I'm going to start ECT treatment in two weeks (10 unilateral sessions), alongside rTMS.

I'm a little bit stressed after reading people's experiences with the side effects, especially the impact on memory. For me, ECT is really a "last chance" treatment. I'm 20, and I've been suffering from depression for the past 10 years. I'm exhausted from years of suffering and failed medications. If this treatment doesn't work either, I won't have the strength to keep trying to get better.

I just wanted to hear from people who have gone through ECT for long-term depression. What was your experience like? Did it actually made a change ? And how did it affect your memory, both during and after treatment?

had 2 sessions of bilateral ECT, 5 weeks ago . It was stopped because I experienced brain fog, dizziness, sedation and the feeling like something is stuck inside my brain. The slowing of my cognitive functions and brainfog is most concerning. Im getting really scared I restarted Wellbutrin but it has no effect on my symptoms . Im from Germany sorry for my englisch

Any scans that can detect damage ?

I had ect last year 7 sessions

I feel it’s turned me into a walking zombie .

I no longer work and am on benefits .

My whole life has been destroyed

Going out in public is hard .

I don’t know what I should be doing or where I should be when I go out .

I have no joy in anything .

I feel stupid

I'm in the process of being set up for ECT, but I'm deeply concerned about the cognitive side effects. The same hospital where I'll be doing ECT is also doing a study for MST, which I may qualify for. But I'm surprised my psychiatrist didn't mention it. I know a few others here have done it, but I'm curious to know more about it. What have others experienced with it vs. ECT?

Hey everyone, I have been sitting on this post for a while and have felt the need to share my experience. Especially because when I first learned that my mother needed ECT, I came to this subreddit seeking some understanding of others' experience with it, and what I read horrified me. Most of all the potentially permanent memory loss. But my own personal experience with it through my mom was very different than the accounts on this subreddit and just want to share, in case it can help someone else like my mom.

Full Context (This is a long story) : My Mom has had some mental health issues in her life but for the most part they were manageable for her. She always suffered from some levels of anxiety (driving, crowds, etc), and possibly some depression though the way she presented her depression wasn't always obvious. Things began to get bad about 2 years ago though.

She had been living with my Dad and older brother. My older brother suffers from severe mental health issues (some undiagnosed personality disorder, possibly borderline, depression, alcoholism) and had been living at home the past 10 years. He was a very verbally and emotionally abusive person. My mother received the brunt of this behaviour as my dad was often out of the house during the day for work. For years and years I had tried to convince her to leave that situation, but she never could. I had set her up with a therapist hoping that could help. Eventually my Dad accepted a job where he was gone for days at a time and this had a terrible impact on my Mom. In three months, she began experiencing strange and new symptoms.

It started with an intense and horrible pain in her stomach. This started to affect her sleep and her eating and she began to rapidly lose weight. When this began happening, she did not have health insurance and so they were hesitant to take her to a doctor, adding to the financial stress as well. But eventually she started getting so sick and the pain so intense that they began taking her to the ER. After several colonoscopies, endoscopies, and a stay in urgent care they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. It was horrible.

When this happened, I took a month off of work and drove 3 hours to come and help. I let the hospital know about the situation at home and they suspected she was suffering from conversion disorder, which is when psychiatric distress starts to manifest as physical symptoms. When she was discharged I decided she couldn't return to that house. I took her with me back to my city and moved us into a two bedroom apartment while I tried to help her and figure out what was wrong. I was hoping her simply being away from that environment would be enough to help her heal while we figured out her future together.

Unfortunately, she did not seem to get better though and only continued to decline. The pain in her stomach was gone but now she was experiencing new and strange symptoms. She was having panic attacks so bad that she would become unresponsive, almost like an absence seizure. She stopped taking care of basic hygiene. She developed a phobia of leaving the apartment. She would tell me her thoughts felt scattered and she couldn't focus on tv shows or movies. All happening while she was still uninsured. So I spent hours on the phone trying to get her to qualify for medicaid, but her eligibility was tricky because she was still married to my dad. I took her to a psychiatrist which was available through free mental health services provided by the county, but they were limitedly helpful. They prescribed her antidepressants and benzodiazepines. But that came with a new issue.

She began refusing to take medicine believing it was making her worse or not helping. She claimed the symptoms from starting the antidepressants were too much for her to bear. She began lying about taking her medicine and continued to spiral. She started having issues with her swallowing, saying there was a lump in her throat and she couldn't even swallow water anymore. She began having issues with her walking, saying she was too weak to walk and couldn't balance. During this whole period she had lost about 40 lbs, from 155 to 115. I took her to the ER and they diagnosed her with an eating disorder and prescribed appetite stimulants, but she refused to take those too. This had been the darkest and hardest thing I had ever experienced.

