My therapist wants me to look into alternatives to meds and therapy for my treatment resistant depression. Would love to hear from anyone who has treatment resistant depression what works for them and/or experience with ketamine (medical not recreational), transcranial magnetic stimulation, and/or EMDR.

My depression has really creeped up on me this time, it's mostly anhedonia and I swear that's almost worse than "just" having the blues.

i started to do TMS last year but my insurance decided to screw up catastrophically so i never got to complete it... the process wasn't bad at all tho

Exacerangutan : how many sessions did you get? Did you notice any improvement?

uhh like 7 or 8 i think? it's hard to say, really... maybe, but i was just getting up to therapeutic level iirc

Exacerangutan : Thanks for your input! I'm sorry your insurance screwed things up.

yeah i'd definitely have continued if not for that

liking just to look bad and see what people suggested!

um. look BACK. lol!

My brother-in-law whose depression was not helped by Haldol or Paxil (he was in the studies) or any other therapy found short-term relief from Electro-Convulsive Therapy. It was painful and the good effect only lasted about a week. I think it is the treatment of desperation, though.

If you can acquire mushrooms, they're a lot better than ketamine imo for CPTSD at least. EMDR was fucking STELLAR for my CPTSD/Depression though. And hypnotherapy. Yes, over the years, it wasn't as effective perhaps? But frankly I wanted change, I needed change, I was willing to try ANYTHING!

In the course about 6-12 months of pretty high intensity hypnotherapy and EMDR though, I think I came out SIGNIFICANTLY more "functioning" than when I went in. It has been 2-3 years since that and I'm still doing better than ever. It really ushered in a golden age of my mental health frankly. I haven't had suicidal idealation in years.

Between that and Vyvanse (continued to this day), I don't know if I'd have survived those years otherwise.

I was going weekly for 6 months and twice a month for 6, alternating sessions with EMDR and Hypnotherapy

(((Cajsa))) : Anke : Ty for sharing!

I did EMDR and I couldn't tell if it was working or not. I had a hard time getting into it. I also have a hard time with meditation.

Mostly Phen : how many sessions did you have?

OhCecilia : I don't remember exactly but it was probably more than 6.

I felt like my 4th EMDR appointment is about when I felt a lot more positive and less apprehensive about the process. I honestly was not convinced it wasn't just bs at first, but frankly I was willing to buy into anything short of religion at that point.

Anhedonia is a really terrible feeling. I'm sorry it's going on so long. I wish I had some good advice about how I got past it, but I'm not always sure I did. And any progress I made was linked to big changes in my life moreso than medication (which I needed in order to make the big changes.) ie divorce, repatriating, moving somewhere sunnier.

But ilu and I'm sorry you are struggling. That's mostly all I wanted to say. Hang in there. <3

Mmw Strangelove : thank you. I think my life situation has to change tbh but I’m at a loss on how to make the changes I need given my health struggles. I’m just hoping that maybe I find a treatment that may give me the clarity I need to figure something out.

Yeah, the stuff I couldn't change was always the hardest. I really am glad you have chances to explore this stuff and hope some of it helps. You're working so hard on it, something will surely result in progress eventually.

is all I’ve got