Soccerfreak:

I've read many of the posts about this article with great interest, but your last paragraph really stuck me.

"Given the choice between shock therapy and death, I would choose to die. Right after having the author of this piece, and his 'experts', agree to hook up for a dose of two."

The second sentence is easier to adress: I agree that the article was perhaps a bit too uabashedly enthusiastic about ECT, as the treatment does have serious risks and drawbacks. However, asking the author of an article in favor of a medical treatment to uneccesarily subject themselves to that treatment is a bit unreasonable. Would you make the same statment if the article was in favor of artificial hearts? lol, "If he thinks artificial hearts are so great, he should have his own heart replaced with an artificial one" That only seems ludicous because of the lack of acceptance of the general public of mental illness as real.

The first sentence was the one that really struck me however, as that is precisely the decision I am facing - treatment or death. I suffer from major depression as I have for my entire life (one of my first memories is saying, "mommy, I'm sad"), and my new years resolution for 2008 is that this will be the last year I will suffer from depression. In other words, by the end of this year, I plan to either have relief from my symptoms, or be dead. I know it sounds morbid, but it's given me a newfound resolve to address my condition. One of the insidious things about depression is that while you suffer, you become convinced that it's somehow 'right' to feel this way, and you lose all motivation to heal yourself, as it seemingly requires an unimaginable amount of work. So, I'm looking into treatment options, I haven't yet tried. One is ECT, and I'm reluctant to do it. Is it worth the risk and side effects? I've looked into clinical trials and none will take me, I'm too sick for them. I am trying some other things, but it seems as though, ECT is my best hope at this point. So.... "given the choice between shock therapy and death...." Indeed......