Just unbelievable. Id like to reiterate thanks to Lauren Tenney for her tireless work and a big In Solidarity hug to all you who have survived and to all those who have not and to those that love us still . And your brain just lets you down all the time. They have been hollowed out somehow as people, the connections in their brains fried with electricity so that they are no longer complete persons. "My big passion was walking, I did it every day, but since the shock therapy I don't have the drive to do it and that's really upsetting for me. Unfortunately it is the standard of care. I figured that I could regain some sort of social life that way, regain confidence via correspondence, just like I had when I had pen-pals decades ago, all around the world. The memory loss, the physical malaise, the nausea and headache despite medication made things worse instead of better. Sleep, exercise, nutrition, psychotherapy, social support groups, stressmanagement, and often medication play a critical role in maintaining health after ECT. Use spell-check. This induces a short (less than 60 second) seizure (but without the physical movement due to the paralytic) and the person wakes up from the short-acting anaesthetic a short time thereafter. Subscribing to Big Issue North ensures you receive each copy weekly, saving 1 per magazine on postage! It has not helped any of them, especially not her. No. Disinterest in socializing or activities. So sad to think of the number of new victims of shock since 2011 when the FDA, listening to similar compelling testimonies of devastating injuries and harms, did not have the intelligence, balls, common sense, compassion, or ethics to completely BAN this torture device and relegate it to the scrap heap where its sleazy, greedy, ignorant, violent, undereducated, and immoral promoters, administrators, and practitioners also belong, stripped of medical licenses. Most people we spoke to had some side effects from the treatment. RT @KellyMartin02: Please cite your source for the 80-90% supposed "response". Vendors sell on agreed pitches in city centres and out of town areas across the North West, Yorkshire and Humber. My life matters. Oblivious to the science, oblivious to the victims. The UK ECT Review Group "fails to acknowledge any of these major problems and unquestioningly included the strong finding in favour of ECT", it says. Privacy Policy. The medical community completely minimized them. I wasnt told all the possible risks. If ECT improves your mental health, the effects are usually felt quickly. They said, Youve tried everything else, right?. And that started off with having to read kids books. Links to other Health stories are at the foot of the page. Ummmaybe they were missing something, eh? Its easy to blame ECT for difficulties that might have happened anyway. But it would be electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in 2016 and 2017 that would ultimately set the 47-year-old on a path toward remission and back on the stage. Here are some poignant comments from shock survivors (and their friends and family) to the FDA: I received ECT in 2015 from a highly respected psychiatric facility. They have become devoid of any real feeling and they know that they are now unable to live any kind of a normal life. (Never, ever shut up, either. Comments made with an account prior to this change will remain visible on the site. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussionbroadly speakingof psychiatry and its treatments. The Mind-Body Problem, The Dreadful Physical Symptoms of Dementia, 2 Ways Empathy Determines the Type of Partner We Choose, To Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life, Seek These Goals, 4 Ways to Stop Beating Yourself Up, Once and For All, Nasal Spray vs. IV Ketamine for Depression. The treatment involves delivering electric currents to the brain in order to induce a. While a 39 percent relapse rate is not optimal, researchers like Dr. Ahmad Raza at UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) work diligently to improve these numbers. As with any major medical procedure, patients must compare risks to benefits, then decide if the upside outweighs the risks. Hi Folks, After a bit of red tape mix-up, my comment is finally up there and visible. Because my depression seemed untreatable with drug therapy, the doctor suggested ECTs. Now, I used my brain, which still seemed intact, to write my first novel. I was in a behavioral center for 4 weeks and received treatment 3 x week. I had memory problems, trouble sleeping. I just wish I never did the Ect at all. Theyre more likely to be given antidepressants, theyre more likely to be given electroshock. Men have long been silent and stoic about their inner lives, but theres every reason for them to open up emotionallyand their partners are helping. I will go to say a word but, my mind can't think of it and all these similar-sounding words come out or I'll go to say a sentence but, the order of the words gets all jumbled up in my brain. redwood tree buyers; dog breeds with pink around eyes; cairns train station spirit of queensland; most expensive house in australia address; lee marvin military service But there are people who have been treated. Its cruel., Because my niece went through ECT and it caused her permanent brain damage. I have memory problems and suffered an aneurysm, I was lucky to survive., I was coerced into consenting to this barbaric experience, and have been irrevocably harmed by induced grand mal seizures, without the benefit of accurate risk and effect information., I do not believe in the use of electroshock. A woman who was administered controversial electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is campaigning to ban the mental health treatment. I believe my dad was right all along. It causes brain damage. Please post and forward it so that people might obtain some balanced information about ECT. It took away four years of my life that I will never regain, while nearly costing it! document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Sign-up to receive our weekly newsletter and other periodic updates. (It is noteworthy that ECT is seldom administered to young men. I made a few suicide attempts and then ended up in the shock jock hospital in town. I didnt even recognise myself anymore. It does not matter that the industry lies and says it is not harmful! Yes, ECT is always described as a last treatment option. It should be banned not lowered in class., I know firsthand that shock treatment is. I survived that . "While ECT can sometimes cause people to lose some past memories, we've become much better at mitigating . Thank you for your support. Another fiction is the fear of brain damage. What I do want is more acknowledgment of the memory problems and associated distress, and more support for people going through treatment. As a psychiatrist, I know that ECT is a rapid and lifesaving treatment in severe depression, when the patient is suicidal, or no longer able to care for themselves. So much heart, time, energy, and hard work you have poured into this effort, Lauren. In 2018, a class action case was settled in the US after a federal court ruled that a reasonable jury could find against manufacturers of ECT equipment if they failed to warn of the dangers of brain damage. Walking through doors wasnt the only thing Cunliffe suddenly found challenging. 