that have never suffered from depression, or have only to a mild extent; you have no idea just how debilitating it makes not only your life... but also everyone's lives around you.

Because of my years of depression, my teenage boys don't want to be around me. One recently told me, "You are a crazy bitch, and I wish you would have died before when you tried to kill yourself".

I push myself daily to 'hang-in-there' and be as functional as possible. Yes, I take my medications as prescribed...they work marginally; but if I didn't have to get out of bed to support myself, I would sleep my life away.

Now, even though I do have a decent job, I am self-employed, (You see...with a lot of depression you can't work normal 8-5 jobs), but I do not have medical insurance. My options are limited; however, if I could afford to have the shock therapy I would do it in a second.

What's a little memory loss...especially when you might not want to remember the horror you feel in your depressed daily life?

Right now I'm having memory loss....what it's like to feel jubilant about anything!

Let me start by saying what the word Psychiatry means in its full sense:

Psychiatry: initially meant the study of the soul - psyche (soul) and ology (study of). Originally thought that the mind and body were separate entities.

In 1829, Webster's International Dictionary of English Language defined "psychology" as a " discourse or treatise on the human soul; the doctrine on the nature and properties of the soul".

So by that definition psychiatry and psychology are doing quite a wrongful act by treating human beings as if they were just a piece of meat.

Let me also add that if you do your research very well you will see that Psychiatrists & Psychologists have no absolute data nor any idea as to how the human mind works. All they have is assumptions to how it works here is a statement from this exact article "Doctors did not know how ECT worked, although it was assumed that the seizure relieved symptoms by somehow "resetting" the nerve cells in the brain." Now it is only logical that if you don't know how something works you then don't promote it as a cure, I think it is quite absurd.

You will not go to a doctor to treat you broken leg who will tell you "I don't know how this works but I think if we hit your leg with a hammer a few times it will maybe get back together", now that sounds quite absurd, doesn't it?! But, this what all Psychiatrists/Psychologists are saying to everybody, and strangely enough people believe them.

I suggest to everyone, before you consider any ECT, psychiatric drugs or even going to see a psychiatrist you do your research on that field and find out for your self what is the truth.

Here is a very good website to visit for your research: www.CCHR.org

Contact your local CCHR office and ask for the DVD named: Psychiatry An Industry Of Death. It is a very informative DVD on psychiatry.

I hope that what I have said was very informative to you, thank you for reading my article.

- Alex

Alex is absolutely right. In the seventies I saw a documentary on psychiatry that made me throw up. I think the concentration camps were more humane. To Bethazany, I think if you stopped taking the mind numbing drugs you would probably get better. I have felt the effects of what drugs can do, they give you a false sense of happiness which eventually dwindles until it has no more effect except making you numb with short term memory. Each time you try to go off the drugs it makes you feel a thousand times worse. Therefore you think that it is the drugs that make you feel better. Actually it is the drugs that damaged you in the first place and you desperately need to wean yourself off it under a REAL doctor's care.......Not a psychiatrist! You will feel awful for a short while and then you would finally get that elusive jubilant feeling you talk about.

Marc

Yeah, and I've tried Yoga and granola too.

Now I'm heading to the light socket!

It won't be just a little memory loss. You might well forgot that you ever had any children at all. No matter how tortured your relationship with them, would you rather be a stranger to them? How do you think you would feel to be introduced to children you'd never seen before and told you were their mother?

There are worse things than being depressed, and one of them is losing yourself with no possibility of ever getting yourself back.

After going back through and doing a quick review on the comments here, there seems to be a pattern; Those that have recently experienced ECT, those that have experienced, (or know someone that had experienced), it way back in-the-day, and those that seem to read a lot of journals.

Now, I'm not pulling statistics here, but it seems that "Those who have recently had the therapy", seem to be pretty happy with the outcome.

Maybe it is just that the people that are in a life altering situation, and considering trying to find another route, do a lot of research on "Modern Methods" of resources, and make their own decisions. Sounds like there is a lot to consider before going through with such a procedure, but just as intelligently....not be so close-minded to believe that the medical professionals are all a bunch of Mad Scientists.

I get really annoyed when people make blanket statements regarding ECT or anything else for that matter. As a nurse, 25 years and as a person with bipolar disorder ECT worked for me. Seven bilateral treatments in Dec 2006. I still take meds, God damn expensive ones, but if I ever need ECT again, I'd take it. If ECT did not work for many, or actually most, the treatment would have gone the way of the horse and buggy as our most common mode of transportation. It does not work for everyone in the same vein that Prozac and Lithium does not work for all. For me, yes, there was some memory loss, but not permanent. I have been on over 30 meds over the last 14 years, the vast majority worked, but never long term. 1 in 5 people with bipolar disorder commit suicide, not attempt, COMMIT. So I disagree that "there are worse things than being depressed" when the alternative for many people is death. Every death by suicide egregiously effects the lives of so very many. The # 4 cause of death for kids 10-14 is suicide in America (2004 National Institutes of Health.)- and yet when parents are faced with the idea of giving their kids psychotropic drugs many run, but embrace and give thanks if a heart medication is available for their child's heart condition. When people put down the psychiatry profession they are for the most part basing their opinion on a few lousy caregivers, just like there are lousy heart surgeons, orthopedists or OB/GYNs, or car mechanics. They are talking out of their A**. There are treatments regarding memory, in the same way there are therapies and treatments for stroke victims who can possibly regain the use of a limb.

