tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14391563.post6596779662713529412..comments2023-10-25T07:20:23.858-07:00Comments on Vicarious Therapy: ECT & Media Portrayals of Depression Treatment OptionsAquahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16230285017033299419noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14391563.post-33551962722697676532009-11-04T10:15:07.753-08:002009-11-04T10:15:07.753-08:00Hi Kara, Thanks for the post Cara. I am really g...Hi Kara, Thanks for the post Cara. I am really glad to hear you are feeling better. I agree that getting your life back is worth a few side effects. Your comment about whether the memory difficulties are depression related or ECT related are dead on. My ongoing difficulties with depression are really effecting my memory and it is getting rapidly worse.<br /><br />Dr. Shock, thanks for the comment. My ECT experience was really positive. The only thing I was disappointed by was that my depression came back. If my new medicine does not help me I will try ECT again, this time trying maintenance ECT after the initial treatments<br /><br />Anonymous, Thanks for the comment. I do think it is important that ECT info be balanced, and to your point there are people who report severe side effects, like headaches and memory loss. I know for me I did have headaches for a couple hours after the procedure, but they went away, and my memory loss was only during treatment and it became better after the treatment too.<br /><br />merope3, thanks for you balanced response. I also agree that ect does not help some and helps others...much like all the other treatments.Aquahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16230285017033299419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14391563.post-46143894437025910572009-11-04T07:25:35.733-08:002009-11-04T07:25:35.733-08:00ECT is like most therapies. If it works for you i...ECT is like most therapies. If it works for you it works. Like other psychiatric therapies, there are a large percentage of people it does not help and some percentage of people it does help relapse, unless they supplement the ECT with meds and/or psychotherapy. The only person I ever knew personally who had ECT was not helped by it and found the side effects and memory loss intolerable. She was nauseous for days after her treatments and also suffered very severe headaches. However, I agree that if the treatment does help some people it should be presented as a viable treatment option so that people can make informed decisions. Lord knows the side effects of some of the meds they hand out these days can be pretty awful and they usually don't help either.<br /><br />I totally agree with your statement about treatment resistant depression. People tell me all the time "depression is a treatable illness" and I have to stop myself from telling them "so is cancer, but sometimes the treatment fails." For some reason, people don't like it when I tell them how it really is for me. Go figure. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14391563.post-51895528582762316972009-11-04T00:43:34.069-08:002009-11-04T00:43:34.069-08:00I really wish people would wake up and use common ...I really wish people would wake up and use common sense. ECT causes memory loss - BRAIN DAMAGE. Yes, you may forget for a time that you are depressed, or you may forget what you are deprpessed about, but for most people it eventually comes back. It might be even worse if it doesn't. To some people it can seem worse for the heart to hold what has been brain damaged out of the mind. How then can one make any sense of their depression? How can it be resolved but by more and more brain damage?It has been my experience that most people are depressed for a valid reason. It sometimes goes all the way back to childhood. For someone who is considering incurring brain damage to rid themselves of a problem, I would ask this: What unpleasant truth are you willing to damage yourself in order to hide?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14391563.post-88705986214170578782009-11-03T22:41:41.970-08:002009-11-03T22:41:41.970-08:00ECT is the therapy longest in use in psychiatry an...ECT is the therapy longest in use in psychiatry and extensively researched and still developing. Nevertheless it's still "mistreated" by some media. Information by those who had ECT , as shared be you both, is of enormous value to other patients facinf decisions on treatment options.<br />I share your opinion on tms. <br />Take care Dr Shockdr shockhttp://www.shockmd.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14391563.post-90293050954551452422009-11-03T18:28:22.205-08:002009-11-03T18:28:22.205-08:00I tell ya, the ECT treatments I had last year brou...I tell ya, the ECT treatments I had last year brought me back to life. I can't explain how such a treatment works, I just know that it did for me. Yes, there are some tiresome side effects, but they're nothing in comparison to having my life back. Yes, ECT has taken some memories from me, but what the mind forgets, the heart holds. So when things of importance are mentioned, I can recall a bit. Plus, who's to say that the bit of memory loss I experienced is from ECT only and not the depth of the depression. The media needs to relent on portraying ECT in a negative light. From what I understand, it is still the most effective treatment for treatment resistant depression.<br /><br />Anyway...I related much to the internal struggle you shared in regards to "Depression being a treatable illness." I share that inward struggle and oftentimes it's without even hearing those words.<br /><br />Be encouraged...you're not alone. Keep writing...KaraAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com