I've been thinking about this since I saw it. Those on the outside still see depression as not really a disease but a weakness. A suicide attempt is the end result of mental illness in the same way a heart attack is the end result of coronary artery disease. You have to understand “where you are at” before deciding to have treatments such as ECT. And I know where I’m at but fighting it every single day. I also know when I'm getting tired of fighting it, so I cut. Sometimes you have to save just one brain from itself. The disheartened mind can be a terrible, lonely place to be. So my thinking is I have to save my brain from myself, if that makes sense, or else my brain will destroy me.

There’s a real stigma attached to someone how is mentally ill, IMHO, but an even bigger stigma attached to someone who has had ECTs. That’s why I’ve felt uncomfortable joining the postcard exchange. This is really disheartening to read what happened to the person you were caring for David. But it’s worrying me, where the strokes caused by the ECTs?