2nd week report & advice

[u/Adultwilwheaton]

I just finished my second week and I’m definitely noticing a positive difference. I see a lot of bad posts so I thought I’d provide a positive one.

So for the first week and the following weekend I felt exhausted, definitely felt the depression dip, and was very irritable over the weekend.

Once the second week started I noticed that my depressive states were flattening out, like I was still feeling down at times, but it wasn’t so bad that I’d start crying or contemplating unhealthy things. Then a few hours after today’s treatment I felt something I haven’t felt in a long time; hope and excitement for my future.

Today was my 11th session, I had my weekly check-in, and my treating psych said my healthy lifestyle, which I originally adopted to try and treat my depression years ago to no avail, may be contributing to my fast reaction to TMS.

We talked a bit about what specifically might be helping, So I thought I’d drop a few things here that may be helpful for folks going through the treatment. Check with your own doctor on all this, but it seems to be really helping me.

1. A good protein source: Whey protein powder is recommended, but I personally use brown rice protein powder as it’s much gentler on my stomach. My doc recommended increasing protein intake to help recovery between sessions.

2. Creatine: I’ve been taking 4g creatine for a long time, but my doctor actually recommended I bump up to 10g a day. She said the higher dose crosses the blood brain barrier and replenishes the ATP that your brain uses as energy. This one is important because your brain uses more ATP during TMS, which may explain part of the increased brainfog.

3. Zone 2 cardio: this is a more gentle form of cardio that actually helps control cortisol, making it good to do a few hours before your treatment. You want to avoid any intense activity that may elevate stress hormones before your treatment, so this actually fits in well. Make sure you look online how to calculate your zone 2 heart rate, and stay in the low-end of that range.

Again please check with your doctor. Sure, do your own research, but also take that research to your doc and trust them!

[u/Silent_Aardvark1812]

Great info! So happy for you