I'm sorry, George. I had ect, too, and I do think it fkd with my memory since then. My short term memory is worse now in my early 60's, than I thought it would be. I tend to think some of it is from all of the gaslighting of the last 8 yrs, including from people I thought I could trust, and now all of those people are gone down a path that is so dangerous, to me personally. And I dont know how to function or adapt to not even having the pretense of a democracy or a world where I am safe. Social media and the internet and cell phones have also made a huge impact on all of our attention spans.
Thanks Janet. I think you hit on it. The ideas of safety and fear drives so much of what we do today and can threaten to set back any progress we've made in living with mental illness. Hang in there.
This was so powerful. I've never been subjected to ECT but I've been on experimental drugs for nearly two decades. As you said: we're the lab rats. I think about it every time I suggest a new movie and my husband tells me we've already seen it, or I recall something I vividly remember that the people I recount it to are bewildered by because it never happened. (I do have significant psychosis.) I worry about my memory all the time and wasn't aware of those statistics. I certainly fear the degeneration of my mind more than my body. Thank you for writing this. Squeak squeak.
Thanks Amelia. If we really are the lab rats I hope something better comes from our suffering to those who come after us. I'd like to be around in fifty years to see what they think of what they've done to us. But I'd probably forget it all anyway.
I'm sorry, George. I had ect, too, and I do think it fkd with my memory since then. My short term memory is worse now in my early 60's, than I thought it would be. I tend to think some of it is from all of the gaslighting of the last 8 yrs, including from people I thought I could trust, and now all of those people are gone down a path that is so dangerous, to me personally. And I dont know how to function or adapt to not even having the pretense of a democracy or a world where I am safe. Social media and the internet and cell phones have also made a huge impact on all of our attention spans.
Thanks Janet. I think you hit on it. The ideas of safety and fear drives so much of what we do today and can threaten to set back any progress we've made in living with mental illness. Hang in there.
I'm trying to. I think it's easier when you have a child, as you do, to motivate you to hang in there. I don't have much motivation.
This was so powerful. I've never been subjected to ECT but I've been on experimental drugs for nearly two decades. As you said: we're the lab rats. I think about it every time I suggest a new movie and my husband tells me we've already seen it, or I recall something I vividly remember that the people I recount it to are bewildered by because it never happened. (I do have significant psychosis.) I worry about my memory all the time and wasn't aware of those statistics. I certainly fear the degeneration of my mind more than my body. Thank you for writing this. Squeak squeak.
Thanks Amelia. If we really are the lab rats I hope something better comes from our suffering to those who come after us. I'd like to be around in fifty years to see what they think of what they've done to us. But I'd probably forget it all anyway.
Maybe we’ll be part of a class-action lawsuit; who knows? 🙃