should I get electric shock treatment? Feel like dying?

Question

Suffered from sexual abuse from when I was 6 to 10. My life has been hell.Guys just use me.Bulimic for last 10 years and binge drink.Suffered from depression from 12 to present(28). On 60mg prozac. Sometimes i'm ok but I really don't want to be here.Could shock treatment or Vagus nerve stimulation be the answer?

Answer 1

Shock treatment is really a last resort, its not a lot of fun and has side effects which can be as bad as the symptoms which it is suppoded to treat!
Go back to your doctor and ask for a medication reveiw and ask to be referred for councelling, it is a really good option. Its what helped me get off antiepressants...;

Answer 2

ECT is still used and you do not have to be catatonic to undergo the treatment. But you do have to be severely depressed and either not be responding to medication or are so suicidal that there is not time to wait for antidepressants to kick in. For some, it is very effective and offers relief when nothing else has worked. It tends to have the side effect of significant memory loss, but there are different types of ECT (ex: unilateral, if I remember correctly) and some are less likely to cause such severe memory problems. I co-run an email support group for people with bipolar/borderline and several members have had or are currently in the process of ECT treatments. It's a series of treatments and it is far less barbaric than people picture when they hear the term. Medicine has come a long way from the way it used to be.
If you have tried everything else and are still this depressed, then it is an option to consider.

VNS is really new and I don't know much about it yet, but from what I understand, it has potential. None of my group members have had that done.

I know you already know this, but you are not doing yourself any favors by binge drinking. I do it too at times and I am not going to be a hypocrite and say I don't. But it really works against you as far as depression is concerned. Also, it is potentially dangerous in combination with medication. Depression and alcohol become a catch-22, a bad cycle, alcohol is a depressant and in the end makes you feel worse so you end up drinking more because you're so depressed.

As far as medication goes, is prozac all you have tried? There are newer meds that might be more helpful for you. There are also other classes of medications that effect different neurotransmitters in the brain. Sometimes what feels like a miracle for one person won't do anything for the next person.

Have you ever been involved in a support group? I do the online thing because I have serious social anxiety and it is a fabulous form of support. There is nothing quite like joining a group where you are truly understood, a place you feel you fit in. The support, friendship, and shared knowlege people have gained through painful life experience is priceless.

Answer 3

Hun, your history sounds very similar to mine - abuse, eating disorder (I'm the same age as you, suffering from ED since I was 14), depression, antidepressants... I attempted suicide a number of times. I had seven sessions of shock treatment and it did absolutely nothing to help me. I tried all sorts of medications too but to no avail. After six years of all of these treatments I was worse than ever. I eventually found a great therapist and now I'm completely recovered from everything (without the help of medication).

ECT should definitely be a last resort but you must do the whatever is the best thing for you. We can't tell you what decision to make. I wish you the best of luck with everything and remember, even though it might not feel like it, there IS light at the end of the tunnel and you will get through this.

Answer 4

You've gone through it all. The decision has got to be yours based on how you feel. ECT (Electro-convulsive Therapy) does work but like any treatments there can be side effects. I have seen some excellent results but you have to look at the underlying issues here. I think you would be best suited by investing in some extensive psychotherapy in combination with medication. Keep your treatment options open and never say never. There is light at the end of the tunnel but sometimes the tunnel is very dark and very very long. It is debatable whether you will ever find a "cure" but you can find a point where your functioning and quality of life improves. There is no easy fix.

Answer 5

Howoften are you OK in comparison to your not being OK, I believe that is the factor to be worked with. Next get a counsellor that you feel comfy with. In the meantime because your were sexually abused it never was your fault and you are not bad, you just had something bad happen to you. I'll let you in on a little secret so you know I am not talking off the top of my hat. I was sexually molested twice, I was gangbanged, and I was raped three times, once when I was raped my sister set me up. I have even had my family take my reputation and rip me to shredds with it. Shock treatment would only mask it and drugs will only mask it too.
It has been a rough road and so far at 28 you managed to stay alive; take another step towards life. Something tells me this is not the first time you thought of death? Something inside you may be keeping you alive, so please find someone you can talk to.
In conclusion the people or person who did that to you is bad don't take his or her bad as your own. Let us say you are a good person that is what you own.

