Discussion ECT and Borderline Personality Disorder?

[Pepper]

Have any SS users with BPD undergone ECT?
If so, has ECT helped you? Or has it made you worse?
Same questions can apply for SS users without BPD.
Has ECT helped you? Or has it made you worse?
Feel free to go into details, side effects, etc, if you're comfortable. I'd like to know more about ECT, and how it's effected you.
Thank you.

 

[PDAnnie2610]

Offered during the worst of my mood, but I rejected it due to the need for hospitalisation and potential side effects.

 

[OneBigBlur]

I've never had it but I consider it barbaric. If you're trying to rewire your brain then you're better off trying psychedelics or MDMA.

 

[Talokin]

If you really are so severely incapacitated by depression/trauma/BPD, then what are you afraid of the side effects doing? This is assuming you have been through dozens of med trials and can barely work or do self-care.

As a last resort (really last resort), it can't' do much harm.

It's now done under full anesthesia, so there is no pain. There's possiblity of memory loss. I have been TRYING to get ECT because I actually WANT memory loss. (i've been on psych meds since George Bush was president).

I do FULLy agree that psychedelics are superior to ECT. But if you are completely unable to access them, they cannot help you.

 

[Fragile]

electroconvulsive therapy is one of those things that we will look back in the future and realize how barbaric and inhumane it was, i see it as being no different from lobotomy.

this is one of the many reasons why i think psychiatry is unethical and borderline malignant, most people who go though it, voluntarily or involuntarily, find that the same symptoms come back after some time but the side effects stay.

i wouldn't risk it at all, i know that there is very little that people with BDP can do to find relief, but this is definitely something that you don't want to do if you really want to recover.

 

[Talokin]

I guess my definitions of "barbaric" and "inhumane" are different than yours.

I've been on psych meds since 1990. It was probably because our close family friend was a pedophile. When the truth came out, he was able to avoid any jail, bc of very fancy lawyers. I was in 7th grade. But my parents blamed me. Most of my community are mental health professionals/teachers. The assessment was that "I wanted to be miserable".

Despite this history, and the fact that I've been VERY active in mental health recovery for 3 decades, my family still accuses me of being lazy. I choose to take a medical leave in July, and begged my family for help finding treatment. They waited 3 months, because they had vacations planned. They continue to call me lazy and have added "white supremacist" (because I don't take an active role in trying to get Trump impeached).

I guess i'm so broken, that barbaric treatment is better than my current state.

I guess I was hoping ECT would wipe out some of my memory. I know it probably wouldn't work in the way I hope - but when you are as desperate as I am, it stops mattering

electroconvulsive therapy is one of those things that we will look back in the future and realize how barbaric and inhumane it was, i see it as being no different from lobotomy.

this is one of the many reasons why i think psychiatry is unethical and borderline malignant, most people who go though it, voluntarily or involuntarily, find that the same symptoms come back after some time but the side effects stay.

i wouldn't risk it at all, i know that there is very little that people with BDP can do to find relief, but this is definitely something that you don't want to do if you really want to recover.

 

[Shakespear's Brother]

Do you have depression? ECT can be effective for those with depression.

If not, I would not recommend it, at all. ECT is not a treatment for BPD.

 

[Absurdity]

I received ECT some years ago (for treatment resistent depression), but it didn't help me. It was done 12 times during a hospital stay (1-2x per week?).

Regarding side effects, my memory of the stay is very fuzzy and I had trouble finding the right words in conversations for about 6 months afterwards (unusually long, did worry me a bit at the time). Nothing else.

For me it mostly just was the next treatment option on the standard plan. Of course it was intimidating and I took some time to decide, but after some research I couldn't find many (if any?) accounts of irreversible damage and as a scientific mind, I trusted the studies on that.

I think comparing it to lobotomy makes no sense at all, although I can see where that's coming from. Just do some research on how ECT is done today, and why it's still done.

