Ect ( electroconvulsive therapy )

@Peppapig

Good luck with getting a psychiatrist to agree to that.

I wanted this for my CPTSD and childhood trauma memories. I didn't want any therapy where I had to recall past trauma's. I finally got in to see a psychiatrist and he recommended EMDR & CBT, which I was against due to recall needs for those therapies. I told him I wanted ECT, he immediately said, "that's off the table". He told me it takes reports, tribunal's etc... to get this therapy and it's only for people with severe cases of depression/suicide and when other treatments have failed. I was a bit pissed about his response as I see myself as a serious case. I've had 40+yrs of depression and having to live with these trauma's and have an ACE's score of 9. I have destructive behaviours which has caused the ending of my marriage. Psychiatrist just wanted me on pills and it has been pretty much left to me to find my own therapist who specialises in what I need to address my issues. ECT can be very effective only after 3 to 6 sessions and not a financial burden on the receiver. Pills, EMDR and CBT can take up to a couple of years to be as effective as ECT which costs thousands in fees which most people can't afford. It's frustrating.

I hope you find relief.

Hi @Peppapig

ive had ECT therapy twice. I’m once back in the early 2000’s where I had 10 treatments, that with a new antidepressants I feel that it helped me a lot. But it does affect your memory and there are a lot of things from around that time that I do not recall to this day.

I then had it again a couple of years ago. I was fortunate enough to be sent from a public hospital, to a private hospital and treated as a publicly funded patient. I had 14 sessions I think.

it’s a pretty invasive treatment, you are put to sleep 3xs a week and they administer this shock therapy to you. Not a decision to be made lightly.

it’s mostly used to treat severe depression, especially treatment resistant depression, it’s not primarily used to treat schizophrenia. Generally used as an absolute last resort.

Hi @Peppapig

I am doing ECT at the moment. I have severe depression (amongst other things too).

Last year I was admitted to a mental health hospital to do ECT 3 times per week. I was in for 4 weeks and did a total of 12 sessions. Since then, I have been having ECT once every 4 weeks. My psychiatrist calls it "maintenance ECT". At the moment, he would like to increase it to every fortnight.

This was not the first time that I have had it. I have had it 2 times before (as an inpatient).

Before I had my first ECT, I had tried other things. I had done CBT and also TMS. I had also tried different meds too. None of those things really helped. Thats when my psychiatrist said to try ECT.

Yes it has affected my short term memory with some things. But at the same time, it has helped with my depression and also my C-PSTD. I do believe that if I hadn't tried ECT then I might not be here today. That is my experience with it, but everyone is different, and it affects all of us differently. In no way am I trying to guide you in either direction.

I think it is something where you really need to look at the pros and cons and discuss it with your treating team.

Please if you have any questions just tag me and I will help as much as I can.

Hey I've had 6 rounds of ECT 6 treatments each round. It was a treatment for bipolar. Some were to combat depression and some were to combat mania. I find ECT very invasive and in my latest depressive episode when they wanted me to have ECT I declined it as I feel it messes too much with my head. I tried TMS instead but found it didn't help much at all. ECT helped me a lot and I was able to get off most of my medication but it didn't last too long and now I'm back on a cocktail of drugs. I personally don't want to have any more and choose to control it with medication.
I am not sure if they do ECT for schizophrenia. I asked about ECT for my daughter who was experiencing severe depression and psychosis but they said they don't do it for that. So I don't know.