Answer 6

Firstly there is other types of Anti-depressants out there that might well suit you better!! Although a medication regime should be used alongside some sort of 'Talking therapy' Psychology/Psychotherapy this is used to address underlying issues such as you have written about....

E.C.T and such therapies are an absolute last resort and should be treated as such... I'm sure you know that Alcohol is actually a mood Depressant...

http://www.sane.org.uk/public_html/About_Mental_Illness/Mental_Illness.shtm

There are many other independant organisations which offer help and advice....

Answer 7

If this want you want in life - then do something about it. Think about the cause of pain to your loves one. You don't deserved to be around, what about those poor people who suffered from non-stop illness, like cancer, etc and facing the death door soon, not having to see their kids or grandkids grow up or at least have a life to fufill it!!.

You can turn this around, move away, start a new life, put the trouble past behind you. I tell you what, write everything down in a book, write down that really got to you and go outside and light that book up and watch it burning and laugh at it and walk away and that when you atart your new life.

Good luck

Answer 8

No reputable medical person/organisation would give you electric shock treatment.

Shock treatment is rarely given now, only given now for cases where the patient is catatonic with depression, and the depression has no known cause The fact you've written this question means you're not catonic and you've stated the reasons why you're depressed.

If you do want to get better, and you really do have to make that choice yourself. then you're the only that can walk the path back to wellness. Your the only one that can choose not to be used and learn new pathways. Others can & will help you, but it's your feet that walk the journey.

Good luck whatever you choose.

Answer 9

Do not even consider this treatment, it is out dated by about 40 years. It does only short term help but in the long term it can cause you more problems and some are devistating.

I suffered too when I was a child. My life was hell. I did what I could to survive and you can even get over sexual abuse it just takes time and lots of work.

Write a plan for your life. Seriously, it helps. Write one column with your goals and one next to it on how to start achieving these goals. Then start working on it one month at a time. For me I had to get away from home and a mentally disfunctional mother and a abusive father (he died when I was 17). I started spending as much time as I could at my friends home to survive. It helped. I joined Upward Bound in Hiigh School, it helped alot. I went to college and had the time of my life (I worked to pay for it, as my family was in extreme poverty). I met a wonderful man there and it took me 5 years together beore I could make the big step of marriage (I did not trust men, sexually abused). I had two wonderful boys (men now) and had a great career and made lots of money. I never felt sorry for myself, never looked back just looked toward a happy future and it worked for me.

You may need meds for the depression at first and that is OK. But more than that you need someone to talk to. A therapist can help. Get the anger out. You were abused and stuffed the anger to your subconscious. It needs to come forward and resolve it, and the pain.

Here are some books that can help you learn about how to change your life, please try them:

Soul Signs by Rosemary Althea
Proud Spirit by Rosemary Althea
The Luck Factor by Dr. Richard Weisman (highly recommend)
40 day prosperity plan by Randolph Price

Can get them at half.com or Amazon. Also any book by Sylvia Brown will help you realize why you are here, why you had to suffer, and how to let it go, and what happens when we die. It can really open your eyes. I suggest: The Other Side and Back as a good first step.

Give up any drugs or alcohol, it just deadens the pain fo the moment and does nothing for long term. It actually makes it worse and ruins your health too. Dont date until you turn your life around, you will only get losers. They prey on those with pain. Get on a good diet plan like weight watchers to learn to eat healthy.

Only you can change but you have to really want it like I did. If I would have done away with myself my young men would not be here and my husband would have been alone (God told me this). Learn to let go of pain and past and live for future.

Here is what you need to work on acquiring to help your life:

love, understanding, courage, forgiveness, patience, compassion, tolerance, wisdom, faith and hope. God can help you to all you need to do is ask.

Dont die LIVE. You are worth it, you are God creation. Just because something VERY BAd happened to you it was not your fault. It is the abusers fault not yours. You are worth saving just get on the right track NOW.

I am taking a Self Discovery class that is amazing. It tells you how to make your life the best and not look back

Good L:uck

Answer 10

The answer is to change your thought patterns, change the way you respond to your emotions. ECT is just an option like medication that help you be better able to change it's not an end all cure all . It's like you can't lose weight effectively without eating right and excercising right ... you can't do those kinds of treatment and expect a result without you contributing to that result.