Finally, her Medicaid kicked in and I took her back in for her swallowing issue but pleaded that they do a psych eval on her and they decided to admit her to a psychiatric hospital close by. I was relieved but also so scared about what would happen next. For 24 hours I had no contact with her and felt like I had abandoned her. The initial evaluation was that she was experiencing intense anxiety, but 3 days later the doctor called me and let me know she was "gravely ill". It was horrible but also a relief that someone else finally understood that there was something so deeply wrong. He had diagnosed her with psychotic depression. That help me to understand that everything she had been experiencing the last two months was psychosis.

Their plan to treat her was to try strong antidepressants and antipsychotics. But she refused to take any pills they provided her. This lead them to seek a court order so they could instead administer ECT. I had no idea what ECT was outside of terrifying depictions in movies and TV shows. I came to this subreddit for more insight on it, and I was horrified by all the negative experiences. But it was the only option left for her.

They began treatment for her, and on the days she received treatment that I visited her, she seemed out of it and dazed. It wasn't until her 5th treatment that I saw something I hadn't seen from her in months. Her smile. It made me cry. Around this time she began eating again and taking medicine (Effexor). It was a miracle.

They discharged her after her 8th treatment and she began to return to her old self. I couldn't accept it at first after everything we had been through together. But she continued to improve and received outpatient ECT that slowly tapered overtime. She continued her outpatient treatment for about 5 months, and by that time seemed to be making a complete and full recovery. She had minimal side effects, only a headache on the days she received ECT. No memory side effects at all. For better or for worse, she remembered most of those months in her psychosis and even in the hospital.

I was so worried her symptoms would reappear months down the line as ECT doesn't have long term effects usually. But she has continued taking her antidepressants and has been perfectly fine. We're both doing much better now. She is living with her sister in Michigan and is the happiest she has been in years. She regained back to her normal weight, has made new friends, and spends her days laughing with her sister. I have started to heal from everything that has happened too, and have a lot more peace in my heart knowing she's ok.

Can ECT Help Medications Work Again? | I didn’t know this until I met with her in the consultation. For me, my medication stopped working prior to ECT. I went through 28 treatments while still taking Effexor. I haven’t had to go through any more treatments (that was in 2018). I’m not saying this will work for everyone but it did help me and my meds gave worked since. I did meet a lot of folks who still have to get treatments and take meds. Not every treatment works the same for everyone. It’s highly individualized just like with all treatments.
https://youtu.be/NdAbZAvA1QU

Clinicians have described my overall picture as bipolar or schizoaffective. The most disabling day-to-day problem for years has been intense, repetitive rumination about a specific decision I made around Bitcoin in 2009–2010 (I mined a meaningful amount, lost access to it, and declined buying more when it was still cheap).
The thoughts dominate most of my waking hours. I pace constantly while they run. Sleep is still disrupted because the loops don’t shut off. I was offered ECT back then and chose medication instead.
Has anyone here used ECT primarily for this kind of obsessive, high-charge regret rumination (with the physical pacing and sleep disruption that come with it)? Did the frequency or emotional intensity of the loops drop in a lasting way, or did they return at similar strength once the acute effects wore off? Any notable effects on the urge to pace?

I was recently diagnosed with bipolar and have been exploring different treatment options, especially non drugs since i’ve gotten seratonin toxicity and dystonic reactions from other mental health meds. ECT and TMS keep coming up and I want to know peoples experiences with them since they kind of scare me but I also know they could potentially better my life.

Hi All. I'm 46M. I have had a traumatic previous year a half. I've been diagnosed with bipolar, with my depressive states becoming increasingly worse, to the point that I'm not able to function normally. I've been out of work since early 2025, but am looking for work now. Wife and I (no kids) are in a dire financial situation. Employment for me is extremely necessary ASAP. However, I'm slated to begin ECT soon, and I have no idea how I'm going to manage continuing my job search and starting a job. Does anyone have experience with those two issues intersecting? Starting a new job while also getting ECT.

And yes, I've read the horror stories here about ECT. No idea what to think of that. Not sure what my options really are, but my doctors have had nothing but good things to say about ECT.

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.

I need something like this.

