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The truth about electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) – Helen M. Farrell



The truth about electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) – Helen M. Farrell

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In 1982, a young nurse was suffering from severe, unrelenting depression. She couldn’t work, socialize or concentrate. One controversial treatment changed everything: after two courses of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) her symptoms lifted. So what exactly is electroconvulsive therapy and why is it so stigmatized? Helen M. Farrell details the history and evolution of ECT.

Lesson by Helen Farrell, directed by Artrake Studio.

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View 32 Comments

32 Comments

  1. @dawoodhafeez2485 on

    did anyone else think of transcendental meditation? studies have shown how transcendental meditation also works by allowing your brain to enter alpha state where whole brain has a coherent waveform. Maybe depression is your brain telling you to disconnect with external and connecting with yourSELF.

  2. @apapachadamente on

    I went through 10 ECT sessions a few years ago and it's awful. It messed with my brain, my memory and thought process were never the same since then. It also messed up everyone I knew went through it too and was staying in the clinic with me back then.

    It gave me a little reset as it's said, but the costs are just too high. I had much more better experiences and results later on, getting that kind of reset too but in a whole different and much lovelier way with healing plants and natural medicines.

    Wish no one that reads this gives it a try.
    Please let us stop this nonsense and go back to connect with our roots and natural ways of healing.
    After all, none of these technics have ever actually healed anyone anyway.

  10. @monkeysweeperguitar on

    The problem is that It should definitely be a “last resort” option. However, like so many other things in medicine, it’s likely highly overprescribed. Having gone through it myself, I would highly, HIGHLY recommend that people avoid ECT.

  15. @Kieks-Totf on

    I came here to educate myself after wondering why we still do this barbaric treatment.

    Strange how something good can come from something so horrible.

  17. @ogzombiebreakfast on

    Have there been any studies on how effective ECT is on depressed patients who are also on the spectrum? With the recent information on the lack of neural pruning in autistic brains, I'm worried that "flooding" the neurons would end up having an adverse effect on depression.

  19. @yashodhan1905 on

    This video has many errors. This is a serious lack of discipline by TED-ed.

    It says that "rarely" people experience memory loss. I challenge you to find a person who has gotten ECT who hasn't experienced memory loss.

    We should not make ECT safer, we should find a better treatment and drop this method.

    If the only physical symptoms were shaking feet, then why do they tie the patient to the bed?

  20. @tobyatlas6480 on

    Ive been struggling with severe depression most of my life, having survived many suicide attempts on luck alone. Meds and therapy havent worked , despite having tried them over and over again. My therapist mentioned ECT and deep brain stimulation as we were looking at our options. Im seeing a psychiatrist about it soon. Its a last resort for me, nothing else has worked and i havent gone six months without a suicide attempt in years. Ive gotten better at keeping myself alive, but i dont feel any better. Im hoping this might work.

  22. @frankbarbina9973 on

    Psychiatry is a joke to the world of science. Theres no such thing as bipolar disorder. Its just b.s made up because you cant understand why the person acts the way they do. So you place them in a category and name it. I was told for 20 years I was bipolar. And I believed it until I educated myself on psychology. You see I wanted to know why people we thought I wasnt "normal" . I realized I was being brainwashed into believing I was something I wasnt because they didnt understand me. Im now 42 years old. I havnt been on any psych meds for almost 20 years and Im doing great, better than I ever was. Im living proof its all B.S. ! All psych doctors are doing is hurting people by experimenting on them until something "works"(and it never does)😂😂😂😊

  25. @Anna-k1p4u on

    I’ve had major depression disorder since I was 12. When I was 29 I was hospitalized and given ECT. To me it was a miracle medicine. It felt like the brain finally worked how it was supposed to work. I wish they hadn’t waited so long to give me the treatments because I’ve been in severe pain for lots of years. If you’re struggling with major depressive disorder, there’s help out there. For me that help consisted of behavioral activation and ECT. From the people I’ve met while being hospitalized, different treatments seem to work different on different people.

  30. @Mashers111 on

    Seriously, I think this should be banned. There are too many risks associated with it, and it's also outdated and barbaric. The idea it can be carried out without your consent is sickening

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