A controversial treatment saved her life.
(BETH JERMAN)
I have three children and a wonderful husband, but depression runs in my family, and I have it big time.
I can't complain about the care I got during my worst years. I was on 10 to 12 medications at a time, but I couldn't function with them or without them. I gained weight and went on disability. I never once made my children breakfast or sent them off to school. While I never thought my husband would leave me, I did fear he would have me committed to a state institution.
There wasn't anything out there that could help me, so we considered electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), but I saw the people who had it in the hospital. They would come back from treatment and could not remember anything. They would sit there and repeat the same thing over and over again. I didn't want that.
About 2-1/2 years ago I tried to commit suicide by swallowing a bottle of Benadryl. My husband said, "That's it," and told my psychiatrist he wanted me to try vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), which had never been attempted in our state. My psychiatrist was like, "What have you got to lose?" I was desperate to get better.
