ECT is designed to induce a seizure with electric currents while a patient is under anesthesia. I strongly oppose the proposed reclassification., I was labeled treatment resistant and underwent monthly ECT. That psychiatric atrocities stopped, it is first necessary to recognize psychiatry crime. I have lost 35+ yrs of memory, 27 IQ pts, am unable to make new memories, numb, like a zombie. Sackeim et. People with traumatic brain injuries often go around with that goofy smile on their faces and this is an indication that something is badly wrong. It can be done minus. Not only did the treatment not work and I am still severely depressed but, now I have this ECT trauma and its ever-lasting effects. I do not remember much about the 1980s or 1990s. From feeling entirely hopeless about the future, my mood lifted with each session. I figured that I could regain some sort of social life that way, regain confidence via correspondence, just like I had when I had pen-pals decades ago, all around the world. In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978, As a psychiatrist, if I had severe depression Id choose ECT | Mariam Alexander, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Psychiatrists commit crimes so obvious, so unacceptable, amazing how such a society accept?! ECT involves passing electric currents through a patient's brain to cause seizures or fits. I agree thanks, Lauren, for fighting a noble cause. I know several people who were never the same after this treatment. I know. For Cunliffe, the use of ECT and treatment of mental health patients is at a tipping point. redwood tree buyers; dog breeds with pink around eyes; cairns train station spirit of queensland; most expensive house in australia address; lee marvin military service All rights reserved. Within a couple weeks after electro-shock treatments , arriving home at my parents house , having been released into their custody, with great difficulty I convinced my dad to verbally fill in the gaps in my memory where I knew uncomfortably , that stuff was missing concerning my previous history and yet did not know what it was. But the Royal College of Psychiatrists said ECT offers "life-saving treatment" and should continue in severe cases. I wasnt even depressed. Personally, I dont believe that I am cognitively impaired, although its hard to prove. He visited facilities and demanded to speak directly to patients, knowing that only patients would give him accurate information about the state of human rights at these places. Its fairly acceptable to admit to taking antidepressants these days, less so ECT. we have pets we love, and despite it all i love him more than i've loved anyone. ECT doctors view this as an improvement but actually it indicates severe and disabling brain injury. By Judith Graham. Lisa Morrison moved to Northern Ireland from South Africa after she got married."I had my children in Northern Ireland, experienced some postnatal depression. The study's lead author, Dr Read, a professor of clinical psychology, describes previous research justifying the use of ECT in the UK and around the world as "the lowest quality of any I have seen in my 40-year career". I know from experience about its often miraculous effects on depression, and its downsides. I believe a week or so later I began my novel. The use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to treat depression should be immediately suspended, a study says. To avoid family awkwardness, my brothers had tactfully omitted naming where I am located. FDA PLEASE DO NOT DOWN GRADE THE SHOCK DEVICE TO A CLASS II FROM CLASS III.. Bolton is the program director of McLean's Psychiatric Neurotherapeutics Program. I have the symptoms of a person with a traumatic brain injury. Everyone needs to listen to survivors stories; this needs to become real and fleshed-out. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. A bit of selective memory themselves. She was eventually prescribed morphine for pain relief. It breaks my heart to see her struggle with the after erffects of this treatment that was recommended by providers she trusted to help her. For the record, AFTER my ECT, I complained that there seemed to be something wrong with my brain. Oddly, after all these years, childhood friends of mine who remember me well before I ever knew there was such thing as Mental Illness are coming out of the woodwork and finding me. Will all the petitions and testimonials be made available to the public? "On the basis of the clinical trial data, ECT should not be used for depressed individuals.". ECT is a simple procedure, but many precautionary measures must be taken before the pulse of electricity can be given to produce the seizure. (The Hersh Foundation will be announcing an exciting partnership with University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in May; stay tuned.) When does the importance of a message outweigh pride? Thank you for your support. A Life Erased. Psychiatrists say ECT saves lives BBC News Online talks to former ECT patients who say the therapy ruined their lives. