What is it like to wake up after electroshock therapy?!
Question: I have found plenty of information on the process and the effects of the therapy, but nothing on how the patient feels after waking up. If you have undergone this treatment or know someone who has, what does the patient feel like and act like waking up after the treatment?
Is there pain? Confusion?
If there was memory loss, did you know it right away or did it take you a while to realize you forgot things?
Did you have headaches or muscle pain immediately after or after some period of time?
Did you experience any side effects some time after the treatment?
If you lost memory, did it come back eventually?
What kind of things did you have trouble doing afterward?
Thanks in advance. :)
Answers: I have found plenty of information on the process and the effects of the therapy, but nothing on how the patient feels after waking up. If you have undergone this treatment or know someone who has, what does the patient feel like and act like waking up after the treatment?
Is there pain? Confusion?
If there was memory loss, did you know it right away or did it take you a while to realize you forgot things?
Did you have headaches or muscle pain immediately after or after some period of time?
Did you experience any side effects some time after the treatment?
If you lost memory, did it come back eventually?
What kind of things did you have trouble doing afterward?
Thanks in advance. :)
It varies with the individual. I have had three series of 6 "shock treatments". The first series, I didn't even know my name, but it comes back after the series is over. The second time, I really didn't feel much better. I had a small headache after each treatment, but no real side affects. Some people get really bad headaches, but they will give you something for them, and they only last about a day. THEY WORKED REMARKABLEY WELL ON MY DEPRESSION, but on some people, they don't work so well.
When I was having my first treatments, there was a girl who had been through about 20 treatments (over time), and they were still going to give her more. I say, DON'T DO THAT, find another doctor. They really aren't as bad as they sound.
This method has been essentially banned except for extreme cases. But there is confusion and memory loss. You would have to have it done a lot, and every time you get the shocks you forget a little bit more...
Go for talk therapy or something before ever considering shocks!
Haven't had the experience... what's your problem. Are you a candidate? If you are, what does your doctor say?
ECT has been known to cause some short-term memory loss. This eventually reverses and the benefits of this treatment far outweighs the risks as many, many people with morbid depression have been helped where medications have failed.
The patient is sedated prior to treatment and feels nothing. In fact, the sedatating process and the arousal from the sedation takes longer than the administration of the treatment itself.
my mom would have migrains for a week after and be catatonic like a zombie coming out of the office where it was preformed..charlie horses..horrible nightmares.. Bad barbaric treatment ..it didnt help she killed herself
Kitty Dukakis, the wife of former Presidential candidate Michae Dukakis, has wrote a memoir. I haven't read it but I have listened to some interviews with her. She has rather severe bouts of depression that is not responsive to other methods of treatment and she occasionally has electroshock therapy (I think electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is generally the preferred term these days).