Posted by Meltingpot on February 4, 2015, at 8:10:29
Hi,
I'm Denise from the UK. I haven't been on this board for a long time.
But I thought as I've often asked people about their experience with ECT over the years I thought I'd now offer mine.
Since 2001 I've pushed psychiatrists to let me try ECT but they've always refused on the grounds that my depression/anxiety isn't the type to respond to ECT. Also, I've been scared of the horror stories I've heard about it so haven't pushed for it that hard.
I do partially respond to antidepressants but never like I did in my 20s when I experienced profound relief in a short space of time. So I've always lived in hope that ECT would be the magic bullet. That the effects would be as good as the effects of antidepressants in my 20s and that I'd never need antidepressants after stopping it.
I finally managed to persuade a psychiatrist to let me "try it" (sounds odd I know). I had 8 treatments, the first three or four were unilateral and because they didn't seem to do anything I asked the ECT Doctor to switch to bilateral. My psychiatrists stopped the treatments because they weren't having any affect at all.
I worked part time during the treatments, I don't think I had (or have had) any major problems with my memory because of it but they didn't seem to help at all and I'm surprised that ECT is considered the gold standard treatment for depression (maybe just not for mine). I must say that I felt particularly horrible, really scared when coming round after ECT but that feeling passed after about half an hour after I came round.
I'm glad I tried it and I don't feel they affected me badly.
I also must say though whilst having it my depression wasn't too bad as the antidepressants help me somewhat anyway (just not enough)
Denise
poster:Meltingpot
thread:1075973
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20150129/msgs/1075973.html