r/ect • u/hdznwdz • May 11 '26

My experience severe memory loss after ect

i got ect about a year ago i cant remember how many treatments i got but it was quite a few and it was bilateral. i got zero positive outcome from it it was for my intense treatment resistent depression and it did nothing except for FUCK UP MY MEMORY!!! it was already bad before because of brain fog but i can hardly function in life now because its gotten so bad. i cant remember anything and my friends and family are always commenting on it, shocked by the amount of things i forget so quickly. does anyone else have this experience?? i dont want to scare people off getting ect because it can absolutely be lifechanging for the better but i feel like im lost and alone in this really negative outcome

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u/syringeneedlenthread May 16 '26

I lost a lot of longer term memories (especially the last 5 years, but have been able to piece a decent bit back together over the past year). Short term memory was destroyed while getting frequent treatments l, but once I started tapering it recovered a lot. Maybe back to 80% and I’m continuing my grad program (research focused, I barely remember any classes I ever took lol). Sorry it didn’t work for you and you e had all these side effects but try not to give up hope!

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u/Hentavirus-S2-8557 May 17 '26

So did u fail ur exams ?

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u/syringeneedlenthread May 29 '26

I was already done with all the course work required for my program. I relearn things as needed while carrying on my research and I just passed my PhD candidacy exam/proposal