Responses to Comments
There have been several recent comments. Following are my reactions to those that call for reaction:
(1) Sorry to be ignorant, but I don't know who Peggy Salter is or why I would be more sympathetic to her jury. I don't claim to be an expert on, or necesarily up to date or well read about, ECT and its effects on other people or the experiences that many others have had. I write about my own experience and my own philosophies.
(2) Grandma: I have found a psychiatrist that is working with me toward getting some things done on the "permenant disability" front. She is my own treating ECT doc, and we are working on getting my student loans from law school discharged because I will not be going back to that line of work. Likewise, she has written a supportive "report" for SSDI, supporting my claim for extended, if not permenant, disability. My intention, however, is to return to work, full time, as soon as I am able. I have no intention of being the "house-dad" for any longer than necessary.
(3) And for the anonymous writer (who still lacks the balls to put in a profile so we can see where the comment is coming from), I began writing my blog for me, and me alone. Maybe I should say me and my family and friends. It began as a chronicle of MY experience through ECT and statements about MY philosophies regarding many things. The fact that others, like yourself, found my blog and don't like what I have to say is not only not my concern, it is entirely irrelevant. You say that I "can't prove" my statement about the fact that I would be dead without ECT. Here's a flash...I don't HAVE to prove it. I'm not trying to convince anyone. I'm merely reporting MY experience. And I am saying that if anyone asks me (which is what you have done by reading MY blog written for MY purposes), then my response would and will continue to be that ECT is effective in the treatment of depression, but there are side effects.
Your statement that it is "morally wrong" for me to elect a treatment, when others are being damaged by the same treatment is laughable. I didn't force anyone to agree to ECT. ITS A MATTER OF CHOICE. The fact that some doctors/facilities don't provide full disclosure (or a level of disclosure that would make you and others happy) had no bearing at all on my choice to undergo ECT. That's a matter of public policy, which is much greater than the purpose for which my blog was written I was worried, at the time, about ending MY pain. I elected ECT because my family pleased with me to give it a try instead of giving up.
I don't hold the opinion that the treatment is right for everyone. I don't hold the opinion that any one thing (be it ECT or Jesus or anything else) is right for everyone. People and thier circumstances differ, and each person has to make his/her own choices and be responsible for those choices. Frankly, I don't really care who decides to turn to ECT for help and who doesn't. But, at the same time, because some people don't like ECT for a number of reasons, I would NEVER advocate taking the option away from everyone. People should be able to make thier own choice (adter weighing the options and consulting with those they trust) how to treat the depression that haunts them. Like I said before, suicide was the option I had chosen before ECT, and I agreed to try something else for my family. I'm glad I did try the something else. But if my opinion of that choice changes, I still have the suicide option. The stats on the number of suicides pre versus post ECT are meaningless. Maybe all of those post-ECT suicides would have been pre-ECT suicides if the ECT option hadn't been there. Maybe ECT should just BE an option for those standing at that critical crossroad: suicide or ECT. Maybe it should be administered less often. Those are public policy questions that are not only beyond my reach, they are well outside of the purpose of my blog.
I'm not walking the streets with a picket sign advocating ECT or anythying else. I'm living my life and reporting how that life is progressing through and after ECT. Apparently, you ARE taking up the cause of ridding the free world of the ECT option for treatment of depression. Good for you. You go, brother. But if reading MY blog, which was written for MY purposes and to which you were never invited in the first place, bothers you so damned much, then DON'T FUCKING READ IT. I didn't come to you and push my opinion on you. You came to me and asked my opinion. You got my opinions. If writing a blog for my own purposes and about myself makes me a selfish boor, then it does. Ignore the thousands of dollars I raise for The Children's Hospital Psychiatric Services group through find-raising events and ignore the 3 marathons (out of the 6 that I've run) that I have run to raise money for the fight against leukemia, and forget the other things I have done in my community for others. Label me selfish for writing about myself for myself because I KNEW my memory was going to be disturbed. But remember, you came looking for me. I won't lose any sleep over your short-sighted opinion. But if you don't like what you found when you came looking for me, if you don't like what I have to say, too damned bad. Go looking further for something that says what you want to hear.
(1) Sorry to be ignorant, but I don't know who Peggy Salter is or why I would be more sympathetic to her jury. I don't claim to be an expert on, or necesarily up to date or well read about, ECT and its effects on other people or the experiences that many others have had. I write about my own experience and my own philosophies.
