I told someone something and tell them again. Or I couldn't remember how to get to the mall or someplace. But that goes away. People I've spoken with who get maintenance ECT have said that there is very little to no memory problems during maintenance. You're getting treatments less frequently then.
So I must say that my experience has been good, and I would recommend ECT to anyone with treatment resistant depression. I think that the degree of side effects you get depends on how many treatments you get and if they're uni- or bi-lateral. All mine were unilateral, and I didn't get a lot of them. Share you're thoughts or questions, I'd like to hear them.
poster:PhoenixGirl
thread:84785
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011113/msgs/84785.html