Posted by bleauberry on January 28, 2008, at 18:02:17
In reply to ect -when the first benefit?, posted by Ness on January 28, 2008, at 6:18:50
I had 12 bilateral treatments. Though I was not aware of it happening during the entire time, it was when it was over that I realized I had no memory at all of the entire month. I remembered certain things, like the doctor's face, the treating room, the waiting room, the nurse's face. Other than that, nothing. I had to rely on my notes and diary.
In my diary after each treatment I wrote the same thing..."I feel more depressed, I feel like I'm going insane." It was around the 8th treatment that I commented here at babble how I thought ECT was making my prozac work better. So by that time I guess maybe I was getting a little better. People thought I seemed a little better, though they also said I had become more distant, quiet, and lonely. At the end of the 12th treatment I had 2 days of feeling good. It was like being reborn. The next day I was taken out of my home in an ambulance threatening suicide because I crashed into deep depression again, deeper than I had ever been before.
I can't advize you on what to do. My own view on ECT is that it should be outlawed.
Did anyone ever check your T3, T4, and 3 antibodies? Even if they looked good, did they try you on T3 or T4? Do you or did you ever have amalgam fillings in your teeth? Have you ever had a delayed food reaction lab test? Have you taken 25mg DMSA every 4 hours for 3 days to get a urine sample afterward to see how much mercury and lead was in it?
ECT is so heavy duty and dangerous that I cannot see why anyone should be allowed to do it unless they have been completely cleared on all medical possibilities first, with the above mentioned ones as basic starters.
Just so you know. I am now 14 months past ECT. I still have ZERO memory of a 4 month period surrounding it. I had to relearn my way around town as if I had just moved here. I do not recognize people I have seen many times. ECT was useless on my depression.
You might want to revisit Nardil. People say most of those side effects go away in time. Someone said their severe sexual side effects disappeared, but it took 3 years for that to happen. Hey, it's better than being so depressed that you are willing to get an electric shock you wouldn't even feel comfortable seeing happen to an enemy.
Don't be fooled by statistics. What you do not read in literature is the huge failure rate of ECT. A large majority of people do not get better. Most who do get better do not stay that way. There are always a few lucky ones. What is the sense in being free of depression if you do have even have the memory or the cognitive function to have a job or a lover?
I admit I am biased. ECT was bad. Very bad. Worse than bad. I wish I could just tell you to stop right now. In any case, if it helped me at all, it was extremely brief, it was after 6 treatments and not before, and I did get more depressed up until that point. The scary part is that it destroyed my brain so much that the only way I know any of this stuff I am telling you is by reading my diary.
poster:bleauberry
thread:809309
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080124/msgs/809400.html