Ed Scheinman, a senior editor at Smithsonian magazine, has written a memoir about his lifelong struggle with depression. He dated the start of his depression to when he was three years old. He tried many treatments, including therapy and drugs, but nothing seemed to help until he tried electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
Scheinman underwent ECT at the age of 35, after he had reached a very low point in his life. He describes the treatment as his only hope and the journey towards it as a travelogue. ECT involves an electric current passing through the brain, triggering a brief seizure and the release of neurohormones and neurotransmitters.
Scheinman’s memoir, Jolt: My Electric Journey Out of Darkness, details his journey from toddlerhood to the point in 2020 when he referred himself for ECT. He describes the treatment as a black box, but he knows that over the five months of mostly outpatient treatments, his illness began to improve. He feels more himself than he has felt in years and most of his days pass without depression.
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