Posted by SLS on September 16, 2006, at 12:18:02
In reply to Re: Looks like ECT » SLS, posted by willyee on September 16, 2006, at 11:11:56
> > > Scott you had ECT??
> > Yes. I had 6 unilateral left followed by 9 bilateral for a total of 15 treatments. 3 x week. 5 weeks. Wow. 5 weeks. It didn't seem that long at the time.
> >
> > I actually experienced a transient improvement after the fifth treatment that lasted for a few hours. My brain is just so damned stubborn.
> WoW....honestly if i were on that route,id take comfort in knowing you had it.
>
> Reason being although i understand we only fet a very small tiny slice of someone here,if you believe otherwise than youre on the net too much,
I do spend a great portion of the day on the Internet reading or posting on Psycho-Babble many days. Those are usually my good, or should I say, average and stable, days. Unfortunately, it is one of the few distractions there is for which I have both the interest and the capacity to function at. I simply cannot read magazines, newspapers, or books. My brain will only process one or two sentences at a time. Posts that are longer than two or three medium-length paragraphs are intimidating to me. I mostly just skim. I am surprised I don't make more mistakes proofreading my posts. There are plenty, though. TV is only background to keep me company. I'll pay attention to some CNN news and a few shows in particular. Sometimes, though, my depression gets so severe, that I cannot even do that. I just sit or lay on the couch staring into space or at the wall, content to be without thought. Music can sometimes capture my attention when I'm not feeling too bad. I was like this before ECT.> HOEVER even so that slice does have a impact,and i consider you among one of the resources i use this board for knowledge wise,not that im downplaying your personality,as ive said before i try to come here for what it is and that is information,and again i consider you to be on the top list perhaps number one on information i trust.
You made my day with that one, Will.
> So i would take that into consideration in any fears of ect.
I can only report what I have experienced and what I have witnessed. Another person I am close to has failed two courses of ECT, including bilateral treatment. She failed to respond, but is no worse for it. There have been people who have received a hundred treatments without a problem and others who have described having years worth of memory loss, retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia, and subsequent short-term memory impairments. I have heard of people needing to go back to school to re-learn courses that had been wiped from their memory. It is difficult to ingnore these reports. My guess is that severe adverse events like these are infrequent. I just wouldn't be able to characterize their frequency for you. I have met only one person who made the claim that ECT had wiped out their memory of academic material such that they had to go back to school. I have, unfortunately, been in instutional settings, both inpatient and outpatient, both research and private, and have come across people who have undergone ECT. I am not so afraid of it. I would consider bitemporal treatments if I were inclined to try it again.
> I am obsessive however,and id feel regardless afterwards that i did some sort of mechanical damage to my brain forever,even if the ect was placebo,just a fake zap,but im glad you shared something like that.
Yup. I can certainly understand that.
I am undecided as to whether or not I would recommend ECT to anyone.
I don't think I would try to dissuade anyone from ECT who were in a position similar to Blueberry's.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:686296
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060909/msgs/686558.html