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Take a Staycation Instead of Having ECT Treatments

05.02.2016 by Molly McHugh // 3 Comments

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Update: This post ‘Take a Staycation Instead of Having ECT Treatments’ offended someone suffering with severe mood issues and actually came out a bit more intense than I had intended. It was meant to just give some thought to how you can do other things than potentially damaging medical treatments, not upset anyone. Followed up with (and will write more): Medical Alternatives to ECT. Peace.

And make that an extra special staycation, suited for your particular needs in healing whatever trauma or physical distress you are suffering from that is forcing you to consider getting brain damaging ECT Treatments. Please consider it at least.

Take a Staycation Instead of Having ECT Treatments
I Personally Find This Image Highly Offensive as it is a Child Receiving ECT Treatment. But Do Know Children are Forced ECT – In Australia They are Doing 'Experimental ECT' on Low IQ Kids. Simply Evil.

I say ‘force’ as I know how horrible severe depression is or other extreme mood state such as mania and that when in a very ill state of bipolar illness you do not have proper control of your thinking or thoughts or – of course – next to nil control over how you are feeling.

Consider doing anything other than brain damaging ECT Treatments that may change the way you feel and give you a perception different than what you are suffering – or a temporary physical change that may make you feel like you are better – but you need to understand clearly it will NOT give you long-term relief most likely or a cure to your mental illness.

If a doctor or therapist is telling you that or giving you that impression they are being deceitful. If they say it is ‘safe and effective’ and won’t cause harm they are lying. Chances are high you will suffer long-term adverse affects, possibly debillitating ones.

You can educate yourself about the risk to your health you are considering taking by reading what an honest, ethical psychiatrist has to say – that is the factual truth about this brain damaging unecessary medical procedure – by clicking here: The Dangers of Electroconvulsive Therapy.

[bctt tweet=”ECT Never Solves or Treats the Underlying Medical or Psychological Problem”]

If you are feeling suicidal or having thoughts of hurting yourself it is a symptom of the distress you are feeling and not your fault. Tell someone who you trust or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline free 24 hour help number: 1-800-273-8255.

Desperation is What Forces Sufferers to Consider Getting ECT

And what brought you to this point? ECT is not the first line of treatment so what is going on is that you have most likely been on psychotropic medications and had a worsening of symptoms (but your doctor won’t share that information with you even though they most likely know that is what unfortunately happened).

Previous post: Are Your Psych Meds Making You Sick?

So brain damaging drugs didn’t help now they want to damage your brain more directly and severely with ECT – and profit grandly in the process, get many forms of payback for participating in the administration of the procedure or for recommending it to their patients. Don’t be naive to think otherwise.

Tell your unethical physician to go f’ themselves and do ANYTHING you can to get alternative forms of care. Nicely of course, while walking out the door with your brain and physical health still under your control.

If Have to Pay for ECT Treatments You Can Afford It Most Likely

But I can’t afford it is probably your first thought.

Most persons suffering from a severe state of mental distress who are also probably at the point where they have had a job loss or other losses and of course are at the end of what they feel they can humanly tolerate.

I understand. I’ve been in those exact same shoes on more than one occasion.

And when in that state of unwellness just thinking of having to manage a task such as making a temporary change to travel to a new location to experience something different that may help you to feel better can seem unsurmountable.

In most cases ECT Treatments are not free either, so use those funds on other desperate measures. ECT is a desperate measure – that should be banned so the medical community is forced to come up with safer and more effective treatments.

Have someone help you. Rent your house out for a few months and escape that dreadful weather that has increased your physical state of unwellness to where it is unbearable. There are always alternate solutions.

Related post: Medical Alternatives to ECT

You Can Do It – Refuse Electroconvulsive Therapy

You can do it. If you are capable of agreeing to ECT you are capable of making other choices.

And thank god for that, and that you are not institutionalized and being forced or coerced into having the massive profit-generating treatment of ECT and your brain potentially irreversibly damaged for life.