(2) Grandma: I have found a psychiatrist that is working with me toward getting some things done on the "permenant disability" front. She is my own treating ECT doc, and we are working on getting my student loans from law school discharged because I will not be going back to that line of work. Likewise, she has written a supportive "report" for SSDI, supporting my claim for extended, if not permenant, disability. My intention, however, is to return to work, full time, as soon as I am able. I have no intention of being the "house-dad" for any longer than necessary.
(3) And for the anonymous writer (who still lacks the balls to put in a profile so we can see where the comment is coming from), I began writing my blog for me, and me alone. Maybe I should say me and my family and friends. It began as a chronicle of MY experience through ECT and statements about MY philosophies regarding many things. The fact that others, like yourself, found my blog and don't like what I have to say is not only not my concern, it is entirely irrelevant. You say that I "can't prove" my statement about the fact that I would be dead without ECT. Here's a flash...I don't HAVE to prove it. I'm not trying to convince anyone. I'm merely reporting MY experience. And I am saying that if anyone asks me (which is what you have done by reading MY blog written for MY purposes), then my response would and will continue to be that ECT is effective in the treatment of depression, but there are side effects.
Your statement that it is "morally wrong" for me to elect a treatment, when others are being damaged by the same treatment is laughable. I didn't force anyone to agree to ECT. ITS A MATTER OF CHOICE. The fact that some doctors/facilities don't provide full disclosure (or a level of disclosure that would make you and others happy) had no bearing at all on my choice to undergo ECT. That's a matter of public policy, which is much greater than the purpose for which my blog was written I was worried, at the time, about ending MY pain. I elected ECT because my family pleased with me to give it a try instead of giving up.
I don't hold the opinion that the treatment is right for everyone. I don't hold the opinion that any one thing (be it ECT or Jesus or anything else) is right for everyone. People and thier circumstances differ, and each person has to make his/her own choices and be responsible for those choices. Frankly, I don't really care who decides to turn to ECT for help and who doesn't. But, at the same time, because some people don't like ECT for a number of reasons, I would NEVER advocate taking the option away from everyone. People should be able to make thier own choice (adter weighing the options and consulting with those they trust) how to treat the depression that haunts them. Like I said before, suicide was the option I had chosen before ECT, and I agreed to try something else for my family. I'm glad I did try the something else. But if my opinion of that choice changes, I still have the suicide option. The stats on the number of suicides pre versus post ECT are meaningless. Maybe all of those post-ECT suicides would have been pre-ECT suicides if the ECT option hadn't been there. Maybe ECT should just BE an option for those standing at that critical crossroad: suicide or ECT. Maybe it should be administered less often. Those are public policy questions that are not only beyond my reach, they are well outside of the purpose of my blog.
I'm not walking the streets with a picket sign advocating ECT or anythying else. I'm living my life and reporting how that life is progressing through and after ECT. Apparently, you ARE taking up the cause of ridding the free world of the ECT option for treatment of depression. Good for you. You go, brother. But if reading MY blog, which was written for MY purposes and to which you were never invited in the first place, bothers you so damned much, then DON'T FUCKING READ IT. I didn't come to you and push my opinion on you. You came to me and asked my opinion. You got my opinions. If writing a blog for my own purposes and about myself makes me a selfish boor, then it does. Ignore the thousands of dollars I raise for The Children's Hospital Psychiatric Services group through find-raising events and ignore the 3 marathons (out of the 6 that I've run) that I have run to raise money for the fight against leukemia, and forget the other things I have done in my community for others. Label me selfish for writing about myself for myself because I KNEW my memory was going to be disturbed. But remember, you came looking for me. I won't lose any sleep over your short-sighted opinion. But if you don't like what you found when you came looking for me, if you don't like what I have to say, too damned bad. Go looking further for something that says what you want to hear.
posted by DeMental at 11:17 AM
4 Comments:
Look back to your posts of 5 and 6 December (and the link in the 5 December post) for Peggy Salters' case and your comments about the jury.
About Peggy Salters' case - look back to your posts of 5 and 6 December.
Would the ECT doctor who is willing to admit that ECT she has administered has caused permanent disability be willing to be interviewed for an article I am writing?
She is the first and only ECT doctor in history, to my knowledge, who has admitted that she has harmed a patient.
I don't know if she realizes how extraordinary this is.
Is she willing to admit this publicly?
I do know she could have a booming business in writing disability evaluations!
Have you actually seen the report your ECT psychiatrist has written for SSDI?
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