Electric Shock Therapy - anyone got experience?

[missjulie]

Come and tell me all about it, please. Good points, bad points........

I an bipolar, and had ECT 15 years ago when on a psychiatric ward severely depressed.

It was the start of my recovery, and I went for the 'quick' solution as I was a single mother with 2 young children.

I did have short term memory loss, and feel that my memory in general hasn't been quite the same since, but severe depression can do that to you anyway.

I stayed on anti depressant for about a year afterwards, but went back to my high pressure professional career very successfully within 3 months of having ECT (as well as being single mother to my children!).

So, it is a fast acting solution for most people, and the risks are mainly to do with the general anaesthetic. The side effects tend to be no worse than those of having severe depression. It isn't nice to think about yourself having the treatment, but it is a treatment with a long history, and a very valuable addition to ADs for some people.

I work in mental health, and my opinion of ect is that it works and is nothing like how people imagine it. The side effects are short term memory loss.

Please ask me here or PM if you want to know the procedure,

Hello, many thanks for all of your replies.
Elkieb, more information would be wonderful, thank you.
4aminsomniac, that really is an encouraging story, many thanks for sharing it. Am so glad that it helped you. xx

It's been a long time since I've done an ECT clinic so apologies for any errors. Basically the doctor prescribes a course of ECT. The procedure is short, the patient is given a general anaesthetic, and whilst they are asleep they are given a muscle relaxant. Then, they are given either unilateral (one) or bilateral (two) shocks using probes on either one or two temples. This is done for a set period of time (only briefly), and then the patient experiences a controlled convulsion which is monitored and timed.

They are then and placed into recovery where nursing staff monitor physical health such as blood pressure and blood oxygen whilst the patient comes round.

Then, the patient is taken to a rest room where they are given tea and biscuits.

I hope that makes sense and isn't too scary? X

Ok! Phew!
Thank you!
Am sure my friend knows all of that, but is nice to get as much information as possible!
MJ x