Inexpensive Healing Places in the U.S.

These are a few suggestions as mental distress always has physical origins of some type. You know loud and clear what you were doing did not work – so try something new.

Many who are suffering severe depression have co-existing medical conditions or are reacting to things in their environment. I’m not talking about your overly-demanding toddler or teenager or unhealthy relationship but physical things that may be causing physical distress leading to a serious depressive episode that is obviously not responding to treatment.

Previous post: Drug Resistant Bipolar Disorder

Try something new. What do you need? How about de-stressing (and detoxing) in a peaceful natural environment? Why not try it?

I recently spent a day immersed in the natural hot springs at Tecopa Hot Springs in California. It was nice – and cheap. It is only $7 for 24 hour use of tubs and you can camp for $220 for a month – add $60 to that price to have electricity at your site. Go with a partner or friend and the cost is half.

There is free WiFi on the premises, or you can pay for high-speed Internet at your campsite for an additional $100 for the month. Now during winter is typical desert weather (very cold at night, sunny during the day) and scenery – lots of solitude if you need that and is safe for women.

The town of Pahrump, Nevada with a Walmart to stock up on supplies, many restaurants and cheap gas ($1.97 per gallon for regular unleaded) is just a 45 minute drive away. And a nice, peaceful scenic drive at that.

Here is an article to get you motivated: Best Hot Springs in America

There are many places you can go. Fly to Mexico and get a dose of culture shock plus some great food and time at the beach or visiting Mayan ruins. It will be more fun even if you get sick (flu, food poisoning) and hate it – than inducing seizures in your brain and suffering the effects of the treatments.

If you are considering ECT and not currently hospitalized you are capable of making alternate choices for your self, soul and viable future. Email me and I will help you think of options if you need some ideas or need some support and encouragement.

Photograph is from this Wikipedia page and is of an electroconvulsive therapy machine on display at Glenside Museum in Bristol, England.

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Categories // Depression, Electroconvulsive Therapy

ECT Machines Have Never Been Tested

05.02.2016 by Molly McHugh // Leave a Comment

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ECT machines have never been tested. You’ve got to be kidding me, I thought. That can’t be true. How can a device such as ECT machines that are used in a medical procedure that has been done on patients for decades – and that is very controversial – never have been tested as a medical device and approved by the FDA?

ECT Machines Have Never Been Tested
Claims in Textbooks and Review Articles That ECT is Effective Are Not Consistent With The Published Data

Why is it not regulated?

Fetal Monitoring Devices Have Never Been Tested

Can you imagine ever hearing the following statements:

“Insulin pump devices have never been tested”
“Fetal heart monitors have never been tested”
“EKG machines have never been tested”

That Would Be Insane and Doctors Put in Jail

Ok, the ‘put in jail’ part I am not 100% sure about but there would be a major revolt in the medical communities (endrocrinologists, heart specialists, OB/GYN) that specialize in care that uses these machines for evaluation and treatment.

They would be concerned about patient care as much as being labeled ignorant quacks. Snake oil selling white-robed snakes.

ECT Machines Have Never Been Tested
No Evidence at All That ECT Reduces a Suicide Risk. There is Some Evidence That ECT INCREASES Suicide Risk and NONE That it Reduces It.

Major revolt. Head’s of universities resigning, billion dollar lawsuits being filed by patients who claim to have been harmed by such an untested device. Shame and embarrassment to the medical professionals who participated in the unethical use of such a machine. Etc, etc.

Revolt and rebellion.

So why is that not the case with ECT machines that intentionally produce seizure activity in the brain and cause head trauma? It is insane.

Idea That ECT Machines are Safe and Effective is Absurd

Quote from Dr. Peter Breggin in the KPCC radio talk show interview:

“The FDA is considering not testing (ECT machines) at all. These machines have never been tested.”

“The idea that they are safe and effective and don’t need testing when they produce head trauma is absurd.”

