ECT Isn’t Like in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Ted Scheinman Tells What It Is Like.

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is not the first place to turn if you’re experiencing symptoms of major depressive disorder. Any doctor would want you to try talk therapy, medications, just about anything else before turning to a treatment that runs an electrical current through your brain, causing a generalized convulsion. That said, the treatment, if it comes to that, is very effective, with a batting average much higher than any most other methods of treating depression. Ted Scheinman, senior editor at Smithsonian, was at the end of his rope when he opted into the treatment. Unlike Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ted’s experience was not torture. It certainly wasn’t a day at the beach but it was fine. And the results were astonishing with Ted’s appetite, sense of humor, and overall outlooks on life improving steadily and significantly. His memoir about his experience is Jolt: My Electric Journey Out of Darkness.

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