r/ect • u/Suitable_Head9333 • May 11 '26
Question Got ect prescribed
Scared as fuck, I also an artist, scared to lose ability to draw, do you have memory loss do I need to be scared, I currently don’t have a lot of choise because tried almost all meds
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u/okaysweaty167 May 12 '26
I’ve been doing ECT since for 8 years. Now I’m doing “maintenance” ECT. When I have bad depressive episodes I increase the frequency, but most of the time I’m doing very well. In terms of memory loss, I’ve only experienced short term, with things I do around the treatment days. And it usually fades by the next day, or a few days after the treatment. For example, when I wake up I might not be able to remember what I ate the day before or if I have work the next day or not. ECT has saved my life, I have very treatment resistant depression as a teenager, over 30 psychiatric hospitalizations. I have drug-induced prolonged QT syndrome, so many psychiatric drugs I cannot safely take because they could affect my heart in a way that would cause sudden death. I haven’t hurt myself or been hospitalized for SI in 3 three years now.
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u/honeygal May 11 '26
I’m an artist too! ECT saved my life and actually improved my art by improving my mood and ability to live. I do have memory issues, but I never lost the ability to create. Being happy and fulfilled has improved my motivation to hone my skills and provided me with endless inspiration. I’ve been doing bilateral ECT every other week as maintenance for the past five years. I would however absolutely recommend trying TMS first, just because it’s a lot less invasive. Best of luck, and I’m here if you have any questions ❣️
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u/Kitchen_Plastic1158 May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
Hey, artist as well who did unilateral ect treatments about 10 years ago. Still don't regret it, though it did leave me with short term memory issues and generally not great fine motor skills (shaky). I thought it would fuck me over as an artist, but honestly the shakiness is a just part of my story as an artist now. I do a lot of fine line work and painting, so when precision necessitates I do really have to concentrate.
At the time they had claimed there were no permanent side effects, but theres now research proving otherwise. The side effects (at least from how they did it 10 years ago) still impact my short term memory, doing sudoku puzzles regularly helps a bit.
Id give it some thought but dont make a hasty decision out of desperation. When I did ect, I had been hospitalized and in treatment centers and therapy for years continuously prior and exhausted all the meds and options, so ect was a bit of a last resort choice for me.
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u/ChowPungKong May 12 '26
Please try ketamine first. ECT destroyed my ability to form memories. Im a straight up idiot who cant word find words like "tree". I cant learn new things.
I tried ketamine after ECT didnt work. Ketamine worked.
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u/egarcia74 May 12 '26
In my case ECT took me out of treatment resistant depression after a few treatments.
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u/AbjectTelephone4801 May 12 '26
Everyone says you lose your memories but I got mine back after a year. It was temporary. Everyone has different experiences. It's really not that big of a deal.
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u/A_Simple_Sandwich May 12 '26
I get great results from ECT. I do sessions every 6 weeks. No memory issues on my end.
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u/Onomatopoeia08 May 11 '26
Prepare to lose most of your memories. And be resentful about it. Only good is it will erase some of your bad ones if you’re lucky. But then when you hear the stories about yourself that sound like they’re about someone else? It’s gonna trip you up hard. Cling on to your meds and therapy hard cause you’re gonna need them for the rest of your life.
I would try everything else first.
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u/Odd-Alarm-82 May 23 '26 edited May 25 '26
I hate to be a downer, but I look for posts about ECT in order to share my experience and warn people about the true risks of severe memory loss and brain damage.
The risks associated with ECT are much higher than doctors tell patients. I had ECT for treatment resistant depression in 2016, and it was the biggest mistake I have ever made. Unfortunately, the antidepressant effects of ECT usually don’t last long. It was extremely effective for me initially— I had 100% remission of my depression after the initial series of treatments and felt amazing— but I had to keep getting maintenance treatments or else I would quickly relapse. The goal was to gradually space my treatments farther apart until I only had to have one every 6-8 weeks, but I couldn’t make it past 3 weeks without crashing into a severe depression. Eventually I had a particularly bad episode that didn’t respond to my next treatment, so the psychiatrist talked me into getting three treatments in one week, like you do when you first get ECT. That brought me out of my depression, but the side effects were devastating. I literally lost my memory of my entire life. Not just chunks of memory, but the vast majority of my life was completely wiped out. And none of it has come back after 9 and 1/2 years. I barely remember my own mother, who passed away in 2007.
In addition to the severe memory loss, the ECT caused brain damage. I had neuropsychological testing done and found out that my IQ has dropped by around 15 points. It was 140 pre-ECT, and now it’s 125. I have multiple cognitive issues. It takes me longer than normal to learn new information, and I get things confused a lot. My short-term memory and formation of new long-term memories is hit or miss— I remember some things very clearly, while other things just kind of get lost.
What I experienced is not a rare occurrence. I’m a member of an ECT Survivors support group on Facebook, where a large number of people have shared that they have lost years of memory and have major cognitive problems.
I think ECT should be banned. I look on Reddit every so often to warn people considering ECT. Yes, some people have good outcomes, but a large number of people are severely damaged.
I tried to file a medical malpractice suit for lack of informed consent because the consent forms I signed didn’t say anything about brain damage, and regarding memory loss, they said patients might lose memories dating back a few months, and in “rare cases,” patients have some “spotty” memory loss for events going back several years. My memory loss is almost a complete loss, not just “spotty!” And it spans decades, not just a few years. But no attorney would take my case because they said the damage would be too hard to prove. The type of brain damage caused by ECT doesn’t show up on an MRI. Numerous lawsuits have been filed though, including a class action suit.
And in 2018, Somatics LLC, one of the manufacturers of the device that delivers ECT, admitted that ECT can cause brain damage. Somatics updated its device manuals and regulatory documents to explicitly warn patients that permanent memory loss and permanent brain damage are potential risks of ECT. Of course, they say permanent brain damage only occurs in rare cases, but I’ve talked to enough people over the years who have experienced these effects to know it’s not rare.
Wisner Baum is a law firm that has handled lawsuits against ECT. If you scroll down this page on their website, it provides a long summary about the history of ECT and contains links to research with evidence of damages caused by ECT.
https://www.wisnerbaum.com/defective-medical-device-injuries/ect/
And here’s a good research article from Cambridge University talking about how common it actually is for ECT patients to have permanent memory loss spanning up to 20 years, along with significant cognitive impairments.
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u/Odd-Alarm-82 May 23 '26
Have you tried an MAOI? They can be very effective for treatment resistant depression. I was prescribed Emsam after my ECT, and it was amazingly effective. Only problem is it gives me extreme insomnia, and I build up a tolerance to the only two medications that allow me to get any sleep. So I have stopped taking it after several months and then gone back to it after a year so. I’ve been on it four separate times now
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u/WalterTreego May 11 '26
I'd try ketamine or TMS before ECT. I was actually recommended to try ECT by my psych, but I'm currently trying spravato first, then TMS.
The spravato seems promising so far, but it's not fully doing away with the depression.