We still have a crisis in this country regarding mental health, especially in regards to stigma and parity, though the parity issue is improving, even though our PRIVATIZED system has not an never will--many are kept on the outside looking in and suffering for it.

I do not, like some here preach for everyone, every is different and so is their disease and brain!

Alex, so I guess by your post that people should ignore their symptoms of depression, mania, delusions, hallucinations and suicidal ideations UNTIL we fully understand the brain. Don't seek help, just wait, right? Is that what you are saying? ECT has helped thousands and thousands of people and so have the meds that we still don't fully understand.

We can now see many biological brain illnesses though technology, PET scans, F-MRI, etc--depression, bipolar disorder, OCD and more--even if we don't fully understand these diseases, we do know they EXIST and have some proven ways to treat them. Hell we don't even understand fully why some people have high blood pressure! Meds and ECT have helped millions, and will continue to do so without your so-called brain.

Doctor Alex: Mrs. Smith, come back in about 20 years when we fully understand your depression. In the mean time stay away from sharp objects, rope and oncoming trains--okie dokie?

I just checked out Alex's website--CCHR.org they are part of "The Church" of Scientology!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...

I laughed so hard I wet my pants!

Thank you myfranz.

I can bet you that all these people above have never even tried to help a person with a mental condition.

I've tried, without ANY luck, to get churches to help me set up a program to provide tents and sleeping bags for homeless people. But I guess like the majority of "sane" people think...homeless are just BUMS.

This is a bit off the direct subject, but...I think that just about sums it up!

Well Myfranz, you have hit the nail on the head......your statement "The # 4 cause of death for kids 10-14 is suicide in America (2004 National Institutes of Health.)- " says it all. I can guarantee that every one of them were on Psychiatrist drugs. How come way back when there were no drugs there were no suicides either???

Quit your drug pushing.....there is no difference between you and a drug lord that pushes drugs onto others. You also said it yourself, they are damn expensive...........who is making money on drugging society?? wake up and smell the coffee.........that is if that part of your brain that regulates smell is still intact!

Marc

Marc, you don't sound very Amused or, for that matter, particularly coherent.

You "guarantee that every one of them were on Psychiatrist drugs"? A lot of them probably were, but come on, man, you have no idea what you're talking about. Or no actual evidence, at least. Also, do you honestly believe that "back when there were no drugs there were no suicides either"? That suicide is a wholly modern phenomenon, completely caused by the advent of medication? Honestly. I guess Juliet was on Lexapro.

Now, I'm not saying that drugs are the answer to everything, or that they come with zero problems-- not at all. But it's just absurd to claim that they cause the problems they purport to solve or help with and that they render users, if not suicidal, completely hollow. For some people, drugs may cause suicidal thoughts (Prozac, rarely, maybe even not at all), and for some they may bring emotional emptiness. But for many, many people, they actually help.

If this is really so hard for you to believe, I offer you first-hand experience, though, of course, I can't guarantee that my medication hasn't just turned me into a propaganda machine for the Pharmaceutical Man-- his devious plan has worked, and I'm starting my evangelical drug-pushing from a Slate comments board, the heart of America! Anyway, I was resistant to medication for my anxiety and depression for a long time. I thought that I should be able to overcome my problems from the inside, without relying on a couple of pills a day. It seemed to me like copping out, cheating. And maybe, in some ways, it was, but it helped me. It made me happier, less inhibited, more the person I thought I was underneath my unhappiness. Did it just turn me into some other person? Hard to say for sure, obvs, but I don't think so. Regardless, I still have my sense of smell: that's how I recognized your asinine bullshit.

Marc, my olfactory senses are intact, in fact your statement about how you can GUARANTEE that EVERYONE of those children were on psychotropics smells pretty rancid to me. The truth is a good many of those kids had no help whatsoever--do some research. Interestingly, some children and adults commit suicide while taking antidepressants just when the antidepressant kicks in, why??? When a person is severely depressed they often times (note I said often, unlike your EVERYONE) have no energy to lift their head from a pillow, never mind lift a gun. This is why is even more important to watch that person's demeanor so closely. When the person starts to feel even just a tad better, this is when their suicide risk might be highest, they now have more energy to do it.

No suicides "back then???"--you must be kidding suicide has been around since the beginning of time--again do a little research. Please send your facts to the still bereaved parents of my best friend who killed herself with a plastic bag over her head 40 years ago, she was not on meds.

Drug lord? You obviously did not catch my put down of privatized care--you are talking to a card carrying member of the US Socialist Party!

Meds and ECT WORK for most people, hopefully combined with good therapy.

I can smell my coffee just fine, in fact it has a enchanting French vanilla aroma as I write this!

You are one of the worst type of thinkers, you only see things in black and white, as evidenced by your word choices--life is a spectrum of thoughts and ideas!

I think it's time you tossed your old B&W tv to the curb!

Bethazany, You are so correct when it comes to the homeless. I worked for a non-profit health org for many years--the stigma of homelessness matches the stigma of mental illness. The so-called Christian orgs for the most part run from the homeless--after all they can't contribute to their coffers.

I'd rather have a cup a joe with a homeless man (and have) then a so-called christian, at least I know my cream won't curdle with the homeless guy and the conversation won't be a sermon on the mount!