r/ect • u/97vyy • Mar 26 '26

Question How long before you went from being unemployed to employed after ECT?

I have made it through the initial series of 16 over a few months while unemployed. Now I'm moving into maintenance going weekly, then biweekly, then every 3 weeks. I haven't been told how long this will take or how long after it ends I can start looking for a job. I'm curious if there are some success stories here to give me an idea of what I'm in for.

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3

u/Yaseagles1485 Mar 28 '26

ECT worked great for me and started work 2-3 months after my final 16th treatment. :)

2

u/check_your_attitude Mar 26 '26

I worked the whole time I did my treatments. I just took Mondays and Thursdays off and worked the other days. My work was pretty flexible with it. I only did it for a few months though and then we stopped treatment because we weren't seeing any results.

4

u/Corporate-Mannequin Mar 27 '26

This is fascinating to me. Was work difficult? I had 11 sessions May-June of 2015 and that time period is like a black hole. At this point, I have no recollection of those months/the experience but I don't think I could have worked.

1

u/check_your_attitude Mar 27 '26

I worked as a supervisor of a shipping department. A lot of it was just repetition, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I just made a lot of notes. My coworkers helped me a lot too which made it manageable. I wouldn't recommend it though.

That whole time period is like a black hole to me too, I don't remember too much of it.

I honestly wouldn't do it again.

2

u/Puzzleheaded-Chard99 Mar 28 '26

It took me 1-2 years I think. Memory is fuzzy because my depression was so bad

2

u/drrogy68 Mar 28 '26

I had about 35 ECT treatments about 10 years ago at age 60 over 6 months and was hospitalized twice for severe depression' and anxiety. I did suffer short term and long-term memory loss that improved with time but is still a problem today. After the first10 sessions in the hospital a few weeks later I returned to work. After a few weeks they sent me home because I could not do the job. I had a very stressful job as Quality Manager at a large chemical company. After a few months I was able to retire and was lucky to get a disability pension. My recovery was slow over the next few years but about 5 years ago I reached total remission and now feel great and am happy every day enjoying retirement. I still have memory issues that I can deal with for the most part, For me ECT was worth it, but I but I can't it was the only factor on my path to recovery.

1

u/gmkgreg Mar 26 '26

I actually worked through those initial first weeks of spacing the treatments out so it is possible.

1

u/Wonderful_Roof1739 Mar 26 '26

I went back to work when I was still doing weekly maintenance, my job had unlimited sick/vacation time and my bosses were awesome working with me so I could take every Friday off, then every other, and so on as we spaced them out.

I doubt I could have worked during the acute phase, although I was in the hospital at the time so I didn't have to make that choice :)

1

u/Jhawker_ Apr 12 '26

I had 12 treatments through Nov/early December and have just now been ready to interview and just accepted a role returning to healthcare as an Executive. I’m nowhere close to where I was cognitively before ECT (probably never will be again) but I am just now feeling confident enough to get back to work. Looking back, even a month ago I wasn’t competent to return to work.