2,8 While there are many accounts of devastated lives on . It is frank discrimination and negligence on their part., My dad had ECT when I was a kid and since treatment he will look at me and call me by my sisters name its like my name doesnt exist in his memory unless someone reminds him of it. This treatment should not be down-classified; it is dangerous., The shrinks electroshocked my dad for sexually abusing me. I dressed up as him and everything, I really believed I was him and became very religious. My life is so far down the drain after ECT brain damage and TBI. Shock is not effective in relieving depression or anything else beyond the first few weeks after it happens, when the brain, having suffered an injury, is trying to repair itself and so it seems that the activity of the mind has changed. I don't feel suicidal in this moment, but OBGYN and parents urged hospitalization yesterday. Lets just mindlessly drink the koolaid and shriek OMG! It is done to the most vulnerable like seniors in large numbers in most of the Western countries. For the first few treatments, given the settings he marked down, it seems that the doctor was working with the variables of current and voltage in order to induce a seizure of adequate strength and duration. ECT was first used on a human patient in Italy in 1938, after preliminary experiments in dogs and pigs. When doctors cant help, they use whatever extreme methods might be available regardless of the harm that is done. In a third of cases ECT is given without consent. Speaking [became] a problem because my speech was slurred. It took me 8-10 to notice a change. Everyone needs to listen to survivors stories; this needs to become real and fleshed-out. I had over 70 of these horrible treatments within a two year span. I just love to hear about the expertiseof Dave and Sarah, and Howard, and Max and Ned on this topic. Ect ruined my life. Gym Pick Ups and ECT: 2 topics from 1 Episode of The Doctors, Shots Fired Cry Havocs take on Dallas Shootings of 7/7/16, Serotonin Imbalance Found Not to Be Linked to Depression, How Memories Are Formed and Where They're Stored, This Is Why We Avoid Difficult Conversations, Why It's So Difficult to Love People Who Don't Love Themselves, Is There Life After Death? She lived into her late 80s which most mentally ill people dont any more. We live in a society where certainly psychiatry is dominated its dominated by men, but ones point is it is dominated by male ideas. Within a couple weeks after electro-shock treatments , arriving home at my parents house , having been released into their custody, with great difficulty I convinced my dad to verbally fill in the gaps in my memory where I knew uncomfortably , that stuff was missing concerning my previous history and yet did not know what it was. Reminders and reassurance can go a long way. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. No the memories do not come back. I strongly oppose the proposed reclassification., I was labeled treatment resistant and underwent monthly ECT. Cookie Notice And one of the biggest of those crimes is administering shock to the vulnerable and distressed and suffering, usually, as you say, after poisoning them into a state of toxic drug insanity I can't finish college. Brains injury is not a treatment. Stop the Shock!, Ive been through ECT and have lasting effects that doctors deny are related to this procedure., I see the devastation caused to a loved one. Psychiatrists say ECT saves lives BBC News Online talks to former ECT patients who say the therapy ruined their lives. I must say that if meds didn't ultimately work for me, and I was afraid they wouldn't, my next consideration would have been ECT. And as well as memory loss and mood swings, ECT, she believes, was responsible for leaving her with "terrible" recurrent headaches and neck pain. I also had no bug problems, and hardly ever heard my neighbors. I agreed with her and said the psychiatrist convinced my family the ECT treatments would eventually work., I have suffered severe reversible brain damage. The aftereffect undercurrent terror of electro-shock and psychiatry are never far from the surface . It took around 6 sessions for my mental health team, the ECT team and loved ones to notice any difference. Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention . It destroyed her life physically and mentally., I am a survivor of shock treatment. She wants acknowledgement for the injuries One has to wonder how long it will take for the American psychiatric industry to finally realize their treatments always have been, and still are toxic, torture drugs. Met Gala 2023: Stars celebrate Karl Lagerfeld, Shooting suspect was deported four times - US media, HSBC says 1 bank buyout boosted profit by $1.5bn, King Charles to wear golden robes for Coronation, Yellen warns US could run out of cash in a month. Until we have another better treatment that works rapidly, I think there will be a place for ECT. My long term and short term memory has been greatly impaired and I have great difficulty comprehending many things. In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978, As a psychiatrist, if I had severe depression Id choose ECT | Mariam Alexander, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. She was convinced the ECT was responsible for her sudden memory loss and inability to function, but what followed was two years of denial by the medics who treated her. Still, there are some things you should consider before treatment. As a doctor and psychiatrist, I know that all treatments will have potential unwanted effects, and it would be wrong to say that such problems are not possible. The most common are short-term to permanent memory loss and other cognitive difficulties, headaches, toothache and muscle aches, nausea, cardiac arrhythmias, and similar cardiovascular problems.

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