Especially if you've been inpatient before where you've seen people just in the middle of ECT treatment, you shouldn't judge what they look like even two weeks after they've completed their treatment. I know that cognitively I struggled while still in the hospital. In fact, I remember weeks later my therapist (who stopped by to visit me when I was in the hospital) and a couple of friends who saw me immediately afterward said they were worried. But over a few weeks, a lot of the memories came back. What would happen would be... someone would say something to me like, "Let's go see so and so," and I might reply, "Yea, we haven't seen them in a long time." And their response would be, "We saw them two weeks ago, right after you got out of the hospital." Then, when I asked for a few details, once they were given to me, the memories would come back. Yes, it was frustrating, but I'd say the only things I temporarily lost memory of were things that happened within 4-6 weeks of starting treatment, some stuff during treatment (there are some things about being in the hospital I definitely remember), and maybe a week or so after treatment. And as my psychiatrist says, when you're so depressed that you need ECT, your cognition is poor to begin with anyway, so how much of the memory loss is due to depression or ECT? In fact, I spent almost four weeks at an inpatient hospital back in mid-August to mid-September - I went there because they are known for their work with childhood and even adult trauma, and my anxiety was off the rails. I couldn't function. But their philosophy is, you can't do the deep therapeutic work if you're on a benzo, so they switched me from Xanax to Librium, and tapered me every 3-4 days until I was off it completely in 2.5 weeks. It was by far the most horrific experience I've ever had in any inpatient setting. I was almost catatonic; I felt like a walking zombie most of the time, my GI system got so screwed up I ended up in the ER with serious dehydration and electrolyte imbalances. I spent many hours in bed with an eye mask on to shut out any stimuli, and listened to nature sounds with an iPod. I lost 10 lbs. It was horrific. I called my husband to come get me 2.5 weeks early because they weren't willing or capable of trying to get at the bottom of my GI issues. It will be six weeks tomorrow that I left and my GI issues are still not completely resolved, despite my going back on Xanax. I have very few memories of my time there... similarly to when I had ECT because I was so depressed and despondent. So don't underestimate how bad just being severely depressed can mess with your cognition. Most people I've talked to who have had it regained much of their memory over time. My biggest complaint was the first two days after my first treatment, I had some muscle soreness, like I'd worked out really hard the day before... I'm sure that's because of the induced seizure. Truly, though, when you're under anesthesia and the health care professionals are watching you for your seizure threshold, all they want to see is a baby finger twitch the slightest bit... that's it. I never experienced any headaches and with a few sessions my appetite started to come back and I started to gain some more energy. I did my last three sessions outpatient, and within a few weeks of that, unexpectedly (at least on my part), my anxiety started to decrease dramatically to the point that, within two months of my last treatment, I was completely off of 1.5 mg. extended-release Xanax a day I'd been on for several months (.5mg taken three times a day)... all of my own fruition. No one told me to cut back... I just did because my anxiety was dissipating. Oh, they did also give me a dose of ketamine immediately prior to putting me out for my first two ECT sessions. This was in a large teaching hospital in a major metropolitan area.
I can guarantee you I was terrified of ECT when it was first suggested to me a few months before I agreed to it. My biggest fear was that I'd do it, and it wouldn't help. I knew it was bringing out the big guns and if I did it and it didn't work, I couldn't see living the rest of my life the way I was. I had also already tried TMS and it did nothing for me, much less all the psych drugs we'd been through. I did really well for many years - what I'm going through now is the result of a LOT of PTSD in the last 18 months... stuff I had no control over. We just relocated across country and I've only met my new psychiatrist once (meet her again on Monday), but I told her I couldn't continue to live like this and if it came to it, I'd be willing to discuss ECT again, because I know what a miracle it was for me, and other people I've met through support groups (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance - DBSA).