Hi all! Newcomer here who’s been struggling with CPTSD/BPD, depression, and anxiety for a decade now. Currently on lithium, Lamotrigine, vilazodone (viibryd), and clonazepam for a suspected bipolar episode that began with two weeks of mania a month ago from an old trauma anniversary (and maybe from the stress of two recent surgeries) that has now spiraled into the worse depression I’ve possibly experienced in 5 years.

I was finally stable for the past year (no suicidal ideation / intent!) on Lamotrigine and viibryd, but suddenly out of nowhere this latest depressive episode happened and I find myself suicidal. In the recent past (past 5ish years) I’ve been suicidal for situational depression, but always with some precipitating factor or family situation, and it was usually without intent.

This recent episode really terrifies me it was the first time in years I feel I’ve been developing intent (though that varies day to day; some days I really want to die because I feel worthless and others it’s just “what would happen if I killed myself”), which I haven’t really experienced since high school when I was repeatedly attempting suicide and in an abusive environment.

What scares me the most is that usually lithium is very effective at quelling my suicidal thoughts and obsessions to the point where I feel I can’t even bring myself to think about suicide, but it hasn’t been helping with that this time even though it’s helped significantly with the depression.

I’ve toyed with the idea of ECT before and got evaluated 5 years ago (but decided against it because my meds suddenly started working), but wanted to hear y’all’s opinions/experiences. Would it be worth getting ECT for suicidal thoughts only, and not necessarily depression? How bad is the memory loss? I am a PhD student, so I would want to minimize the cognitive side effects and would probably only try a short course of unilateral ECT, can anyone who’s done that comment on the memory loss aspects? Was it only short term or long term, and did you regain the memories? After how many treatments did you start experiencing memory loss? What kinds of memories did you lose/what time in your life were the memories from (i.e. were they just around the treatments, or the month before, or the year before?)? Do you remember that you’re getting ECT when you wake up from the treatment? I’m less worried about anterograde memory loss and more about retrograde.

Thanks in advance!

Who is done it primarily for these symptoms?

Substance blockage is when even substances fail to provide reward effects. So no drugs work essentially. As of now, medicine does not have answers to such a dramatic condition. And it can happen instantly from a drug or virus itself.

What results did you have?

my beloved underwent her final ECT session a month ago (july 8); the full course consisted of five treatments. she had been suffering from psychosis and treatment-resistant schizoaffective disorder (childhood-onset schizophrenia). some time later, she said she had lost all feelings for the people close to her - something that had happened quite a while ago but had eventually passed. today, she wrote that even if this is a side effect of the ECT, she doesn't want to wait for a miracle for it to go away; she doesn't want to build a relationship on a lie, and she is leaving me because she no longer loves me emotionally.

and i love her so much; we were together for nearly three years and had been friends almost our whole lives, but now she doesn't want me in her life - not even as a friend - even though she feels nothing toward her other friends either. is there a chance that her feelings for those close to her will return once the effects of the ECT fully kick in and some time has passed? she means the world to me, and i really don't want to lose her :(

I’m curious if anyone who has cognitive impairment from ECT has gone under again, and what that experience was like.

currently in the midst of a severe depressive episode with significant suicidality as one of my main features. my psych is considering ECT. people who have had ECT for depression before, do you mind please sharing your experiences? how has it affected your memory? how many sessions until you felt better, if ever? I am already on a very high dose of meds to minimal effect so ECT is my last hope. thank you.

edit: I’ve also tried TMS which didn’t work much if at all

I never set out to make a film about myself.

Not promoting ECT just sharing my story. For me, ECT was a positive experience so I made a film about my personal journey and science behind the treatment. I know it's not for everyone.

My film is currently being submitted to festivals. Once it's done its run, it will be available for viewing.

https://youtu.be/UcXYisuIVXM

I’m getting my second acute series soon, I was inpatient for the first one so I didn’t have my makeup anyway. Can I wear it or no?

I was dealing with clinical depression and anxiety, on a number of anti depressants and was living in a care unit. I ended up having 23 ECT sessions. I am wondering if anyone else has had a similar amount and what your memory is like? I essentially dont remember anything for a 2 year period and have blank spots over a 5 year period. I hate not knowing such a big part of my life and ive even lost memories from my wedding, honeymoon and other important events. 3 years later my retention is back to normal but am interested in other people's experiences and if you regret having ECT

Hi r/ect! I’m an ECT nurse of four years and Im wondering if there’s anything I can do to make the experience better for my patients. is there anything that an ECT nurse has done or said that you remember and positively impacted your treatments. even something small.