First hand experience w ECT?

loneman wrote:I guess I'll just bring this topic up once more to see if I get any other replies....

My PDoc is highly recommending this procedure...but I've read good, and bad...I'm just so depressed, I hardly get out of bed...I have no interests...I'm not living really at all

But, it seems like most ppl here are quite depressed...Is this just an inevitable part of AVPD? Can ECT help this at all?

I just don't know what to do...

any advice, info would be welcome.

I fantasize that ECT would change my life, and make it livable...but then another part of me is just hopeless, and thinks it will just cause memory/cognitive issues, and not do a damn thing positive-wise for me.

Thanks

TMS is another option although its not 100% accepted as a treatment option, yet, and clinical trials still continue. Its less risky than ECT from what I have read. Not all insurers provide coverage for it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcrani ... timulation

No first hand experiences here but I've read about a few bad experiences, like one person getting a 'perma-smile' from it, other people who got transient memory issues after a few treatments but more permanent memory issues with prolonged treatment.

I agree that exhausting other options would be best before trying it.

Still I don't think modern-ECT is an barbaric as it once was, I found this article on it: http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedu ... c-20014161

***Sorry for the ramble***

I think a big part of me wants ECT to "cure" this AVPD, but I know it won't. I try to convince myself of how much of AVPD could actually be "depression" instead.

I'm wishing that the ECT would clear up a lot of the suffering that I experience. Is it "Depression", is it "AVPD" that I suffer from.

I've been recommended this treatment by 3 different psychs over the years. They referred me to ECT docs for consults after years of meds that don't do much of anything.

I've had 2 actual ECT consults in the past.

I told one of the docs I think that I have AVPD, and that ECT can't do anything for me. His response was something like,

"while I respect the DSM for differentiating disorders, a lot of the criteria overlap for different diagnoses, and this seems to be what's going on in your case"

I've also been told, that if the "depression" is treated effectively, the other things (Anxiety, AVPD) will be less troublesome...Not that ECT works directly on them, but just as people with pain/depression or chronic illness/depression, once the "depression" is managed the other issues are easier to cope with.

I've just been anxious, and depressed, and avoidant my entire life...

I want ECT to "cure" this, or even just manage it better, but I just think that AVPD, Social anxiety, etc contribute to making me feel #######5 "depressed" all the time, and that ECT won't have much effect or much of a lasting effect. I would love it if it would, but I think I'm wishing it will be this magical cure, which it won't....

I just don't know how to parse out what is Depression vs AVPD vs Social anxiety, they all swirl around in me, and ECT would help with what symptoms? What symptoms would be left behind? Is it worth the risk.

UGH, I just don't know what to do... How miserable should I expect AVPD, and Anxiety to make me.

Can ECT help any of this significantly, and for any considerable length of time

...I just exist...not working...not leaving the house...not socializing.....nothing...I hardly want to live at all....

But Can ECT help improve the quality of my life??????

And I know no one can make this decision for me either.

UUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Hi loneman

I've not had ECT done before, but at one point it was seriously considered as a possible option for me. Nothing worked on the depression, or if it did, it wasn't enough. Even now, I'm on the max dose of my antidepressant and taking a low dose of a mood stabiliser, and it's still not doing anything fantastic for my mood. I've always thought if the depression was under control, everything else would be easier to cope with and it would give me the push I need to get somewhere. I'm now starting to think it's the other way around- "everything else" is what's holding me back and making me more depressed- and perhaps it's been that way a long time.

I've heard some people have had great results with ECT, but you're right, it's hard to work out what is the depression talking, and where the AvPD and social anxiety come into it, and how much they all feed off one another too. What I do know is that when I've had meds work briefly (was unimpressed the effect only lasted 6 months), my anxiety and avoidance improved too. Sure it was still there, but it felt easier than it did with the dark cloud hanging over me.

I don't know if I've really said anything helpful, other than that I get where you're at with it. What do your doctors and/or therapist think about it? It's a tough decision to make- hugs.

Yeah, all of these issues just swirl and mix into one another. It's not that they are really discreet things, they are all aspects of me. The DSM groups things, and then labels them into discrete disorders, but they don't delineate so clearly in me. I'm a smorgasbord (hmm I though this word ended in the letter "g", but spell check and wikipedia disagree) of this a It's hard to sort out. I am what I am, I guess.

My regular Psych really wants me to give it a try, since nothing else does anything much, the ECT doc agreed (BUT he's an ECT doc, so well, yeah he's gonna agree)...I'm scared to death of it...but yes, I wish something, anything could change things around for me...I still don't know what I'm gonna end up doing...

Well, thanks for the reply, and the understanding, It helps to know I'm not the only one facing this.

One strange thing that I have found that relieves the worst of my feelings is "acute sleep deprivation", I read it called "wake therapy" in some journals. Basically, I feel quite a bit better after being awake after 24 to 36 hours. The effect only last for those hours that I'm awake past 20 hours or so. It's a strange phenomenon. Life seems livable...but I'm quite tired to really do much, but much of the pain dissipates....but once I do fall asleep, and wake up I'm back to feeling like $#%^....

Oh well, Take care everyone...

Had 9 sessions, missing 3 weeks of my life. Unfortunately it didn't help. Still worth a shot, it's not painful or anything. What do you have to lose?

Wake therapy did help me the first few times I did it. Especially the first one was intense as I was, if only for a few hours, able to actually feel emotions. Interesting experience but now the effect is really small and not worth the tiredness.

Just worried about long term cognitive problems.
Also, I'm scared of the actual procedure. I know your unconscious for it, but it still frightens me.

Did/do you have any long term cognitive issues? I don't mind issues around the time of the ECT, I just worry about long term stuff.