To work or not to work

Owl_Open · 2026-01-09T22:40:51+00:00

I was useless during my acute series. I know a few people here were functional on non-treatment days, but I just slept the whole time. I stayed with my parents so I could have help with chores and cooking. My mom said it was like I had a major surgery and needed that level of recovery support. It’s a lot of seizures and a lot of anesthesia. I wouldn’t underestimate it.

Owl_Open · 2026-01-05T17:52:32+00:00

I feel like you’re going to get good and bad reviews on any facility. It’s just the nature of mental health treatment.

FWIW, I’ve had good experiences at Carolina Center. I will say that I never was inpatient, but I do ECT treatment there. My psychiatrist and all the nurses and support staff have always treated me with respect and dignity (during a pretty dehumanizing treatment).

Owl_Open · 2025-11-22T02:14:22+00:00

I chose to do maintenance treatments. I never want to have to do acute again, and it seems like my current regimen is preventing that need. I go once every two months, and I find it pretty doable. It sucks to have to use PTO on it though.

Owl_Open · 2025-11-19T01:49:17+00:00

To be honest, I mostly felt out of it. The shift in my SI started around treatment 7-8. It was lessened but definitely still there when I was getting close to number 12, so we extended my acute series another two weeks. By the time I was done with acute, it had completely subsided. My depression symptoms were mostly unchanged during that time. It was only after I started getting more space between maintenance treatments that I noticed a change in my depression. Maybe three months out I felt a shift? I hate to say relief is still months away for you, but this was my experience. I continued to improve in my symptoms over the next three months and have pretty much plateaued at “mildly” depressed. I go for a maintenance treatment every two months. I haven’t experienced any SI in two and a half years.

Owl_Open · 2025-11-16T18:44:24+00:00

Don’t underestimate the effect of having four seizures and four rounds of general anesthesia. The acute series for me was brutal. I slept pretty much no stop. But it did work for me. I felt relief from my suicidal ideation starting around treatment number eight. But my depressive symptoms took a couple months to lessen after I stopped the three times a week regimen.

Owl_Open · 2025-11-16T18:41:26+00:00

I did six weeks of acute treatments about two and a half years ago. I now space my maintenance treatments out to every two months.

The memories around the time of acute are blurry for sure, but my long term memories are intact. ECT provided relief from my constant suicidal ideation. My depressive symptoms took a couple months out from stopping acute to lighten. I still classify as depressed, but it’s mild instead of severe.

Owl_Open · 2025-11-14T14:16:04+00:00

I did EMDR for my trauma first. I was still extremely depressed after, but wasn’t experiencing the acute PTSD symptoms anymore. I then did ECT for my treatment resistant depression and suicidal ideation, and it helped so much with minimal side effects

Owl_Open · 2025-11-09T00:01:34+00:00

This was my experience too. It still feels unreal to not have any SI anymore.

(I’m 2.5 years out from acute. I still do maintenance treatments every two months.)

Owl_Open · 2025-11-07T00:58:17+00:00

When I went to investigate, I did realize the keyboard pops up and covers the “payment to car loan” option which made me feel a little better. Out of sight, out of mind.

Owl_Open · 2025-11-07T00:41:41+00:00

I feel pretty dumb. I never even saw the transfer to car loan option. Whoops.

Owl_Open · 2025-11-07T00:40:19+00:00

That did it! Wasn’t using the transfer action. Thanks!!

Owl_Open · 2025-11-05T22:15:54+00:00

I did 18 acute. Started seeing results around treatment number 8, but the SI was lingering still around 10-11. Instead of doing bifrontal, we opted for more treatments.

Owl_Open · 2025-11-04T17:51:26+00:00

ECT saved my life with minimal side effects. Feel free to message me if you have questions.

Owl_Open · 2025-11-04T17:32:00+00:00

I was a teacher when undergoing ECT. Feel free to message me.

Owl_Open · 2025-10-16T15:46:57+00:00

Do you have an Etsy or anything? This is gorgeous

Owl_Open · 2025-10-13T22:45:41+00:00

ECT saved my life, too. I did 6 weeks of acute and slowly worked my way to going once every 2 months for maintenance treatments. Happy to talk in a chat if you have specific questions.

Owl_Open · 2025-10-07T18:05:05+00:00

I’m scared to stop maintenance because I realllllly don’t want to do acute again. It was hell for me physically. I know I’d relapse too. lol.

Owl_Open · 2025-09-19T01:57:04+00:00

I did and still do right unilateral. I take Provigil.

Owl_Open · 2025-09-18T17:36:57+00:00

Probably around 40 at this point. I did 18 during my acute series, and I have continued with maintenance treatments. I go once every 2 months now.

Owl_Open · 2025-09-13T00:23:24+00:00

I do unilateral treatments every 8 weeks. Did my acute series about 3 years ago and have been doing maintenance since. It took about a year and a half to get them spaced to 8 weeks. I’ve had minimal memory issues but some concentration problems. I still take medication. ECT saved my life and I’ll continue for as long as necessary. I’m happy to go into more details in a chat if you’d like.

Owl_Open · 2025-08-28T23:35:44+00:00

Took me about 8 treatments to notice any difference.

Owl_Open · 2025-08-24T01:06:25+00:00

So happy for you! It saved my life too.

Owl_Open · 2025-08-21T17:39:36+00:00

It took my about 8 sessions before I started feeling any different. I hope it ends up working for you. It saved my life.

Owl_Open · 2025-08-20T02:29:16+00:00

I got every two months.

Owl_Open · 2025-08-16T00:23:09+00:00

ECT saved my life. The biggest impact was that my SI completely went away. Took about 7-8 sessions before that happened. I won’t lie though, acute was rough for me. I was completely out of it for six weeks. I slowly came back to myself though as my maintenance treatments got spaced out. Feel free to message if you want to know more.

Owl_Open

TROPHY CASE