Ect

I know someone who has had ECT and I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share their experiences with me. Do you get most of your memory back. Do people go back to how they were before the major depression set in? Thanks for any information you are willing to share!

i had it late 05, ending jan 06. i lost most of my memory up to that time, excluding some things i had spent a lot of time thinking about. it did not help me. it wasn't particularly bad, just useless. leaves you with a headache afterward, and i think i was kinda zombie-ish, but that may have been the depression anyway. i also lost my ability to remember new things - i have to really connect with something to remember it, and i don't have a chance at memorization. i don't think i've regained any memories... maybe some vague ones assisted by photos.

Did ECT help at all in the long run? How many sessions did you have if you don't mind answering?

no help, just kept me alive a while longer with something to try. they ended up putting me on an off-label medicine they use when nothing else works (probably should've been tried BEFORE ect...), and that brought me out of it. ect didn't help me at all. i can't tell you how many i had, since i can't remember that time period. but it was 3-4 sets i think, which last something like... 4-6 wks each, i think?

I had it in fall 2003. I went into the hospital for it because they wanted to so much-or could do it in an overall shorter period of time than out-patient. I was committed. I was in for about 4 weeks, and then had some out-patient follow-up visits.

I lost some memories from the prior year to 2. Not quite sure. It wasn't everything, so I don't know how much I lost. I know that I had some memory problems following it, but again, am unsure how extensive. (You can't remember how much you don't remember). I think it took a while to really get fully back to normal--not more than 6 months. Maybe very minimal. My long-term memories remained. I'd been a scholar, so I don't notice problems with any of the complex stuff going back in time, but I had been unemployed for 4 years at that time and not engaging in any study.

Family members say I had problems with some concepts immediately thereafter--not sure which ones.

Longer-term: It kept me alive. I know I don't hit bottom as hard ever since, but I've remained severely depressed. Maybe a narrower affect range overall.

I've had more problems dealing with people since, and I've wondered if the greater erraticism is related.