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Spida
Casual Contributor

ECT and thoughts please

Hi I’m new to asking for help. I have a long list of things including depression, ptsd, anxiety and eating disorder. I feel like I have exhausted medication options and I’m not getting anywhere. Latest suggestion by my GP and psych and psychiatrist is Electrotherapy Treatment. I’m wondering if anyone else has had treatment if they found it work and side effects. I will have to have 2 weeks off work and I can’t afford this and if it’s not going to work I just don’t know. I’m not sure what to do next though and I’m struggling 

6 REPLIES 6

Re: ECT and thoughts please

Hi @Spida electro therapy was suggested to me bye my gp and psychiatrist long ago. However I never went down that path. On and off I dabbled in different oral meds for about 7-8 years and I never really took them seriously. I would be to busy winging about the side effects then to realise what they were preventing (a major relapse and time in hospital) I never did commit to oral meds on a daily basis and ended up on the depot injection. And I've been stuck on it for about 5-6 years now. End results... I'm partly stable but as for quality of life. It's to be questioned. It ain't that good. I'd say do your research about ect and find out all the details. I do remember my nurse suggesting electro therapy to me. And Saying it was good. But I was to afraid to go through with it. And never done it. Eude.

Re: ECT and thoughts please

@Spida Hi Spida I know of someone who had chronic depression for years and tried everything pills you name it. Then his pdoc suggested ECT so he thought he had no choice but to give it a go. Now for him it was life changing. He is now a new man no longer suffering from depression like he was previously. All I can do is pass on his experience (he is also a very intelligent man) to you. It worked for him.

Re: ECT and thoughts please

Welcome to the forums @Spida It's so difficult to make the right reatment decision for you and I'm glad you've connected with the forums for support. '

 

I thought I'd drop in the SANE Guide on ECT to have a read over.

 

Do keep the conversations going with your doctor about the right treatment for you and if you'd like to hear more about other people's experiences, you can search the forums for other discussions on the topic by using the seach bar above. Wish you all the best with your decision making 🌻

Re: ECT and thoughts please

Thank you and will continue to try keep on trying

Re: ECT and thoughts please

Hi there, I just recently had 7 sessions of ECT. Previously I had a year long bout of severe depression, after being manic and being very reckless, putting us into serious debt 6 months prior. My diagnosis is Bipolar 1, anxiety, acrophobia  & PTSD. At the point of starting treatment I was suicidal & had my date & letters planned. Obvisouly not responding to meds it was a imperative I do this. My mood started to improve at number 5 and by 7 felt alive, happy & steady. Unfortunately it only lasted a few weeks and I’m now very low in mood. I have been scheduled for maintenance ECT so fingers crossed. I do think it is a great treatment option & I had very little side effects, the most being some memory loss particularly word finding.

Best of luck with your journey x

Re: ECT and thoughts please

Thank you for your response and for being so open about your journey. They are really pushing for me to have ECT now as meds aren’t working and my depression is at an all time low and like this for months now. I still have reservations and I’m not even sure why, maybe it the poss side effects and may not work, time off work and no income or local hospital is where I used to work. 

Can I please ask how long you had off for treatment ?was it a week? 

Im not sure but appreciate your input and I’ll keep moving forward hopefully

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