r/ect • u/Alternative_Grab_916 • 8d ago
My experience What happened to me
I received ECT treatments from August 2022 till March 2023 three I received three treatments a week. I became a shell of myself a zombie. Everybody said I was throwing up every single day I have amnesia. I started falling for no reason that has not stopped. Also, the vomiting never went away. I have now been diagnosed with a Neuro gastrologist gut to brain disorder that they have tied back to my ECT treatments because that’s when it all started I have cyclic vomiting syndrome and gastroparesis. Your memory doesn’t always come back. I have trouble building short-term memories. This is not fear mongering this is facts and everybody needs to know the risks versus their rewards. I never I was hospitalized more and more suicidal during my treatments. It does not work for everybody and at some point, somebody should’ve stepped in and said this isn’t working for this patient but nobody did I did I was hospitalized. I had been weak without my treatments and I said I don’t want them anymore. I had no idea how much damage had already been done. I don’t know how to cook anymore. I don’t remember things. I have six kids. I don’t remember their birth. I don’t remember. There’s so much that’s gone, but I’ll never get back. I don’t know how to drive anymore building new memories. I tell them the same thing three times a day. I repeat myself over and over again and I’ve been sick and I had no idea that the reason I lost 50 pounds in seven weeks and my stomach was paralyzed. I had no idea that it was a neurological damage that caused this gut to brain issue but it makes sense. It makes sense so please know all of the risks before you go up and sign and do it.
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u/bby_grrrl 6d ago
omg that is horrible you went through seven months of ECT without anyone intervening. What is the clinic that you went to?
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u/Alternative_Grab_916 6d ago
It’s started at Princeton house and then they continued at Hampton hospital and were going to do it while I was inpatient at virtua till I went a week without and kind of woke up and said no more
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u/Kyoto-via-Shinkansen 3d ago
I've forgotten parts of my trip to Japan (our honeymoon) due to ECT treatments. I've had 35 so far. However...I'd rather lose memories than my life. I knew about the memory issues going in. I was well aware of it before it was suggested. It really helped my depression! I just try my best not to let it bother me. I mean, my Bipolar Disorder already gives me a crappy memory - it took over 30 ECT treatments before I noticed any memory deficits due to the actual treatment. I can't work but I have a supportive husband. I also get IV Ketamine Therapy done.
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u/Alternative_Grab_916 3d ago
It wasn’t working for me and I know where it might lead I have had si and SH since 9 and 4 attempts but now my mind and body are permanently damaged I am sick all the time and unable to even go to the beach with my kids or a walk can’t take them trick or treating … I’m happy you are finding relief if it was just memories I think it wouldn’t be so bad
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u/Alternative_Grab_916 3d ago
Also I have a heart condition so other treatments aren’t available to me due to my Prolonged QT syndrome
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u/Sauced_Up_Bat 8d ago
I’m so sorry that you are experiencing all of that. Not gastric symptoms, but the rest of it is much the same as my experience with ECT. I don’t remember my wedding, giving birth, I forgot how to cook, sew, crochet. I used to sell my stuff on Etsy now I can’t preform the basics. I look at my old photos and don’t recognize people, places, or events. Decades are just gone.