Did ECT help your bipolar depression?

Hey @HealingJourney, thank you for sharing your experiences with the community!

It sounds like you are going through quite a bit with your medications and potential thorough review in hospital. It is always best to be guided by our psychiatrists or prescribing doctor when it comes to our medications. Medications do work differently for different people so it is a bit of an unknown though there are some common side effects to go by.

I encourage you to keep the community updated on how you are going and I am sure they will have some insights to share with you.

Take care

RiverSeal

Hi @HealingJourney

I don't have bipolar but do have depression and C-PTSD.

I have tried quite a lot of meds in my time.

I have done ECT and am currently doing it at the moment.

I went into hospital and did it as an inpatient (more than once). I did it 3 times per week for four weeks. At the moment I am doing something my psychiatrist calls "maintenance ECT" where I am doing it once per month. It is hoped that this keeps me out of falling back into worse depression and keeps me out of having to go back into hospital and do it more frequently.

There are many ways of having ECT, whether you do it as an inpatient or outpatient. I guess that is a discussion to have with your treating team.

Of course I still have my days where things are not going great, but overall I do think it is helping.

I have also tried TMS before, but unfortunately it didn't help me.

For me ECT has helped, but of course everyone is different so I cannot say that it would help you. However, it might be something that you want to discuss with your psychiatrist.

I hope this helps.

Hello @HealingJourney

I’m sorry you’re going through such a tough time. It makes complete sense that you feel exhausted and terrified. I have done ECT for bipolar depression. The first time I did five sessions over two weeks. It worked very quickly for me luckily; however, I did not do maintenance and relapsed pretty quickly. I did another a course of six sessions over two weeks. Again, it worked very quickly. This time I did weekly maintenance for three weeks. I stopped because I couldn’t maintain a response on weekly treatment and would have to do it twice a week which was not feasible. ECT worked very well for me initially I just had difficulty maintaining a response. I also did some med changes in an inpatient setting which have been really helpful. There are also different protocols for ECT so if I do relapse again there are more treatment options.

Hope this was helpful to you.

Thank you so much for sharing this story. I appreciate it so greatly. Good luck with ongoing maintenance. Bipolar is such a tricky condition. I feel like I'm trying to catch clouds with my bare hands in looking for consistent recovery tools. This space and the folks here make me feel less alone in this labyrinth of mental health. Thank you 🌈

I went through ECT about 10 years ago, it really did help get me through my darkest time. I still struggle occasionally, and am now a bit (raising a difficult teenage daughter atm, who is going through the same things I went through).

Bottom line is though it did help me. Initially there was a bit of memory loss and some tremors but that passed within a few weeks of my last treatment.

Nothing holds a mirror up to us like parenting - especially teens! It's great that you're able to reflect on it. Hope you're getting support around the parenting as well as the mental health stuff, and I wish a gentle journey for your daughter as she navigates these tough times.

Appreciate you sharing your experience with ECT.