By systematically targeting electroconvulsive therapy as part of its war on psychiatry, experts say Scientology could decimate a treatment that is “saving so many lives.”
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The Atlantic’s 2001 article explained that ECT [Electroconvulsive therapy] had emerged from a terrifying past to become a safe and effective treatment for some of the worst effects of serious mental illnesses. But Scientology, through its campaigns and by pushing legislation, was promoting outdated myths about the procedure for a public that knew little about it.
Miscavige’s November 3 speech illustrated that Scientology is still pushing this agenda more than 20 years later—but with one big difference.
While Scientology has continued to campaign against ECT on various fronts, it has pursued a little known but very effective strategy against ECT’s most vulnerable spot: Namely, the two small companies that manufacture the devices that physicians use during the procedure.
For decades, Scientology has quietly waged a litigation war against those two companies, SigmaStim and Somatics, and it has both nearly on the ropes.
Scientology knows that if the two companies go out of business, federal regulations mandate that doctors will no longer be able to use their devices, and ECT will become unavailable in this country and around the world.
Those medical providers say that ECT is a safe procedure that is saving lives every day, and they are extremely concerned that it is nearly on the brink of disappearing—and only because of the relentless attacks of Scientology on the device manufacturers, a war that has flown completely under the radar until now.
ECT is not a treatment for anxiety, unfortunately. I’ve seen it work wonders for severe depression, mania, and catatonia, but never for anxiety.
Sometimes I’ve seen ECT being used as a “last resort” treatment for people with issues that can only be treated with psychotherapy, like PTSD or borderline personality disorder, but who have been unwilling or unable to do the work over the course of years and the doctors are lost on where to go next. In these cases ECT is almost universally a failure and the side effects are not worth it.
For someone in a manic episode or who’s experiencing catatonia, some memory loss is a small trade to have your life back.
It is, or at least was, a controversial treatment for anxiety. And my grandma was drug seeking. She just wanted to be bombed out of her mind on Xanax, so I can even see looking for other treatment options out of desperation because nothing worked the way she wanted and they wouldn’t give her enough Xanax.
I get it. It was just hard to watch her after her treatments. At first the memories came back, but eventually they didn’t.
But that’s just my experience. I’m not going to argue with medical science because even if future science shows mistakes were made, it’s not like I have the knowledge or experience to do better. But science grows by being challenged and proving itself or being proven wrong. I’m okay with it being challenged by actual professionals - not by Scientologists.
Lots of medical treatments are improperly applied due to a physician’s poor clinical judgment, and it sounds like that’s what happened in this case. Sorry this happened to your grandma