Shocking Heads for Fun and Profit

Yes, my friends, ELECTROSHOCK therapy is back and POPULAR!  Since its invention in 1938, ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) was used for the next thirty years on hundred of thousands of patients for every type of "DISORDER" - including depression, mania, schizophrenia and even homosexuality and truancy. ECT virtually disappeared after the 1975 release of the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. ECT was DISCREDITED as BARBARIC and UNNECESSARY.

ECT has recently made an incredible COME BACK and RESURGENCE in the psychiatric field. Rather than seeing ECT as a last DESPERATE attempt at healing a suicidal patient, by some doctors it is offered as a simple ALTERNATIVE to drug and talk therapy. 

My doctor, for example, has suggested this "TREATMENT" within a few months of seeing me and switching me on and off meds. 

No one is quite sure exactly HOW ECT works. There are many different THEORIES such as:

• Neurotransmitter theory. Shock works like antidepressant medication, changing the way brain receptors receive important mood-related chemicals, such as serotonin and dopamine and norepinephrine.
  

• Anti-convulsant theory. Shock-induced seizures teach the brain to resist seizures. This effort to inhibit seizures dampens abnormally active brain circuits, stabilizing mood.
  

• Neuroendocrine theory. The seizure causes the hypothalamus, part of the brain that regulates water balance and body temperature, to release chemicals that cause changes throughout the body. The seizure may release a neuropeptide that regulates mood.
  

• Brain damage theory. Shock damages the brain, causing memory loss and disorientation that creates a temporary illusion that problems are gone.

From the LITERATURE I have read, virtually EVERY patient suffers MEMORY LOSS. Over the course of ECT, (6 - 12 treatments over a 2 week period) patients may have DIFFICULTY remembering newly learned information while some report memory loss for events that occurred during the day, weeks, months and even YEARS preceding ECT. More SERIOUS memory loss has been reported where patients claimed to have lost KNOWLEDGE that was gained from years of STUDY or WORK.

I am NOT PREPARED to RISK memory loss just because my doctor can't think up a QUICK FIX. I am a FUNCTIONING severe DEPRESSIVE who can get out of BED. I do not have thoughts of SUICIDE anymore. It is DIFFICULT to wait for the right CURE when your BRAIN is against you. Your brain tells you lies you don't believe while still believing them. Your entire body in the inside is WRACKED with PAIN. But, I am willing to WAIT if the only alternative I am given is 180 to 460 VOLTS are surging through a brain that is already confused - by doctors who are also CONFUSED.

I am SWITCHING doctors as soon as I can get an appointment. I am much older than I was when I first experienced severe depression. I am no longer willing to take Psychiatrists at their word when they DIAGNOSE you within 15 minutes to get the next PAYMENT - I mean patient - through their door. I am URGING all young people who are in a similar situation to try to ASSESS the information being given to you against what you want to do. It is hard when all you want is for the pain to go away. I have gone through this for almost 18 years since I was 18 years old. And, I wish you the best of luck and SPEEDY RECOVERY.