Tag Archives: hope

ECT should be a last resort

Mental health, , , , , ,

TW – contains content some people may find upsetting.
I had tried all sorts of medications, they were not working.
I had tried psychotherapy, I was too unwell to engage.
I was suffering with severe depression, I was not eating and was fixated on suicide, I was so unwell I was merely existing – I could still fake normality with most people but ultimately I was going to find a way to complete suicide – I consider that a certainty.
I was sectioned in hospital as it was deemed I no longer had a capacity to make decisions about my health.
As a last resort, I was given Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT).
I was told about all the possible life changing side effects, but ultimately, I didn’t have a choice. My mental state was going to kill me. Whether I wanted it or not, ECT was the only option.
NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) guidelines state it should be a last resort, at that point, the benefits far outweigh the risks… at any point before that, it’s tough to justify using ECT as other treatment (with fewer side effects) should be tried first.
Recently, I, and another lady called Sue, were interviewed for a video feature on metro.co.uk
Sue and I had different experiences but we agree on the most important fundamental aspects.
ALL treatments should be given with informed consent and ECT should be a absolute last resort!
Please bear in mind I had a terrible virus and my voice sounds terrible but watch and read this video feature on Metro.co.uk – let me know what you think.
All treatments have side effects, but if you’re dying, you, or the doctor treating you has to weigh up the potential benefits with the possible side effects of any treatment.
I learnt about ECT at medical school, we were taught that the side effects could be severe but patients with severe mental illness could experience positive outcomes. This was reiterated to me when my psychiatrist suggested it could work for me.
I don’t know why doctors would use ECT before trying other treatments, only careful, non-biased investigation of all the facts in each case would uncover this.
Sue states that the hospital where she had her treatment is using it 12 times more than any other areas of the country. There is no way of knowing the reason for this without further investigation but it would interesting to see why other hospitals use ECT less. I don’t like to speculate, it could be any combination of medications, therapies (psychological and occupational) as well as more 1-1 support, for example.
It would also be interesting to compare suicide rates between hospitals – if other hospitals are not using ECT when it could save their life, that would also explain the isolated statistic.
Audits and reports tend to throw up differences without looking into the whys or the hows. There also tends to be a lack of reporting making the sample size very small – therefore the results, although relevant and interesting, may not be significant.
I was a doctor too but it’s my illness that stopped me practicing, not ECT. I’m just glad my illness didn’t take my life as well as my career.
For more information about ECT please read here (Royal College of Psychiatrists), here (Mindful Survivor) or here (Metro.co.uk).

Does prayer work?

Faith, , ,

Clasped hands in pleading prayerWhether people have a faith or not, most are likely to have prayed at some point. Many of these prayers may be quick, fleeting, pleading types, a last resort when in desperation. And when they’re answered, more often than not we forget that we even asked for help!

Our pleads range from the simple things like when you’re late for work and you’ve lost your car keys, to more harrowing times, when a loved one is sick and we’re desperate for them to recover or be at peace.

My faith tells me that an active prayer life aids a closer relationship with my Lord and saviour, which, of course, is something I strive for. By ‘active’ I mean regular. I do not consider prayer a last resort, I pray throughout the day, including praising God, thanking Him, saying sorry as well as asking for things I desire, for others and myself.

The one I struggle most with is asking for things for myself. I also struggle to ask other people to pray for me. I don’t know why this is but it’s most likely something to do with not believing I’m worth it or that other people’s problems are far bigger than mine.

Recently I’ve been on crutches after an arthroplasty on my ankle. It’ll be hard for anyone who’s not been on crutches to fully understand the impact this has had on my life. Taking all my weight through my hands and arms causes a lot of pain, my ‘good’ hip is suffering, and I’m getting incredibly tired.

I planned to play a gig on my saxophone but it was a massive event so parking was going to be an issue. It’d been recommended that we use car parks further away, meaning a 10-15 minutes walk. But for me at the moment, 10 minutes feels like a marathon, I’d struggle to get there, have to find places to sit down en route and would arrive physically broken! Not to mention that my roady would have to carry all my kit (although he’s a very willing roady, I feel bad!).

So, I worked out which was the closest car park and left plenty of time in case we had to try other places. As we arrived, it was clearly very busy and the car park was packed. I simple said “God, please sort us a parking space”. I felt pretty rubbish asking so selfishly for something so small when there are people dying in war zones but I felt I needed to. But, would you believe it, there was a space in the corner of the car park? We didn’t even have to wait for anyone to leave. As I checked Google maps it turned out to the be THE closest car parking space to the performance venue, at just 30 seconds walk. I was very grateful and said a massive thank you to God!

Some would say this was a coincidence, Christians have another name for it, a God-incidence 🙂

I know God is omnipotent but it’s not his job to make our lives easy, an easy life does not make for a particular strong character. My life has been far from easy but it’s incidences like this that strengthen my relationship with him, knowing that if he’s with me in the little things, he’ll be there when I pray for the big things.

I’ve prayed for the big things too and you’ll see in my posts about mental health I’ve had some incredibly dark times. Please do continue looking around my site – I believe God has been with me every step of my journey.