Trigger -ect

ECT thread-

Have you had Electro therapy and what are your feelings?

Considering and also very curious. Please speak up how did you do!

I told my psych and kids that I was against it. I don't want anymore memory loss!

******* memory loss. Fear of it keeps holding me back.

I don'd know if i should just take it like everybody being paranoid about having rash from Lamictal... Just ignore...

Seen couple of broadcasts where ECT literally saved one's life...

I have heard it is good for treatment resistant depression. I DO go low. eek

Yeah i'm more or less depressed like 8 months a year. When i get out of depression i go hypomanic just to burn myself out again. For 20 years. My Pdoc keeps dropping me hints to go. Maybe the time has come, this sucks anyway

I get bad Seasonal Depression.

Jan-Feb Depressed
March i freak out to hypo
May it turns to mixed
June i'm exhausted
July-Aug just low
Sept so and so, going up
Oct hypo again
Now-Dec Diving deep.

Repeat

Wow! Are you bipolar 1 or 2 ?

I'm going now but it's much too soon for me to weigh in on the whole thing. I've only had two treatments so far and my next isn't for another week. After that they will be twice a week unless we get bumped out of the OR.

I was surprised when my pdoc suggested ECT, but I wasn't afraid. In fact, I was very excited and I couldn't wait. I felt like he offered me hope. And it wouldn't involve piling more drugs on.

I would do anything to get rid of this depression. What scares me the most is if ECT doesn't work.

I had questions of course, but my depression is so low and has hung on so long that, as I said I would do anything at all to get rid of it. It has become unbearable and I have spent most of the past two years far below baseline. I am much more afraid of being depressed forever, than any side effects from ECT.

I do want to address the memory loss. Everyone cites that as their biggest fear and the reason they don't want to go. Does your severe depression not cause memory loss?

Mine does. Great black gaps in my memory to the point that I can barely recall most of my kids growing up. Depression does this. It also makes me sluggish and interferes with my cognitive abilities. I read or heard somewhere that it also causes brain damage. I am not surprised. So it sucks the life out of me and makes me dull.

Anything that I would be fearful of with ECT already happens to me with depression.

If I do have memory loss (none so far except for the first few minutes coming out of anesthetic) it is a small price to pay to escape this depression, and a price I'm already paying.

I'd rather have memory loss and not be depressed, than have memory loss and be very depressed.

Also, there's a chance to take fewer meds after ECT which thrills me. I've been medicated for more than 20 years and that takes a toll too.

There's a price for everything.

I'm glad it works for you. May I ask your age?

I have Multiple Sclerosis as well, so I don't want any more memory issues. I am also getting older.

Sorry I missed your earlier post.

I'm 46 Valentina...

I have no idea how it would affect MS but you would certainly want to do some homework as I'm sure that complicates things :-/

Some people say it is a lifesaver.

I'm II i think, my Pdoc still don't wanna specify it exactly. Never been totally out of control or hospitalized. But my mixed goes sometimes pretty far. I may be delusional and paranoid, although i nowadays can recognize my paranoia coz it always follows the same pattern.

I think it's somewhere in the middle

I have had ect twice. Both times it was Indeed a lifesaver. The first time was after a suicide attempt. I was in a deep, unbelievably dark depression to the point where I wasn't eating or even getting up, I was just laying in bed all day. I had tried all medication and nothing worked. It was do ect or go to the state hospital for a long time until they could figure out something to help. I'd already been to the state hospital for kids so I knew how horrible it was. So I chose ect and I'm so glad I did. I was able to live six years med and therapy free, with only minor mood swings.

When I got bad again I struggled for two and a half years trying everything under the sun. Last fall I was cycling back and forth between mixed and severely depressed. I couldn't work or take care of myself or my family. I asked for ect this time because I knew it helped last time and again, no meds were working. And it saved my life again. I have been cycling only minorly for about 10 months now. I've only been hospitalized once and it was because my husband died and I had a complete freak out. But that's to be expected even without BP. So I'm glad I did the ect because without it I might have killed myself when he died. Especially if I was in a severe episode.

But it did come at a price. My memory has been terribly damaged. It's starting to come back now. My cognitive functioning was also impaired for at least six months. It was hard to hold down my job because of it. But I was able to do it. And I would do it all again if it meant saving myself from hell for the sake of my son. Absolutely.

I've just finished my 51th and last treatment on August 28th (first treatment was in November of last year) for severe-suicidal-psychotic unipolar depression. Before ECT, I had quit eating and drinking and was psychotic. With ECT, I started eating and drinking again and it temporarily removed the psychosis, though it came back later.
It didn't do anything for my mood.