That is insane. Why aren’t psychiatrists all up in arms and fighting this horrible travesty of medical injustice? Holding psychiatric conferences to figure out how to stop the profit-generating, brain-damaging treatment from continuing and harming their patients. Or at least be studied for its long-term effects on patients who have the procedure and – for God’s sake – the machines be tested.

Why not?

Why don’t they want to protect the integrity of their field of medicine like cardiologists would, endocrinologists would, OB/GYN docs would. Why do they not uphold the medical oath of honor required in being licensed to practice as a physician and “First Do No Harm”? Why not?

Why are there not billion dollar lawsuits against the manufacturers of ECT machines and the medical facilities that administer the treatment by those who have been damaged by the procedure? Brain damaged.

Why not? ECT is like a safeguard against the failure of other guessing game treatments such as psychotropic medications, something to pull out of the hat when that doesn’t work.

But it should be banned. And thank God for the new research on the ‘Gut as a Second Brain’ that is giving some alternative treatment approaches available that are actually based on valid science.

Related post: Take Probiotics to Treat Bipolar Illness.

Stop ECT and overuse of medications and focus on the gut and other treatment approaches.

Related post: You Have a Second Brain – Your Gut!

YouTube Video of Interview

The full interview debating the safety and efficacy of ECT between psychiatrists Peter R. Breggin (opponent of ECT), M.D. and Helen Lavretsky, M.D. (loves the procedure) is on YouTube here: KPCC Southern California Public Radio.

I’ve also imbedded the video:

Read, watch, listen and make your own opinions about ECT. And know the facts. Understand the reality, not be brainwashed by the propaganda.

If anyone has been helped – wonderbar. ECT concussion/head injury has been known to give a feeling of euphoria. So a depressed person thinks (very understandably so) that they are better.

But it is temporary. And many are irreversibly harmed by the procedure with long-term memory loss, mental confusion that anyone would have after a serious head trauma, etc. Why would ANYONE ever take that risk with something that has NO LONG-TERM STUDIES about it’s effectiveness.

Yes – you read that correctly. For decades the ONLY patient follow-up studies done were for a FOUR WEEK period after the precedure. Those who perform it don’t care about you after that, it seems… or whether or not the machine can cause harm.

BREAKING NEWS! Wait – I am not totally correct above… they DID do a longer study in 2011 over a six month period and evaluated 347 electroshock patients. What did they find?

“Based on numerous standardized psychological tests, six months after the last ECT every form of the treatment was found to cause lasting memory and mental dysfunction. In the summary words of the investigators: Thus, adverse cognitive effects were detected six months following the acute treatment course.”

“They concluded: This study provides the first evidence in a large, prospective sample that adverse cognitive effects can persist for an extended period, and that they characterize routine treatment with ECT in community settings.”

“After traumatic brain damage has persisted for six months, it is likely to remain stable or even to grow worse. Therefore, the study confirms that routine clinical use of ECT causes permanent damage to the brain and its mental faculties.”

Source: Disturbing News for Patients and Shock Doctors Alike

Why they don’t want the machines to undergo the rigorous testing other medical devices have to go through before being approved by the FDA. Or more long-term studies done.

ECT Machines Have Never Been Tested

ECT machines have never been tested. Doesn’t that seem a bit odd to you too? Don’t you want to ask yourself why. And why psychiatrists would not want this medical travesty that has been going on for decades to be corrected.

Seems odd to me. And highly suspect. Psychiatrists should be ashamed – at the very least – of their lack of professionalism and lack of scientific and medical integrity within their profession.

Maybe it’s simply time for the lawsuits to start if the FDA and field of psychiatry refuse to act in a responsible manner. And a new focus on the gut as opposed to psychotropic medications – the failure of and worsening of initial symptoms often what drives the desperation behind considering brain damaging ECT in the first place.

Related post: Psychiatrists Paid a Million Dollars to Market Risperdal.

If you want more detailed information Dr. Breggin has taken the time to create a free ECT Resource site: ECT Resources Center.

