u/Frenchcassette291

Probably a tedious post but I’m a bit anxious about this. I had my 14th session today and have noticed no changes, good or bad. I thought this was relatively normal based on everything I read - but the doctor at my clinic is asking me PHQ-9 questions almost every (daily!) session and seems concerned that i’m not noticing anything yet. They added on a couple minutes to the right side for my anxiety, and today when I went in they switched up the pattern of the zaps because I’m not yet responding. Still nothing.

Does this mean it doesn’t or won’t work for me? For those who TMS DID work for, did you notice gradual improvement or did it come later? Starting to feel like my brain is truly broken.

Probably a tedious post but I’m a bit anxious about this. I had my 14th session today and have noticed no changes, good or bad. I thought this was relatively normal based on everything I read - but the doctor at my clinic is asking me PHQ-9 questions almost every (daily!) session and seems concerned that i’m not noticing anything yet. They added on a couple minutes to the right side for my anxiety, and today when I went in they switched up the pattern of the zaps because I’m not yet responding. Still nothing.

Does this mean it doesn’t or won’t work for me? For those who TMS DID work for, did you notice gradual improvement or did it come later? Starting to feel like my brain is truly broken.

Ok so before anyone throws a tomato at my head, hear me out. I was doing research on this sub — just started treatment — and found a few mentions where people indicated their doctor/or provider suggested doing/thinking something positive during and/or 30 minutes after treatment. I was skeptical, but then the doctor at the TMS clinic told me he encourages patients to “visualize success” during treatment as he’s found it can positively impact the outcome. As an alternative, he suggested a calming playlist — apparently with ongoing depression, your brain can get stuck in “fight v flight” mode which increases adrenaline/can generally makes you feel anxious or run down.
I was STILL skeptical, but then my psychiatrist also said she’s found TMS patients who approach the treatment with hope and positivity have better outcomes.

I’ve had major treatment resistant depressive disorder for over 15 years, since I was a teen. I know damn well you can’t think your way out of moderate to severe depression. That being said, TMS increases neuroplasticity, allowing your brain to kind of rewire itself in places (the short non-scientific version). I’m wondering if they’re suggesting these things to help you “rewire” and create new neural pathways — which actually kind of makes sense.

Does anyone else have experience with this, or have a doctor/provider who’s said something similar?