from my TMS workbook

I’m still feeling pretty good today– I’ve been smiling, I put on a tiny bit of makeup, I’ve helped Wren with school, I’ve completed a lot of my TMS homework. But then I read this IN MY WORKBOOK, which I find really disheartening and wonder why they would even include it.

The image above is a mantra that i’ve been telling myself this week. Having the diagnosis of Treatment Resistant Depression is already disheartening, and more often than not, treatments do not work for us, so even as a naturally optimistic person, this kind of guts me. I just have to keep repeating to myself that even if TMS doesn’t work for me, it DOES NOT mean that other options are unavailable, and that I will be unable to reach remission.

Here is what my workbook says:

“If you are reading this section of the workbook, you and your team are grieving the fact that TMS has not gotten you well. It is very disappointing when something you have invested in and worked for does not work. Medical treatment is no different.

In the research trials, approximately 30% of patients received no benefit from TMS treatment. In private practice, somewhere between 10-20% of severely depressed patients do not find relief with TMS therapy. While that means most patients do find that they get better or well, achieving remission is not something every patient reaches.

It is common to taper care even if you are not achieving response from the treatment because sometimes during the taper phase patients achieve remission. If you have only gotten 30 treatments, and are starting to taper, we hope that you will talk to your clinician, technician, and insurer about extending care as there is evidence from two large double-blind sham-controlled studies, and one other study that shows that extending care further does get more, 50-61% more, patients into remission.

We hope that you and your clinician will fight for more TMS treatments if your clinician thinks that you will respond or remit or if you are showing signs of improving. If you don’t get well with TMS, please remember that there is still HOPE, and it is a realistic hope.

Treating depression is sometimes difficult, but it is never impossible. As we stated earlier in the workbook, you can find the treatment that works for you, if you do not give up trying to find it. TMS is a great treatment, but, unfortunately, we do not know how to treat everyone to remission as yet.

There are many other treatments to relieve depression and if your doctor is out of ideas at any point, please get a consultation from their colleague or another expert. You need the best you can find; you need a specialist for treatment resistant depression”.