That was very good Perma, thank you. The comments were interesting too. Seems like it can vary so much from person to person.

Many years ago I was training to be a Psychiatric Technician (I had to quit because of family problems). While doing clinicals I was able to observe someone receiving ECT.

My mom and uncle both had ECT back in the day when it was "One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest" type of thing. They both had what clearly could be labeled as bipolar episodes when they were young and then never took meds or had another episode. My mom has always been against my sister or me taking that route. Maybe ECT is responsible for their lack of bipolar episodes. My mom believes it messed up her memory, but she has a better memory than I do.

My greatest concern is an account from a friend who saw his cousin go from a functional, intelligent person to a person who is not functional.

I think as that article points out, it is unfortunate that many of her doctors were dismissive of the side effects. Doctors seem to sometimes get tunnel vision and refuse to see what's in front of them if it doesn't line up with what they believe.