Electroconvulsive therapy

mental illness is defined as a chemical imbalance in the brain which causes person to act differently. In the Past psychiatrists did not have medication to treat mental illnesses. Instead they relied on physical methods such as lobotomies, shock therapy, asylums, exorcism, trephining and many more. It is important to become aware of past treatments to better understand the reason for current treatments, it also provides us better information to move forward and create better, more effective…

Electroconvulsive therapy is a procedure in which doctors transmit electric shocks to the brain from electrodes that are placed on certain locations of the head, which release a flood of neurotransmitters and help treat the patient’s specific disorder. Although, before this procedure occurs, the patients are given anesthesia to prevent any physical harm to the patient. One major advantage of this procedure is that there has been an 86% remission rate in patients who have undergone ECT with…

From electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), insulin shock therapy and frontal lobotomy. Because these treatments made a “noticeable effect” on patients, it was supposed to be a good option. Electroconvulsive therapy is also known as electric shock, where seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect based on the definitions in…

Recently I went in for my maintenance ECT, which is electroconvulsive therapy, also known as, shock therapy. I needed it. My mood has been shifting from my neutral to a depressive episode, which can be dangerous for me. I can call into my doctor and tell them I am struggling and they can get me in on either a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. They got me in on that Friday. Because I have been doing ECT for about four years now, I have been able to start remembering the experience more and more each…

Electroshock Therapy is a treatment option for patients with depression that induces surges of electricity that cause small seizures in the brain. Despite an 80% success rate, this method, when used incorrectly, has the potential to incapacitate patients, worsening their condition. One of the few unlucky people whose life was drastically changed bythe inadequate application of this treatment was Sylvia Plath. Shaping American feminism and contemporary poetry, Sylvia Plath is one of the most…

Dr. Seuss once asked: “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”, a question still relevant today. Why should we conform to society’s expectations when we were born to escape them? In The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Esther Greenwood suffered from depression but suppressed how she really felt in hopes of fitting in, which caused her to sink into a further depression. Only when Esther grew out of her desire to fit in was she able to find a way out of her depression. This brought on a valuable…

Esther most significant anxiety is her desire to succeed in various parts of her life professionally and personally, while recognizing that she lives in a world where women rarely venture into success outside of their homes. When Esther thinks of the fig tree she finds it symbolic to host her new opportunities that exist. “From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked.” She associates each fig with a different life choice but her desire to branch out…

Dealing with a sudden case of epileptic seizure on first aid duty; the death of an elderly woman just a few hours after the morning ward round; witnessing electroconvulsive therapy; when I think of my experiences over the past few years I come to the realisation that there has been no single defining factor fuelling my desire for a career in medicine. Rather, my ambition has gradually become more and more cemented with each insight into the medical profession. These experiences have taught me…

almost identically. They both overdosed on sleeping pills and passed out in their mother’s crawl space for three days. It was for both the author and the character, the reason they were admitted to a mental institution and treated with electroshock therapy. Because the scene is so similar to the one that the author faces it gives the book a more macabre feel to it. The blanks thoughts the character feels before swallowing those pills and then waking up in a hospital could be the very same thing…

depression, double standards, and societal expectations, at length and candidly. Drawing from her own life and battles with depression, Plath herself went through some of the more invasive procedures as described in the novel. For Esther Greenwood, the therapy “took hold of [her] and shook [her] like the end of the world,” and ultimately did not relieve her distress (143). As a new wave of feminism was encroaching, Plath took this opportunity to discuss double standards and sexist issues.…