Is ECT totally safe and appropriate, especially when administered by involuntary orders

Hi @Appleblossom

A very interesting read.

Whilst I have had ECT quite a few times, it was always with my consent.

However, I know this is not the case with many others.

My mother had it in the 1960s and my sister had it in the 1980s.

I remember my mother looking weirdly deadish… when she showed the welfare where we had been left … when I was 6…. so some of my integration of my narrative is… gently refined… ah… that is why she looked like that, then. I clung to her madly, but they ripped me off her, took us to our various institutions. Mother only said she had it to me about 5 years before she died. She said it did her good. Mind you we were not permitted to discuss anything about the abandonments. I had already been silenced and moved on, but my sister did try hard to get some discussion about it, without success. Partly why she died, in my view.

I know you had better experiences @Snowie which is good.

Thanks for not getting defensive about it.

I am not of many certain opinions… more just trying to understand….life and the whole shebang….

@AuntGlow @Jynx @rav3n @tyme

apparently many Lived Experience communities have struggled along the dichotomies of pro and con…. the various treatment protocols….

all important discussions….

I'm sorry you've had to go through all of that @Appleblossom with your mum, as a young child and even as an adult.

I do think that it is an important discussion to have.

I'm sure that there are a lot of people out there with good and bad experiences.

Thank you for responding. Yes. I agree @Snowie

It is why I do believe there needs to be wholistic , person centred therapeutic approaches… there are heaps of different types….along with any chemical or ECT interventions.

@Appleblossom @Snowie

I have no personal experiance with ECT, so I have nothing meaningful to contribute to the question of whether it is good or bad.

For me, the pertinant issue in this article is the question of consent. Regardless of whether a treatment is excellant or flawed, I find the idea of it being administered against patients' wills to be absolutely horrifying.

TBH, I find it pretty sad that we're still talking about this. I remember reading material from VMIAC, way back before the Victorian Royal Inquiry was even being talked about, detailing the appalling numbers of involuntary ECT treatments in Victoria, and how they were calling for the laws to be changed to make that illegal.

Here we are, all these years and a completed Royal Inquiry later, and we're still talking about the same old problem... 😔

@Appleblossom

It was my mum too... before we moved... I was 6 or 7 so mid 1990's... to try and fix her multiple personalities and schizophrenia... she wasn't my mum anymore when she came back... I became her carer instead... it's like she was a ghost inside...

Thank you for sharing this article @Appleblossom . It's certainly a controversy.

The idea of involuntary orders itself is challenging for me.

I only know one person who had ECT many moons ago. She's passed away now. I just remember her mind always being foggy, but I don't know if that was caused by the ECT or diabetes or just old age @Appleblossom

@Appleblossom perhaps what's informed consent is questionable too. When I had it I had no idea of what was involved or side effects. My psychiatrist parked me in hospital for it while he was leave, then his locum was sidelined by an injury. My ECT continued for weeks without any psychiatrist supervising or reviewing me. I'd woken from the first session with a vivid impression of having survived a very unpleasant near-death experience, which I've never forgotten. It was awful. The bereavement and depression that preceded it probably didn't justify ECT treatment.

@chibam @tyme issues around involuntary treatment keep arising.

The site isn’t permitting me to like posts, but thanks for posting.