I don't know how long it's been since being diagnosed, but I went years with no improvement. Eventually, I tried TMS. It helped a bit, but I was still really messed up. After the police had to take me to the hospital, I agreed with my doc that it was time to try ECT. I had a series in the spring of 2015, but it got interrupted and I relapsed. This year I started in March and continue even now with "maintenance treatments". This has been tremendous. I have improved markedly.