Personally, if treatment resistent depression was still my problem, I would strongly consider deep brain stimulation (maybe wrong term, just translated). If I have nothing to lose, so much to gain and the medical experts recommend it, why not?
(of course there are always risks involved, especially with a brain surgery, this is why DBS is the last option, aside from costs etc)

 

[Final Escape]

I've never tried but if someone asked I probably might have lol!

 

[Pepper]

Do you have depression? ECT can be effective for those with depression.

If not, I would not recommend it, at all. ECT is not a treatment for BPD.

I have MDD and BPD.

 

[Egddios]

I've had about 20 or so ECT treatments since 2017 and the last round left me with significant memory loss and cognitive issues. I have a bit of a stutter now. A lot of people think "erasing" memories is a positive, but that's not how it works. It's not like you go into ECT and can pick and choose which memories are going to stay, and which you'll lose. I was so disoriented after this last round, my current psychiatrist agrees I shouldn't have any more (not that I want further ECT treatments anyway).

I've been diagnosed as having PTSD/MDD/Panic disorder, and it's been a different type of hell since my last inpatient stay and ECT treatments. At first, I felt mainly blank and very disoriented, and now I experience "flooding" where many memories seemingly came back to me all at once. Awful.

 

[Foresight]

I don't see why bpd would be treated with ect, but what do I know.

You need a change in thought patterns, a perspective shift. Shocking you is not going to do that. Cbt, meditation, group or individual counseling, even psilocybin.

I loved cbt so I'm bias. It's the only therapy that helped me.

 

[notjustyetagain]

i've had 4 courses of ECT (~45 sessions) and have borderline personality disorder, but the ECT was only for my major depressive disorder, only after nothing else worked, and only when it was severe i.e. so depressed that i couldn't eat or sleep and could barely make it to the bathroom. it helped the depression, but the positive effects lasted only a few days to a week after i stopped. no side-effects, luckily. i wouldn't call such a small window of improvement effective so i voted "it didn't help me".

anyway, i've never heard of ECT being used to treat borderline on its own. i've had a quick look through some studies that compare the efficacy of ECT for patients with MDD and comorbid BPD but the results are inconsistent -- some suggest that comorbid BPD reduces ECT efficacy, some that it doesn't. there's not a huge amount of research out there that i could find.

incidentally, if the barbiturate they use for general anaesthesia during ECT is anything to go by, N as a method is a beautiful thing.

 

[LegaliseIt!]

Borderline Personality Disorder Survivor:
I told my psychiatrist that I was so desperate for help that I was going to buy supplies for DIY prefrontal lobotomy from a well known online shopping site. I was also willing to try ECT.
He replied that Borderline PD patients don't typically respond well to ECT.
Just my experience

 

[Berlin76]

Have any SS users with BPD undergone ECT?
If so, has ECT helped you? Or has it made you worse?
Same questions can apply for SS users without BPD.
Has ECT helped you? Or has it made you worse?
Feel free to go into details, side effects, etc, if you're comfortable. I'd like to know more about ECT, and how it's effected you.
Thank you.

Ect for personality disorders?
What have been told by psychologist and psychiatrist is that it only works on depression as in unexplainable depression without trauma or whatever

 

[moon_r4]

I am diagnosed with bpd and have had ECT. I didn't have the ECT specifically to treat the bpd though. I had it when I was severely depressed and at the time it helped me quite a bit with the depression.

This didn't last very long though and in the long term it hasn't changed anything. I also have memory problems from it, nothing severe but my memory is worse than it used to be.

In my opinion it's a good short term treatment option for severe depression, but it won't magically solve any underlying issues that were contributing to the depression. Them issues will still be there.

It had no effect on the emotional problems I have as part of the bpd and it's not been proven to specifically help treat it.

incidentally, if the barbiturate they use for general anaesthesia during ECT is anything to go by, N as a method is a beautiful thing.

I second that, going under general anaesthesia was an amazing feeling. So easy and peaceful. I used to pretend I was being executed.
I wish barbiturates were easier to access :(