“For most of my adult life, I have been trying so many different ways to cope with depression and the demons of my past that still haunt me. I have been on multiple medications, seen multiple therapists and psychiatrists, and read every self-help book I could find. None of these attempts to heal would change my life the way that TMS did—and not for the better.
Since November 2019, I have been struggling with depression to the point of making suicide attempts leading to hospitalizations. I was at the point of going to an inpatient facility or trying something new that might help me. I was definitely at the end of my rope. Earlier that year, my psychologist had suggested that I get in contact with a psychiatrist she had met who was working in the field of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). He had a private clinic and she had just toured his facility.
So I talked the idea over with some friends and family and decided that I would try TMS and do all I could to make the treatment work for me. I even went so far as to take a loan from someone close to me to cover the cost of the treatments and the drive to and from the clinic, a three hours-plus round trip. I have always been a realist, but this technique sounded like it might help me, and I felt myself becoming almost hopeful for positive results.
I had my first appointment with the psychiatrist, during which he performed an extensive background interview resulting in his approving me for treatment. He said that I had a high chance of seeing great results and told me the side-effects were so minimal that he’d felt confident allowing his own daughter to become his first patient. After doing TMS, she had had a huge decrease in depression and anxiety, he said. I agreed to start the sessions on a Thursday and so I set up an appointment for the mapping session, during which they would identify the section of my brain where they would target the treatment and determine the level at which it would be applied.”
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