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, 1st Floor, Chartist Tower, Upper Dock Street, Newport, Wales, NP20 1DW Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. Has anyone tried hyperbaric oxygen therapy or holistic approaches that provide even minor benefits? lilyboo, your life is not ruined, i am sorry for you and just maybe things will work out,but i do know i got this 3 years ago yesterday and i am doing things i never thought i would do again,most of the time i forget about it,brain adaptation as my doctor said it would,but yes, i have to wear plugs for theatres,cutting grass,that stuff,i very much enjoyed playing in rock bands for many years . You are my hero. I must say that if meds didn't ultimately work for me, and I was afraid they wouldn't, my next consideration would have been ECT. On good days, I rarely think about what got me to where I am today. Recovery is possible and even to be expected foe those who have experienced mental health challenges, unfortunately shock treatment reduces the likelihood that an individual can recover while it permanently alters their personality., As survivor of this barbaric procedure, I cannot say I support this petition, no, I urge anyone who cares about their fellow human beings to sign. However, the researchers go on to say "it is not hard to find hundreds of personal accounts of debilitating levels of disruption to people's lives". Years later I met a mental health tech who used to work at that hospital. After three suicide attempts, ECT provided a quick and clear path out of my depression. According to brain stimulation experts from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine, ECT sessions improve depression in 70 to 90 percent of patients, a. check out the. My Great-Aunt was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was seventeen. It's been a hard burden to bear the past 15 years. These are people who found ECT worth the risk, and their lives have flourished with good medical treatment and continued care. We have all seen patients who are barely communicating transformed by even one or two treatments: eating and talking, and freed of the burden of suffering. It took away four years of my life that I will never regain, while nearly costing it! And this is what a lot of ECT victims find, because you then get labelled with other diagnoses and your family are told you are just mad. ect ruined my life. ), Very sad. When Cunliffe returned to her psychiatrist to describe her symptoms, she was diagnosed with depression and referred for another cycle of ECT. I was saying youve done something to my head, [but] me and my family were being told there was nothing wrong with me. Gotta make sure they are getting wise counsel from their peers cause they can ruin your life. 6,7 This damage is more common in women and older individuals, 5 and these groups receive ECT disproportionately. After months of counselling Cunliffe was eventually able to come off medication, and although she has never been able to return to work she has carved out a new role as a campaigner, fighting for other ECT patients who have sustained life-changing injuries as a result of their treatment. Her work aims to expose the institutional corruption which is a source of profit for organized psychiatry, and to abolish state sponsored human rights violations, such as murder, torture and slavery. That terrible portrayal in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest has a lot to answer for, and it probably does pop into peoples minds, even though its far from the truth. Then there were another 1000 comments from psychiatrists. 1000 carbon copies from Pdicks I mean Pdocs? And so one part of the problem is that women are more likely to be inscribed with depression. Our ConnECT group boasts many positive experiences with ECT. Rebecca Lawrence is a consultant psychiatrist, In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. As a survivor of ECT, I suffer from significant memory loss, while my doctor declared my 30+ ECT treatments unhelpful., My sister received shock treatment. Its easy to blame ECT for difficulties that might have happened anyway. Ignorance at its finest. It took around 6 sessions for my mental health team, the ECT team and loved ones to notice any difference. Theyve seen movies or testimonials about brain damage, electricity, and high relapse rates. Id been left so damaged that I didnt know how to count money out. They were acts of the utmost barbaric terror against my being then. And apologize to those of us still living for doing the crap they did. This is a barbaric practice that needs to be permanently banned., I am an ECT survivor. | As his ECT regimine progressed he lost all knowledge of the start we had made. There are no goods and bads with ECT, no rights or wrongs. Later, I let myself think about it, knowing that the reason for my unease was that I, too, had undergone a similar number of ECT treatments. It's hard to think rationally when you're mind is focused on all the ways you think you have ruined your life. Before ect i was working after ect, i was on disability. People who saw me as something other than a diseased thing to be profited from. 3) Restored my dignity. That would put an end to shock as treatment. Then amazingly normal sleep returned and never voices anymore . Has relaxed me , stopped voices , and helped me wean off of psychotropics. In the US, Mental Health America is available on 800-273-8255. After explaining to Mr. Ryan my inability to input all of the comments we received through the petition, and howdocuments from my own comments were not successfully uploaded, he agreed to accept these documents in print form. He told me I should teach myself to use a mouse. What a steal! ECT was an horrific procedure with catastrophic results. A more thorough analysis of those comments is forthcoming, however, we wanted to offer a glimpse of what people shared. I received ECT due to treatment- resistant depression. It brings me to tears. And the other one did five or six treatments a week. I have a friend who underwent that method of treatment at least twice and it went well for him. [62,63,64,65] However, most of the studies conducted post 1980 - from when sine-wave ECT was replaced by brief-pulse ECT report a general improvement in subjective memory . And if youve got a little old lady in front of you who simply refuses to get better, then why not electroshock her?. ECT is touted as the best treatment for depression and we are told that science has finally, after more than 70 years, found out how it works. Professor Reeds research found women are twice as likely as men to receive the treatment, and the majority of patients (58 percent) are over 