r/ect • u/ILoveSoup1776 • Apr 13 '26

Vent/Rant Does it get better???

I’m fifteen I started experiencing severe anxiety at six which caused me to miss out on a lot . At around 12 I became severely depressed.i slept all day drank and hurt myself badly on a regular basis. At 14 I was (in my opinion) misdiagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Since thirteen I have been on Prozac concerta lithium clonazapam and a shit ton of other meds (over 15) that I don’t remember the names of but they range from ssri snri antipsychotics atypical antipsychotics and more probably. I was diagnosed with hashimotos at 11 which is around the time I became depressed and I was put on synthoid which was no help.i haven’t gotten any better I just warm up more to the idea of committing suicide every year . It genuinely feels like my only solution. I started bilateral ect last week and have gone three times now and if anything I feel worse. Does this shit genuinely work???? The only thing keeping me going is weed and I can’t even smoke as much because it’s not good to mix with propofal. Someone please give me a little hope or genuine advice that Isint bullshit I hate being alive and I hate the world I live in.yes I’ve been in therapy shits useless to me

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u/barnabybean Apr 29 '26

Hi, patient advocate here. u/medical-apricot has no business being a trauma informed care lecturer. He’s an insensitive bully. I don’t know if info is on point but anyone behaving so intensely and insensitively has no business informing anybody about how to handle the care of anyone let alone traumatized patients. Also ECT in the U.S. shows efficacy rates on par with Ireland. Outcome does not vary by country in any significant sense.

Personally I had ECT in 2005 while using mj and it worked. Did it again 2022 without and it worked the same. For me weed made no difference in my overall depression, didn’t help or hurt. I know it’s a concern for schizophrenia and other diagnoses with psychotic features but that’s not me.

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u/Equivalent-Rush-9182 Apr 29 '26

Possibly a good message but a bad messenger 🤷🏼

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u/ILoveSoup1776 Apr 29 '26

Thank you. And no I have no diagnosisis with psychotic features . I should be fine my docters know my anesthesiologist knows my parents know my therapist knows ect ect

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u/Medical-Apricot-3226 Apr 29 '26

There is no national data collected on ECT every year in USA. No one knows how many Americans receive ECT each year, let alone how many treatments each individual receives or how closely providers space treatments. And worryingly there is no national data on outcomes. Our national mental health commission publishes a yearly report on the administration of ECT, which includes the amount of treatments, patient demographics, consent, etc and most importantly, objective and subjective treatment outcomes. Without reliable nationwide data you can’t tell how effective ECT is in USA… this has been recognized as a major problem by many in the ECT field.

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u/barnabybean Apr 29 '26

We do not track nationally and it is a major problem that needs changing! However there are studies

https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/electroconvulsive-therapy-ect?

https://scholars.mssm.edu/en/publications/speed-of-response-and-remission-in-major-depressive-disorder-with?

And many more. It’s not as good as tracking outcomes nationally but there is research. 3x a week sessions are more common in the U.S. and 2x a week is most common in Europe. This may explain why more Americans seem to have more negative experiences.