I had my 1st major depressive episode at age 25. It persisted relentlessly until the age of 46. I had tried virtually every class of antidepressant, alone and in combination with mood stabilizers and antipsychotics along with therapy. Nothing helped. I have experienced the pleasure of 4 vacations in psychiatric hospitals.
Eventually it reached the point were I felt my only hope was suicide, had already made one attemp and seriously contemplated it another 4 times. I was in a deep dark hole. It was so deep that there was no rope long enough to reach me. Of note my therapist of seven years stated I was the most persistent and hardest working patient she had!
In Sept, 2010 it was decided that my only option was ECT. I was to have 12 treatments. After the first week my family and friends began to see a big difference, I noticed nothing until about the third week. Unfortunately I relapsed shortly after the treatments were stopped. Between 9/2010 to 3/2011 I received 53 treatments. I had severe memory problems. This did concern the psychiatrist performing the treatments and he did suggest that we switch to unilateral treatment and back off on the frequency. However the ECT, though far from a cure had pulled me out of that black hole, I was addanament that we stick with the treatment as it was. When I came to after the treatments, the first question I asked was the seizure duration. To me a seizure less than one min. Was suboptimal. I was prepared to do anything to stay out of that dark hole!
I am going to taske a break posting, but will resume shortly, too tiered!

Hi. Im from sweden. I got 12 ect 2009, and they ******** with the anasthesia!
Soo i was "awake" during one threatment...
********. Im not the same...

I have read about ect efter and i did not know anything about negitive side effects when getting it. I ******* HATE that "doctor".*edit*

He is sick in the head. He gave this to all people even first time deppresed and like candy. Its crazy and soo *******dangerous.

Anyway. dead tired when writing this. But i have not emailed i dont know the word in english. Google translate. neuroscience...
I need to email some doctors in neuroscience and ask about recovery, and IF you CAN train your brain again.
I have lost hope and thinking that. "its no point", i got braindamage...

But i must beleive and have hope. I WANT TO THINK that it can be better.
It has been good. Im just in a depression right now...
And lost my self-esteem and all.

But has anyone of you recovered? I am thinking about like, if you TRAIN YOUR BRAIN every day and your memory, then it can improve.
The brain is like a muscle. I could have posted this on a swedish forum, but i have not done it yet. I did write a good text then...

But i guess i must ask a professor in neuroscience...
The brain has healing abilities. I just dont know how much after this sick alien unhuman "threatment"...
It can recover eftera stroke. Then it should be able to recover efter getting this?

Anyone? I need to shape up and get my motivation back...
I know my brain has been able to be pretty decent like two years ago...
I learnt the moonlight sonata on guitar then...

Im not the same as i used to be. I used to be intelligent and all. But i have heard this can give permanent memory loss and braindamage. Then i have lost my self esteem and i dont know.
But the thing is, some people dont feel a difference. And some do. Why is that?
It could be some had 6 "threatments", and i got 12, its sickening.

Anyway. Keep on fighting and struggle on people!!!
//Just some dude from sweden.

I had ECT recently (5 sessions). I stopped 3 weeks ago. I've had a burnt smell in my nose ever since the last session. Has anyone heard of this? Can you get rid of it? I assume it's not something in my sinuses, but something in my brain?

Hello and welcome to the NeuroTalk Support Groups.

There is a very brief PubMed
abstract I've posted at the bottom that mentions 2 cases of transient anosmia and ECT.
There may be more if you do a search for abstracts there or find full articles online.
I would imagine that if it could cause anosmia in some people (although rarely by the look of it),
then it may also alter smell.

You should ask your doctor about this. Hopefully this will go away fast for you.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24263277
Transient anosmia during acute phase electroconvulsive therapy: a report of 2 cases.

J ECT. 2013 Dec;29(4):e55-6. doi: 10.1097/YCT.0b013e31829a01b2.
Upshaw WN1, Hubbard JD, Ali S, Fernandez JW.