Full list of topics 
Spacer
Spacer
Spacer
Spacer
Spacer

DepressionArrow
Age 65+
Interview 01  

Interview 01

Age at Interview: 75
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 35
Background: A former brewer, feels he was probably depressed even as a child. He has had a number of bouts of depression and currently has cancer.
Brief outline:Treatments have included ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy), hospitalisation, talking therapies, lithium and medication. He was on a preventative, low dose of Zoloft (sertraline 100mg/day) due to his wife's death.


To watch or read an interview clip, click on the heading that interests you. Either a video,audio recording or text will open, depending on the clip
To close transcript boxes, click here
To print the interview’s text, click here
He 'swallowed his tongue' during ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) and had to try to alert the anaesthetists, and lost memory of a holiday and work practices.

 



I think I had about 20 sessions. And I would come out of it with a splitting headache, and no memory. Couldn't remember where I lived, and how I was going to get home. But my wife was there, and she took me home. And one day it was rather a terrifying experience because in order to have the treatment, as I said I had a general anaesthetic. And they would give curare to relax the muscles and so forth. 

And so I was strapped onto a trolley, and up round my feet and waist and chest and my arms at the side. And then I was in that state, with two anaesthetists who stood by me talking about something I don't remember what. And I swallowed my tongue and I couldn't move or shout, so I thought 'I'm going to die if these two don't soon notice what's happening'. 

So I moved my body as much as I could and hit the one of them with the trolley, and they were terribly apologetic and asked me if I wanted to go on with it. And I did, but ever since then I've had quite a lot of surgery. And I always ask the anaesthetist to be careful not to let that happen again. 

So that period then I was taking quite a lot of anti-depressants drugs as well and I was off work for about 6 weeks…. 6 months, I mean 6 months. When I went back to work I had no recollection of what had happened while I was away. And I knew the job well enough to go on doing it, but my memory was bad so…

While I was off, we went on holiday. And to this day I have no recollection of where we went or what happened or anything. So that was a bit frightening. And then I was determined to go back and do the job so my memory was affected by this time so I got into the habit of carrying a note book and putting everything down that I'd to do. And so to all intents and purposes, I was back to normal, or I felt I was.
Support our work

healthtalkonline.org - Teaching and Learning

Mail to a friend

Send