60. And one of the biggest of those crimes is administering shock to the vulnerable and distressed and suffering, usually, as you say, after poisoning them into a state of toxic drug insanity I had left college with so many credits, but they were all specialized music classes, so I had to re-enter as a sophomore. Gym Pick Ups and ECT: 2 topics from 1 Episode of The Doctors, Shots Fired Cry Havocs take on Dallas Shootings of 7/7/16, Serotonin Imbalance Found Not to Be Linked to Depression, How Memories Are Formed and Where They're Stored, This Is Why We Avoid Difficult Conversations, Why It's So Difficult to Love People Who Don't Love Themselves, Is There Life After Death? I could have done without that. I was misled by my doctor at a vulnerable time., My brother in law suicided following the shock treatment he received. They have a stare in their eyes, where their eyes dont move like a normal persons. If brain damage is defined as memory loss persisting at least 6 months after the last ECT, findings range from 12% to 55%. TMS therapy should not be confused with Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). As doctors, we have a duty to explain, and patients have a right to knowledge and reassurance. At least my Great-Aunt never had to take the neuroleptics that I did. For play slushies, choose a "flavor . The State Power Triangle and My Spiritual Awakening, White Paper Presents Case Against Forced Treatment, Self-test for Adult Symptom Deficiency Disorder (ASDD). And thats the key. I am a shell. And what people frequently do is go to their GP and their GP will say take these antidepressants. A Gannett Company. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused. Within a month, I realized that I loved to write. ECT, short for electroconvulsive therapy and otherwise known as shock therapy, is a treatment modality that has been used for around 80 years. It is administered primarily to older women. I finished in 2003, with a 3.95 grade-point average. It destroyed her life physically and mentally., I am a survivor of shock treatment. ECT erased the memories of most of my life away. They said, Youve tried everything else, right?. Once an avid reader and keen writer of poetry and short stories, Luff owns more than 700 books he is now unable to read. I've been wanting to post this for a while but I finally went to see my physician today and explained how my whole life I've felt completely unmotivated, inattentive, and constantly in my head. Reminders and reassurance can go a long way. The article argues the quality of previous studies into ECT is so poor, they "were wrong to conclude anything about efficacy, either during or beyond the treatment period". I just love to hear about the expertiseof Dave and Sarah, and Howard, and Max and Ned on this topic. It would be devastating to the public, and to many people who do not deserve this especially when you consider the absolute dearth of genuine informed consent in this country. After I wrote it (and rewrote it according to their specifications) they decided there was not enough space to print my article. She has lost some of her most precious memories including the birth of her only daughter. Oddly, though, throughout it all, and for many years after, I had no clue that the 18-or-so months of severe and rather mysterious illness I went through following shock I did not realize was at all a result of the shock. She struggled to help her kids with their times tables. Made up of mental health professionals, researchers, ECT recipients and carers, the group is calling for an inquiry into the practice of ECT along the lines of the recent Cumberlege report into pelvic meshes, which found lives had been ruined because officials failed to hear the concerns of women too often dismissing worries and complaints as womens problems and exposing failures in the health system. I submitted to it when I was a teenager and the consequences have been a lifetime of activism to fight back this dangerous procedure. I wasnt told all the possible risks. For more information, please see our So like even when men date white women or other races ( I know y'all hate when I talk about this lol) ect this opened my eyes to a lot of issues and how men can be swayed. I remember standing in the kitchen thinking, should I be able to walk through a door without walking into a door frame, or have I always walked into door frames? says Cunliffe, looking back on a period that would change her life forever. My father had suffered from a deep, intractable depression that wasn't responding to medication. She might have recovered if her brain hadnt been damaged by the ECTs. One of the things people are most curious about is ECT (electroconvulsive therapy). It was just down the block from her parents house, and close to a friends. Here are some poignant comments from shock survivors (and their friends and family) to the FDA: I received ECT in 2015 from a highly respected psychiatric facility. Her brain is completely inert., I am an iatrogenic survivor. I crawled two years after and still face daily symptoms. No, it was all a matter of luck. This treatment should not be down-classified; it is dangerous., The shrinks electroshocked my dad for sexually abusing me. I agree with you. My father, before he passed away, had told me about this new thing, Windows. What is the difference between solitude and isolation? I have known several people who have had ECT and desperately regret it. Does Social Media Have a Negative Impact on Body Image? The information provided, which related to treatment carried out in 2019, showed around 2,500 people are still being given ECT annually in England, compared with about 50,000 in the 1970s. They have been hollowed out somehow as people, the connections in their brains fried with electricity so that they are no longer complete persons. I feel my depression has a 15 lb weight in my chest. The