Treatment spotlight: Tahira’s journey with Electroconvulsive Therapy
We are launching a brand new video series highlighting the journeys of our patients and service users.
In 2024, Tahira came to the Mother and Baby Unit at Bethlem Royal Hospital under a mental health section after experiencing a number of mental health symptoms. Both Tahira and her mother, Sarah, kindly spoke to us about her journey a few days before her discharge.
During her time with us Tahira underwent six sessions of electroconvulsive therapy over several weeks. Both Tahira and Sarah believe this had a big impact on her recovery and has helped to get her to where she is today.
We asked Tahira about how much she felt that ECT impacted her overall recovery. She said:
It played a big part. I don’t know how big, and I don’t know if it was a combination of time, and medication but, it has made an impact on my recovery with medication keeping me topped up. Now I’m feeling a lot better than I did before. It’s not something I’d want to go through again but I’m glad I went through it.
ECT is an effective treatment used for some types of severe mental illness and is usually only considered when other treatment options have not been successful or when someone is very unwell and needs urgent treatment.
The therapy takes place while the person is under general anaesthetic. Following this, the brain is stimulated with short electric pulses which causes a brief surge of electrical activity in the brain, more commonly understood as a seizure. This releases brain chemicals which can stimulate the growth of areas in the brain that often shrink with depression and other severe mental illnesses.
Initially, Sarah felt very nervous about her daughter undergoing this treatment. She said:
After the third session, I saw the improvement and a difference in her. After the treatment she went straight to look for her son when before, she didn’t want to see him at all. And that was the point I said to myself that she will be alright.
We wish Tahira the best in her future and thank her so much for sharing her experiences with us!
Click now to watch the full video.
