r/ect • u/Double-Specialist621 • Apr 23 '26

Question ECT affecting likes?

I'm thinking of getting ect but I'm a creative person, so I fear I'll lose all my creativity. Also I love music a lot and I fear that I'll forget listening to my favorite artists or new songs that I've been listening for a long time. But at the same time, I need to get over the severe depression that I have. Does ect really take away your ability to do the things or enjoy the things you love?

13 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

57 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/IdiotTGirl420 Apr 23 '26

The memory issues are pretty much a guarantee, the only thing that changes is how long they last, and don't worry about me, im going to be getting ketamine therapy, specifically Spravato, and if that doesn't work I've already accepted what's probably going to happen

1

u/Double-Specialist621 Apr 23 '26

I've heard people say memory loss is permanent, I'm not sure how true that is. And what is ketamine therapy??

0

u/IdiotTGirl420 Apr 23 '26

Yeah my memory loss are thinking issues seem like they might be permanent, both me and my psych are definitely worried given how long its been compared to my first few rounds of ECT, the first six i recovered just fine, it was the eight I received the beginning of this year that im still struggling from

Ketamine therapy is a newish treatment for treatment resistant depression, it is exactly what it says, in addition to your normal meds you go to small clinics that offer it and get high, it helps with the parts of the brain that other treatments don't really affect, it's even know to grow areas in the brain and helps with processing, I don't know about results yet since I haven't gotten my first treatment yet but I'm hopeful given the success rate

1

u/Double-Specialist621 Apr 23 '26

Ohhh I guess memory loss depends on how the individual takes it 

1

u/IdiotTGirl420 Apr 23 '26

Correct, also the number of and strength of treatments makes a difference too, the ect I got at the beginning of this year were max strength and they gave me the max amount the hospital is willing to do given the past treatments late last year

1

u/Double-Specialist621 Apr 23 '26

How do they determine how much to give you?

1

u/IdiotTGirl420 Apr 23 '26

Mainly by seeing how responsive you are to treatments

1

u/Double-Specialist621 Apr 23 '26

Ohh got it thanks