I had ECT for a year. Before it I was so far gone that I had written a good bye letter to my family. ECT saved my life. I have been stable for more than a year. Although I am struggling right now, I have been able to get off all my meds. They were not working and caused more harm than good.
As far as side effects go, I was useless on the day of my treatment and I do have memory loss. I have lost entire chunks of time but I am honestly not sure if it is due to the illness, the ECT or the meds. It doesn't affect my quality of life right now and is sometimes amusing when my family talks about something i don't remember. While I was going through treatments I was somewhat impaired and felt mentally dull, but again I was on meds too. My last ECT was a year and a half ago and I have been off meds for a year.