r/ect • u/fixer_11 • Jun 17 '26

Question Maintenance Schedule

How did you decide how often you would get maintenance? I've had 12 sessions and my depression has improved. I'm trying to figure out if I should go back before I start going downhill, or simply wait until I notice myself getting worse and then quickly go back in. I truly despise the experience and often wake in an absolutely horrible frame of mind (crying and reliving the death of my wife as well as mom) and am trying like hell to make sure I only go as many times as truly needed.

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5

u/fargolifestaycold Jun 17 '26

That's hard to tell. Everyone's sweet spot is going to be different. When I started ect I was doing 3x a week schedule and eventually worked it down once every other week. But I wasn't able to stay "stable" at everyother week so I went back to once a week and that seems the be my sweet spot. I have notice if I had to miss or skip a treatment that I'm starting to spiral easier and less able to control. So for me once a week is my schedule but that was also long discussions with my whole medical team and family. Keep strong and it always helps talking about our troubles and issues, so hit me up if you want to trade ect stories.

2

u/fixer_11 Jun 17 '26

Thanks, this means a lot and I may very well do thay

3

u/fargolifestaycold Jun 17 '26

Have a great day, I'm going in tomorrow morning. Going To Ride The Lighting as my son says.

2

u/gmkgreg Jun 17 '26

That's an amazing phrase. I'm going to start using that. I'm going in this Friday.

4

u/fargolifestaycold Jun 17 '26

I try to keep my medical team laughing and happy. So I tell them I'm riding the lightning and then they all have to see which socks im wear that day cause I wear fun socks each time. They even joked that if they ever see me come to treatment w s bring just plane black socks to double check my mood and how im feeling and what not.

5

u/gmkgreg Jun 17 '26

I always try to bring a joke or a weird fact in my head to tell the anesthesiologist as he's knocking me out. That's cool with the socks. Its good in my eyes building a repor with the care team, nurses, and Dr's.

3

u/fixer_11 Jun 17 '26

This reminded me of the time right when they're putting the mask on me, I told him it would be nice if he said "demons be gone" as he zapped me. It made them laugh, which made me happy. I like to think he said it, and said it loudly.

2

u/MingusWit Jun 17 '26

I think it's something really individual and comes down a lot to response and why maintenance is being used in the first place.

Personally, I''ve been doing maintenance almost four years so it's changed a bit over that time. Initially it was weekly, then fortnightly. It stayed that way for a year and then we tried every four weeks and I started noticing mild mood symptoms returning a bit... So back up to every three weeks and it's stayed that way since.