Electroconvulsive therapy - can you help?

[Tomityuk]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could help me. I am a product design student at university. I am looking into electroconvulsive therapy and how the experience of receiving this daunting treatment could be made less frightening.

If anyone has had ECT or is about to and would like to help me out with my research I would be most appreciative! I am basically looking for personal experiences with ECT and ultimately if there is one particular part of the procedure that is the scariest, be it the cold clinical procedure room or the equipment itself or if it is just the thought of the side effects that come with ECT.

Many thanks for your help.
Tom.

 

[keepsafe]

Hello Tomityuk

There are people around that have had ECT - to the forum hopefully you will get an answer soon

KS

 

[Anastassia Florine]

Go to zap-rap.org. It is a board for people who are having, will have, or have had ECT. It has, I think, hundreds of members, and there are tons of experiences! It's also connected to a site that has tons of news articles about people's personal experiences with ECT.


I talked to a few people who had ECT. One woman said, when asked how her treatment had gone, "I lost my memory." This may have been temporary, however. Another woman I talked to who had ECT said it really helped her but that yes, it had made her head and face sore afterward. Another girl I talked to said ECT made her start to feel more optimistic immediately afterward, and that that feeling had increased over time, but that ECT had also made her forget where to go for dinner in the mental hospital and that a close family member had died, and this was after his funeral that I think she had gone to.


I hope I'm being helpful and not misleading.

 

[Tomityuk]

thank you!

Anastassia Florine,

thank you so much for your input, I will definitely be checking this website out!

thank you also for the stories you have heard about!

Tom.