amnesia is really really getting to me on a personal level. The ECT suite at Michigan Medicine. Its a crime and someday hopefully the people mandating this for others as a treatment will be prosecuted and put in jail. I had 30 rounds of ect for severe depression at 21 years old. We just want equality, and I dont care whether [ECT has] helped people, she says. In 2018, a class action case was settled in the US after a federal court ruled that a reasonable jury could find against manufacturers of ECT equipment if they failed to warn of the dangers of brain damage. So this week, I will be printing and sending all the petition signatures and comments to Mr. Ryan via registered mail, return receipt requested. I can no longer take care of myself & finding a reason to push forward is uprooted by simply looking in the mirror, and no longer knowing the soulless fragment of a man I no longer know. Privacy Policy. "It robbed me of my memories. Maybe even surrounding shock box making companies . And simply trial and error. I listened reluctantly, thinking of all the other reasons there might be for that illness, age, medications. . ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) may be the most controversial treatment that exists for mental illness. In the first week of January, on my 40th birthday, the confusion left me. Like most people, I take it for granted that I am living and functioning, partaking in daily activities with the ability to work productively. You can find it at: https://www.regulations.gov/searchResults?rpp=25&po=0&s=1k0-8oqo-69e7. What do neuropsychs suggest? The disparity between how and where ECT treatment is administered is an area author and clinical psychologist Craig Newnes has been researching for decades. In August, I applied for Emerson Colleges Adult Degree Program. The study's joint author, Prof Irving Kirsch, an expert on placebo effects based at Harvard Medical School, says "the failure to find any meaningful benefits in long-term benefits compared to placebo groups are particularly distressing. I can't remember graduating high school or my sister's sweet sixteen. I had not been known to be a chronic complainer. Paula Bolton, MS, CNP, ANP-BC, reports that after having ECT, many patients share responses like, "I feel like myself again" or "I'm getting my life back.". The most common are short-term to permanent memory loss and other cognitive difficulties, headaches, toothache and muscle aches, nausea, cardiac arrhythmias, and similar cardiovascular problems. Even more disconcerting is the feeling of discombobulation its like looking back at a dream period, where youre not entirely sure what really happened, and I find this troubling. By the same token, medications involve messing with the brain, and the consequences are unpredictable. I had been told by expert shrinks that I was completely incapable of sitting in a room full of people due to my severe personality disorder. Wow, I found that this was entirely untrue! reported in the Journal of American Medical Association in 2001 that 61% of the patients treated with a combination of medication and ECT were in remission at 6 months. "I was forced to have it under Section 3 of the Mental Health Act", ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------, Thousands receive electric shock treatment, Electric shock therapy 'not up to scratch', Friends Against Psychiatry: Ban Shock (US), ECT, its uses and effects, Salford Community Health Council, Pat Butterfield, founder of ECT Anonymous. Electroshock is not treatment. It is a form of brain damage and torture, and I hope that you will prevent anyone from allowing it, because once you do, it will become required and that many more people will suffer. If I want to be bleak, I can talk about how ECT ruined my life, how it stole my memories of my ex-fiance (and nearly everything else about my life), to such a degree that I don't even remember what she looks like or how we met or our first date or even the circumstances under which she left me. problems with confusion, fatigue, and anger issues. I am sorry I haven't greeted you here. Despite my best efforts and happy marriage, I still struggle with short-term memory problems and permanent cognitive dysfunction. During electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) patients are put under a general anaesthetic and a paralytic and then an electrical current is run through their brain. There are some really good ones. Drs must not be allowed to do any harm. This device can destroy brain cells, and other parts of the cerebral area. I had very impaired memory, emotional reasoning and cognition for many years afterward Like 14 years now. Both must be clearly set out. I had an IQ test in this time frame and my IQ had gone from 142 to 99. It was in my head, or it was my tablets. I have had courses over the years to treat psychotic depression, initially when I was pregnant with my first child, and most recently three years ago. The brain is unexplored territory, please do not do more harm by re-classifying this. Many have since passed away., I have had ECT shock treatments in the past, they erased my entire memory of events for months, were painful & horrible to experience & worst of all, they did NOTHING to alleviate my depression., ECT destroyed my family and my life, taking with it many years of memories as well as my ability to create new memories., I suffered permanent memory loss from ECT., ECT has been shown to cause brain damage. ECT could be helpful if you have stopped eating and drinking or looking after yourself due to severe depression. The catalogue of personal testimonies of the horrors of ECT are horrible to read but really important to record and publish.. Psychiatry an absolute evil. In 1983, Beryl went to her GP's suffering from back pains. ;..g hospital , I want to go home and not miss my friends bar mitzvah. This time the