ECT- Electro convulsive therapy

Lounge
1

Back in 2002 I had an amnesia fugue episode where I dissociated for 3 weeks of which I have no memory of. Well, very few memories of anyway.

After falling into the amnesia I remember coming to consciousness in my house having delusions. I had pain all over my body. Every muscle and sinew ached intensely. The delusions involved me being electrocuted. The pain came in shocks and I imagined myself in a cage which was electrified and I had convulsions that arched my body and back horrifically.

It turns out I had Electro-convulsive therapy during those 3 weeks to bring me back from my dissociation. I didn’t wake up in the hospital, but alone in my terraced house in Manchester.

4 months later I moved to Spain and was teaching English to business in Madrid, unmedicated, well and unaware of what had happened to me whatsoever.

Has anyone here had the dreaded ECT or am I alone in that?

2

I haven’t had it but I know someone who did. He did it to try to fix his severe depression and it ended up erasing chunks of his memory without fixing the depression. Yikes.

3

I’ve heard some bad things about ECT. My pdoc wanted me to do it, but I didn’t want to, so I said “No.” I’m glad that I did.

4

I still have the occasional electric shock dream where my whole body convulses, but it did achieve the result of bringing me back from dissociation. I guess the reality of being shocked is so bad that it is better to return to the self once again.

They say it resets the mind, but they don’t know how it works really however it often gets results. Not sure for schizophrenia though.