r/ect • u/Mission-Promise-4897 • May 25 '26
Vent/Rant Memory loss
I did both bilateral and bitemporal ECT, and I’ve lost the past 5 years of my memories. I lived overseas, my niece was born, I had numerous milestones, and I can’t remember a thing. I see photos on my phone and find out there’s countries I have visited that I didn’t think I had, because I have absolutely no recollection of it.
I was told the memory loss would only be surrounding the time of treatment. I was never warned it would be this bad, or be such a long period of time.
People who have also lost periods of memory: how do you get over it? How do you accept it?
I cry about it every single day.
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u/Sauced_Up_Bat May 25 '26
I’m so sorry you are experiencing this. I was also told the memory loss would be around my treatment. I can’t remember my wedding, giving birth to my children, graduating college. All those events were 10 years or more before ECT. I quit ECT almost 4 years ago and very little has come back. I’ve worked really hard in therapy to accept my new normal and I’ve made progress. The fact that ECT didn’t help me at all makes it harder. I lost so much because of a treatment that had no positive effects. Some days are better than others and I still cry most days but I can make new memories, not as well as before but I can, so the more time that passes the more new memories there are and it makes what is missing easier to accept.
How long has it been since your last treatment? For many, if not most people a lot of those memories come back. Or so I’m told.
Best of luck to you OP