01/07/2022
This looks like a useful piece of kit where can you get it Amazon maybe or Lazada perhaps?
I’m better now but the pulling out of the quicksand of depression is so slow, it’s faster to
watch your hair grow. Last time this happened to me about twelve years ago it took months
to return to who I used to be, this time, it took only weeks. Here’s how I pulled out of being
part of the walking dead, there’s a new piece of machinery called rTMS (repetitive
transcranial magnetic stimulation.) If you would have told me five years ago something like
it existed, I’d think you had watched too much sci-fi. rTMS is unlike ECT (standing for
electroconvulsive therapy), which is the ‘last saloon’ treatment for those who don’t
respond to medication. With ECT they knock you out, put a bit between your teeth so you
don’t bite off your tongue and let the voltage rip. Electric currents bring on a small seizure
which hopefully changes the brain chemistry. In other words you’re fried and even worse there is a good chance that there might be short term memory loss. Not good for any human being who wants to remember their name.
The repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulator doesn’t use electricity, it uses a magnetic
pulse that whacks your neurons into action, like rebooting a stalled car. It works on 60% of
patients with depression, OCD and a few other mental disorders and thank you Jesus, I was
in that 60%.
They put something that looks like a 50’s hair dryer on your head and then the banging begins.
It feels like Woody Woodpecker has been let loose on the left side of your head and
is having a hay day. Those magnets are pounding you at around 36 times every few seconds,
up to 55 times. That’s about 1,980 whacks to recalibrate your brain (not pleasant).
I’ve had twenty sessions and a reshuffle of meds and who would have dreamt it, I’m almost
human again. I can almost smile, which is an impossibility during the dark nights of the
mental knives. There are only a handful of places in the UK that offer treatment using this piece of
equipment because mental illness is probably lowest on the list when it comes to taking a
disease seriously. To me it’s actually the most serious because a sick brain is usually the
underlying cause of most physical diseases.
But we know about the stigma blah blah blah... and not enough is being done about it. That’s why with mental illness, forget getting the right help, forget getting the right meds, forget a bed in a hospital, forget seeing a psychiatrist - so really why would they bother making this magical piece of equipment available to the measly 1 in 4?
I will continue to fight the fight.