I have been doing ECT treatments for over a year. I started with a group of 12 in the hospital (over four weeks). I now do maintenance treatments. After trying over 22 medications, none that worked, I made the hard decision to try ECT. I am on lithium, but that only balances my mood and keeps me from full-blown mania.

I will give you the good and the bad. First the good - I felt happy for the first time in my life for periods of time around my treatments. People tell me how great it is to see me look happy. I have made greater strides in therapy. I am motivated to do things.

Now the not so great: I experienced retrograde amnesia and lost the ability to form short term memories (on the plus side, the brain heals and after taking a break for 12 weeks, my brain function returned to almost normal). I have experienced a change in my sense of taste and smell. My cognitive function slowed, but healed. I suffer from extreme daytime exhaustion. I broke a couple teeth but I have poor enamel so it would have happened eventually. I have to stop crucial medications (because they are anti-seizure) and this leads to withdrawal and pain pre-treatment.

This is not an easy treatment, but for myself, the benefits are profound and worth it. Everybody is different, but if it had been recommended, it it worth trying. I still have my episodes of depression, but they rarely hit the deep, deep depths anymore and when they do, they do not last for weeks or months. I think my last tow have been thee and two days respectively.