[Silent_Efforts]

I have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, have had suicidal ideation since over ten years, and a total of three attempts, the last one ten days ago.

I still managed to function but below averagely. I'm a doctor and I manage to go to work. I was getting by somehow with the help.of others around me.

I received my first session of ECT twenty hours ago, that is yesterday.
I have noticed a clarity of thought and ability to read more than a paragraph without losing complete focus and ability to function better with just one ect. My craving to go kill myself has almost become nill.

Has anybody who has received ect before seen such change with one?
Is this usually temporary and drifts slowly back to previous moods and functioning?

Does the ect help.long term too or is it only short term?

I feel an improvement, though something within me seems to be telling me to hold on to something and that this improvement is starting to fade back to previous state.

Please do enlighten me on your experience with ect?

ECT pulled me out of my worst depression when medication wasn't working. If it were not for the memory side effects (I did have some memory loss) I'd probably still be doing maintenance treatments to this day.

I hope this works for you!

[Silent_Efforts]

Thank you for your reply! Good to hear a positive outlook... I wish you the best!!

[Silent_Efforts]

Originally Posted by scaredandconfused

ECT pulled me out of my worst depression when medication wasn't working. If it were not for the memory side effects (I did have some memory loss) I'd probably still be doing maintenance treatments to this day.

I hope this works for you!

Thank you for your reply! Good to hear a positive outlook... I wish you the best!!

[Bird Feeder]

I had ECT 20+ years ago and it did nothing for me. I started up again 3 years ago and it has been a life saver...literally. I am able to go to work right after the treatment as I have no confusion or memory loss. When I received my first treatment I had a slight headache but I felt great. I hope they work for you! Good luck!

[harmonyinheart]

I am currently at treatment 20 with 21 next week. I was in a most terrible place with my bipolar when we began; I really didn't think I could get through it. It took along time for the treatments to work for me, but they eventually did. Though I have heard from others that treatments began to work immediately like they have appeared to have started to work for you. My doc said considering how ill I was to begin with and how long I've been battling bipolar that it wasn't surprising that it took awhile. I really believe it saved my life. We ar working on getting to a maintenance schedule now, started at 2 x a week in February, then moved to 1 x after twelve treatments, then eventually every other week and now we are moving to every three weeks.

It's scary, I know, but hang in there and trust that things do get better. I have had a lot of ups and downs since we began, but ultimately I'm in a much better place. From what I understand it is pretty individual how the treatments will work for each person-also depending on the nature of your illness, how long you've been sick, your medications, stuff like that. So it is kind of a wait and see how it all works out in the end. But you can do it! Believe in the treatments and believe in yourself- you've made it this far

I am diagnosed as schizoaffective and I had treatment three years ago. I had 8 sessions and it improved my concentration and helped my morning depression. I only got short term memory loss first time and of course it came back.
It has given me fever dreams which I still have to this day but I get back to sleep so it isn't a huge problem.
I was scared witless before first session but the anaesthetic kicked in right away. I don't think my morning melancholia could have been treated any other way. So for depression I would say it is worth considering.

[MarmeeNoir]

I've had 6 unilateral and it doesn't seem to be working. I think we're going to switch to bilateral.

I already had memory issues from a brain injury, so I'm not exact worried about it.

I've had 51 treatments over the course of about 10 months (2014-2015, when I was 17-18). When I started I was a bit psychotic, had quit eating and drinking, stuff like that. After a few treatments I started eating and drinking again, but besides that, it didn't help me. However when they stopped (after 10 or 12 treatments I think, because it wasn't working for my mood and stuff) I immediately got worse so they started again, but I didn't really get better again even though I kept having treatments.

So it got me eating and drinking again but that was it. It did wipe away almost all of my episodic memory (except the bad stuff - as in, major trauma -, I still remember that). I didn't really mind for the most part, except sometimes in therapy we were trying to figure out where a thought or similar thing came from but we couldn't really figure it out because I simply didn't remember. (Example that does not relate to me - if you were called 'fat' all your life and your episodic memory is wiped away, you might not remember being called fat anymore, yet you'll still have low self esteem and think of yourself as fat)
Also my paternal grandparents died about a month ago and it really bothers me that I have so few memories left of them. I counted them a while ago and it basically came down to 2 memories of the one and 3 of the other pre-2014. That makes me very sad.

[cool09]

My last 2 trials I became confused and delirious after 5 treatments. I saw something that wasn't there. My first trial was 17 treatments and didn't work.