dosage of electricity Cunliffe received was increased, but after a total of 21 sessions Cunliffes memory had not returned and she was left with life-changing effects. The treatment involves delivering electric currents to the brain in order to induce a. Gary Turner, 57, and Jutta Turner, I have notes stuck all over my walls to remind me what to do. Nor did he envision them holding hearings, he said, because they held hearings in 2011. The appliances are great and you can tell the builders paid close attention to detail in the apartments. Force never does. Each one of those 1000 comments were individually composed and relatively unique. Yes, ECT is always described as a last treatment option. My schedule is full. The results of this were devastating. The patient is first given anaesthetic and muscle relaxants before putting in a mouth guard to stop them from biting their own tongue. The brain can heal: https://www.optimallivingdynamics.com/blog/14-powerful-ways-to-form-new-synapses-in-the-brain. Please do not allow electroshock to become a first-line treatment. 2023 BBC. Met Gala 2023: Stars celebrate Karl Lagerfeld, Shooting suspect was deported four times - US media, HSBC says 1 bank buyout boosted profit by $1.5bn, King Charles to wear golden robes for Coronation, Yellen warns US could run out of cash in a month. The doctors who prescribed it were largely earnest and well-intended, but the consequences were destructive. All symptoms of a brain injury. So sad to think of the number of new victims of shock since 2011 when the FDA, listening to similar compelling testimonies of devastating injuries and harms, did not have the intelligence, balls, common sense, compassion, or ethics to completely BAN this torture device and relegate it to the scrap heap where its sleazy, greedy, ignorant, violent, undereducated, and immoral promoters, administrators, and practitioners also belong, stripped of medical licenses. A woman who was administered controversial electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is campaigning to ban the mental health treatment. "For many, it can be a life-saving treatment," he said. Consequently, people try to think through an experience to better understand a problem. But there are people who have been treated with ECT who consider that they have been permanently damaged by it. He explained to me that even though it was arbitrary, they had to close the period for comments at some point, and that the FDA would not be reopening the shock dockets. To this day, she has permanent memory loss specifically about times/events/things related to my sisters and me during our earlier childhoods. It wasnt possible that I had anything wrong with my brain. I had over 70 of these horrible treatments within a two year span. Andy Luff was given ECT in 2015. The aftereffect undercurrent terror of electro-shock and psychiatry are never far from the surface . You cant make sense of your world. Keep a supply of erasers, a mop, and a bucket. This is not a treatment, it is legalized torture., I am a survivor of ECTs. She has PTSD and memory loss from these treatments. Unfortunately, when published, the reporter presented our information accurately but combined it with misinformation provided by so-called experts and disproportionate negative examples of the treatment. ..its hard to say anything to him because he ordered the ECT .he says 25 percent of his patients are stuck in a depressionhmmm he must suck as a doctor !! A woman who was administered controversial electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is campaigning to ban the mental health treatment. He went from an uber intelligent man to one who was just never the same., I was an ECT treatment recipient and theres no way I would down-classify this procedure because Ive had lasting cognitive deficits as a result., A person I know was given multiple shock treatments and I have painfully watched her cognitive recall decline dramatically over the last few years. This disgrace has to go., A close friend of mine of more than 30 years no longer recognized me after ECT., ECT is extremely barbaric and damaging. But when it comes to ECT the psychiatrists state that this is proof that the shock did the person good because they were depressed before and now theyre smiling! The place she was living before was her mom's rental. They may have a smile on their face, but it is a goofy smile, empty of real expression and emotion or comprehension of what you are talking to them about. Suffolk at that point was split into two different trusts. Brilliant. Its not just one-way though; clinicians who dismiss or minimise adverse effects too glibly dont help either, and each provokes the other. No. For four and a half years I didnt get out of bed. I can just hear the oh, yes, well, must be the benzos, the anesthetics, the anti-psychotics, the disease state, the coffee they have been drinking, the phases of the moon, somataform disorder, aliens, conspiracy theorists., basically anything but the electrical lobotomies decimating people being assaulted by ECT creating traumatic acquired brain injuries. Simple. Dr John Read, of the University of East London said there was "no place" for ECT in evidence-based medicine due to risks of brain damage. It should NEVER be used for ANY reason, but particularly in people who are already vulnerable due to mental illness. 29-year-old Ashley Clayton suffered from chronic major depression after suffering serious trauma during childhood. He says: ECT has such a high risk of brain damage that it should be very carefully monitored and regulated. A friend I made the first time I was in the hospital, after that doctor made me sick, got that ETC, Before the ECT she would hang out with all of us, was cool, and remind the staff and everyone else every half hour of so I hate this F***ing hospital.

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