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Categories // Antipsychiatry, Electroconvulsive Therapy

Medical Alternatives to ECT

04.26.2016 by Molly McHugh // Leave a Comment

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What are some medical alternatives to ECT? I have never had ECT, though I definitely have had illness episodes that are similar to those who are suffering now and being recommended the procedure. Disclosure: I am adamantly against the treatment, consider it abusive and think it should be banned.

Related post: ECT Machines Have Never Been Tested.

Medical Alternatives to ECT
These guys were first recipients of ECT – to make it easier to slit their throats in order to kill them.

Especially forced ECT on children, experiemental ECT on low IQ kids. Maybe you can agree with me on at least that much. And if you think there is no risk of permanent brain damage – you are simply ill informed and being given incomplete information about the treatment.

You can rally for it on your side if you think it is ‘safe and effective’ and a good treatment for serious depression. That’s fine, I just happen to not agree and think it is never ok to do intentional damage with risk of permanent damage in treating something that can be treated in other ways.

If you do have the proceduce I hope all goes as well as is possible. But I really hope you would consider every other option to get through your emotional/physical crisis and state of suffering: Take a Staycation Instead of Having ECT Treatments.

A Few Thoughts To Think About Before Consenting to ECT

If you think ECT is ‘safe and effective’ here are a couple thoughts for you think about:

“After one, two or three ECTs, the trauma causes typical symptoms of severe head trauma or injury including headache, nausea, memory loss, disorientation, confusion, impaired judgment, loss of personality, and emotional instability. These harmful effects worsen and some become permanent as routine treatment progresses.”

Source: ECT Works By Damaging the Brain

“Electroshock never addresses the cause of the person’s problems and offers no cure.”

Source: Brain Damaging Effects of Electroshock

We Need Better Treatments for Depression

It’s horrible that anyone is in a mental state of severe suffering and feeling that taking the risk of damaging their brain to alleviate that suffering with ECT is a risk worth risking.

Personally, it makes me feel bad.

We need better treatments for depression, at all stages of the illness for those who are bipolar, suffer from Major Depressive Disorder or other mental illness. I think we can all agree on that.

Better treatments that make even having to consider ECT a thing of the past…

Are There Medical Alternatives to ECT?

They do not know how ECT works… other than it induces seizures in the brain and causes changes in functioning and that it damages the brain.

There are newer therapies being developed that have a similar effect on the brain (effects changes in functioning) but are considered to be less harmful. I will do a write-up on each when I have more time and then link to the page about the heading here. Give me a couple of weeks.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), Vagus Nerve Stimulation, Magnetic Therapy, Deep Brain Stimulation. Others?

I will add others as I find them during my research. Those who are developing less invasive and less harmful treatments for severe depression deserve to be highlighted and supported (in my humble opinion).

How Did ECT Come To Be?

A lovely psychiatrist decided humans were like pigs so why not shock them. The treatment has pretty much an exciting (not) and disturbing an origin as that.

“It occurred to me,” wrote Cerletti, “that the hogs of the slaughterhouse could furnish the most valuable material for my experiments…At this point I felt we could venture to experiment on man, and I instructed my assistants to be on the alert for the selection of a suitable subject.”

Source: Who Invented ECT?

We are not pigs. And our brains are not heavy machinery that you can jolt with electric currents to get up an running again. Damaging an already under-functioning or diseased organ is usually counter-indicative in medical settings. ECT is brain damaging and should be banned.

We need better and more effective treatments for depression that get at the root causes. Treatments that help to heal a person, not harm them.

In an article written by Dr. Frank Ayd in 1963, Cerletti is quoted as saying “When I saw the patient’s reaction, I thought to myself: This ought to be abolished! Ever since I have looked forward to the time when another treatment would replace electroshock.”

Let’s figure out alternatives. Molly

Photograph is “Pig in a bucket” by Ben Salter.

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Categories // Alternative Treatments, Electroconvulsive Therapy

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