Electro-Convulsive Therapy Day 2 AM

[Bettygauge]

Bless you, my brother. Thank you for bravely taking the time to share your experience with others; whether ECT is a viable treatment for them or not. A dear friend of mine is undergoing ECT therapy inpatient right now, and my curiosity has thus been intensified. I wish for you and all suffering in this world, swift and lasting healing, love, comfort and peace. Be well, and safe journeys to you.

Your friend, fellow human being and sister,

Betty-SLC, Utah

Peace, brother.

[daleshankins]

@Bettygauge Thank you for your kind words.

[JeffRotull43]

Hi Dale,

Firstly, I admire what you are doing. I had two series myself a year and half ago and could not do this.

I have a couple of questions that might very well be answered in your subsequent entries, but my curiosity has the best of me, so, anyway...I'm curious about your initial series of treatments (or was there other series in between the first and now?). Did you have monthly maintenance treatments after your other series? I opted out of maintenance after mine, as I didn't find it...

[JeffRotull43]

an easy experience to go through, though I appear to have gotten something out of it, as I am functioning better now (though not anywhere as much as I would like to be). You stated that you found the meds to have been worse for you than the treatments. Has the ECT allowed you to stay off meds (I'm still on several).

I'm alarmed at how clear-headed you seem to be. When I was in the midst of my treatments, I was so foggy. I also found the memory loss quite unpleasant...

[JeffRotull43]

...I know this is mainly me though. From what I can tell, it doesn't seem to bother others as much. The things I was forgetting were pretty trivial - conversations with people, a TV show I might have watched; but it still felt like a loss of my faculties to some extent. Anyway, just wondered what your thoughts are on these matters.

Sorry for taking up so much space.

Glenn

[daleshankins]

I did not experience long term memory loss. I know that some people do. I hope yours gets better.

Don't worry about taking up too much space. I love the attention!!

[JeffRotull43]

I'm not having long term memory loss; only the short term around the time of the treatments and for several weeks after, but it was a factor in my decision not to have maintenance treatments as I found it disturbing.

My memory seems to ok now.

Thanks for your help.

[daleshankins]

Good news about your memory. Hope things work out for you. Feel free to write any time.

[daleshankins]

I only take one medication now - a daily patch, EMSAM that contains 6mg of an MAOI inhibitor. I require no other medication.

I had some initial memory loss but no long term memory loss that I am aware of...in fact I wrote an autobiography that contains details of my childhood and past that I had forgotten while in the grips of suicidal depression.

[daleshankins]

Hey Jeff...thanks for watching and commenting. I will try to answer your questions.

Re: Initial series of treatments. To the best of my knowledge I have had 40 or so individual treatments...generally in sets of 9-12 treatments per series. These videos were of my most recent ( and to date last) series in October of 2007.

I took monthly maintenance treatments for a time but discontinued them after it became apparent that I no longer needed them.

[Largo64]

I'm glad to hear that ECT isn't the horror I'd always thought. I was almost shocked (if you'll pardon the term) to know that they were still doing it. But as you said, the technique has changed. I'm sorry that you are going through this, but glad to know that something is available that can help you.

[daleshankins]

ECT has helped save my life.

[zoegirl2006]

I have watched your first two videos & am going to watch the others as well. I just wanted to thank you so much for posting about your positive experiences with ECT. I am 25 and have been under psychiatric treatment since age 18. I have been on way too many meds to list here & my psychiatrist has brought up the possibility of ECT. But everything I've watched/read on the net is so frightening, all these horror stories. So your videos are really putting my mind at ease, I can't thank you enough.

[daleshankins]

Some people do have bad experiences with ECT. I suggest checking out the research rather than relying on what you see on the internet. People tend to sensationalize things in order to get people to watch their videos.

[loveearth56]

hehe looks like your head is floating

[daleshankins]

It is. It was a bit painful at first but I got used to it.

[vdbroekw]

Very good idea this vlog. Take care Dr Shock

[daleshankins]

Dank u

[vdbroekw]

Aha your working on your Dutch, voortreffelijk.

[GitaLV]

Yeah, I suppose if they were anything like the Hollywood version, you probably would have only tried it once. Anyway... I guess you'll be sleeping for a while, so see you in a couple days. Take care.

[daleshankins]

I slept most of the day. But I just posted a video. I am trying to keep on top of it.

[squitmaa]

before these videos I knew nothing about ECT thanks for the info.

[pdoeman]

When my friend first told me she was going for ECT I was worried after seing it in one flew over the cuckoo's nest, I checked it out and was reassured.

ECT helped my friend a lot and if its done properly its a positive thing.

[daleshankins]

Yes it has helped me a lot.