r/TMSTherapy

I had my usual appointment with my psychiatrist today to go over how I've been feeling since our last session. Right now, her and I both agree that I am "stable." I have major depression, anxiety, ADHD and bipolar. In total, I'm on 9 different medications including zepbound for medication related weight gain. My family is concerned about all the side effects this medication can do to me. Today, my psychiatrist recommended TMS as an option to help potentially reduce the amount of medication I need. Personally, I like the way I feel now. I feel stable and safe but I also dont like having to take 8 pills a day just to function properly. Should I consider TMS if my insurance will cover it? What are the potential side effects and risks? What are my options if it doesn't work?

EDIT: Forgot to add list "anxiety" as something I was diagnosed with

hi everyone
much like us all i had a very trauma abuse filled relationship for 5 years
been broken up for a little over 2 years but i am struggling like it was yesterday

does anyone have experience with TMS therapy?

Please refrain from commenting that you had bad expierence etc in looking for positive exp..

29M and I just came to this board to discuss with anyone who has been the hellish experience that is DTs. I've never met anyone at groups who has also been through them and would like to speak to someone who has. I'm happy to talk about my experience too.

I’m considering TMS for depression/OCD, but I’ve seen a few posts on Reddit from people saying they experienced hair loss or a bald/thinning spot around the treatment area.

From what I’ve read, hair loss isn’t considered a recognized side effect of TMS, and studies don’t seem to show a clear connection. But seeing these personal reports still makes me concerned.

For anyone who has done TMS, did you notice any hair loss or thinning? If so, did your hair eventually grow back?

Hi, I am on my 5th week of theta burst (3 minutes everyday). I will worse than ever. I am also going through menopause, so I don’t know if TMS is good enough to deal with my menopausal depression. I feel so defeated. Anyone feel better after the sixth and final week?

I am on 34 sessions of tms. I've done 16 of the treatments on right side too. If you've done TMS, did you see most of the anxiety relief toward the end or in the weeks after. Please, only positive experiences. Thank you.

I’m 2-3 months out of TMS and so far I’m feeling decent. I hope I don’t slowly slip back into depression in the next few months and I’m hoping that I can ride the therapeutic effects of TMS for the next few years.

Could this be a one and done therapy for some people?

i feel like a lot of the posts i see on this sub are very negative, but for anyone out there who’s on the fence about TMS, please please please give it a shot!

i have ten sessions left in my first round of treatment, i started in early july, and i have been completely free of any suicidal ideation and panic attacks for one month as of today! i have energy and an appreciation for life like i haven’t had in years. i feel like someone who is seeing the world in color for the first time. i am forever in debt to my mental health team for proposing TMS therapy (and my insurance for approving it lol)

This is a followup to my post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/TMSTherapy/comments/1urc23r/winning_the_lottery_nobody_wants_to_win_i_had_a/

I'll go ahead and start out by saying there's still no real conclusion about why I had the seizure, which is why I have waited so long to post any sort of an update on this. I really wanted to be able to tell you all for certain if it was, or was not, caused by TMS. At this point it seems like it's still going to be a while...

So I had the seizure on a Wednesday afternoon. By Friday morning I got in to see a Neurologist. The Neurologist said he didn't think the seizure was caused by TMS, his feelings were that I must have some underlying condition, and TMS simply aggravated that condition, which led to the seizure. One of his points was that I had completed 30 prior TMS sessions without a seizure. He also said he thinks if I'm going to have another seizure, it's going to be soon. Oh boy, let me tell ya, it's great living your life thinking you might have a seizure at any second. I have been having to take all kinds of precautions, like not grilling food or using the front stove burners, in case I seize up and end up face down with my face cooking.

He also informed me I am legally required to stop driving for the next 6 months. It turns out most states have laws where you cannot drive for a period of time after your first seizure, I think most are 6 or 12 months. Mine is 6. So that was great news. I haven't driven anywhere in over a month now.

I had an EEG done the following Monday. Pretty interesting, they had a bunch of actual bedrooms in this office with normal household beds. Apparently for some tests they have patients sleep there overnight. In my case they only tested me for about half an hour, since it's all the Neurologist ordered. They flashed some lights in front of my face and then had me lay there for a while. I got the results a couple days later, and nothing abnormal was observed in my EEG data.

Now for the brain MRI... This took forever!!! The Neurology office has their own MRI machine and insisted I get it done there, but they did not have any available appointments for an entire month after I had the seizure. I finally got that done a couple weeks ago... Nothing abnormal was observed.

So at this point it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with my brain, nothing that would cause seizures anyway 😁 Someone from the Neurology office called me to tell me the MRI was normal, and she said if I had any questions for the Neurologist, I could ask him at my next follow-up appointment... Which isn't until January!!! I told her I desperately wanted to talk to him sooner, since I'm still living my life thinking I might have a seizure any second. Like at this point does he even think the seizure was caused by anything other than TMS? She said she would try to get me in sooner and would get back to me... A couple days later she called me, and the earliest she could sneak me in still isn't until early October 🤬

That's all the news I have until I can finally see the Neurologist. I do have a little more info to add that wasn't on my original post though, since I wasn't thinking very straight when I made that post. Your brain doesn't just bounce back after having a seizure, and I was struggling hard for a while after it. The first week was rough, and it still took me another couple of weeks to feel like I was back to normal again. I would get confused over the simplest things, and I would get mentally exhausted so easily. Working from home, and most days I was mentally drained by like 1pm and would have to call it quits for the day and go lay down.

So a big thing I neglected to mention on my original post was how poorly trained some of the staff were at the TMS clinic, and they were very inconsistent with the coil placement, depending on who was working that day. A couple of the TMS techs only filled in as needed, it wasn't something they did every day. Plenty of sessions I would get hooked up and have to ask the part-time techs to try to adjust the coil because it didn't feel like it normally did. After 30 sessions I knew exactly where the coil should have been tapping on my skull, so it was easy to tell it was off. There would also be other effects like twitching or pain in places I didn't normally feel them. And also the coil just feeling really weak when it didn't seem it was lined up right.

On the day of the seizure, the tech working was someone very new and part-time. She had only run my TMS sessions 3 times prior. I had her stop to try to adjust the coil a couple of times, and right before the seizure happened she was actually moving it while the machine was running. I think she had it stationary for a short while before the seizure happened, maybe 15 seconds, maybe 30? Maybe longer? I truly can't remember it well enough to say, but she was still standing there in front of me when the seizure started, so it couldn't have been very long. This was also something I think I neglected to mention to the Neurologist, I can't remember half of what I even told the Neurologist because my brain was still fried that day. This is also a huge reason I want to meet with him again ASAP.

So my current feeling is that TMS caused the seizure, but it likely could have only been because of the high (135%) intensity combined with the coil zapping my brain multiple places other than the place it should have been zapping me. I'm not entirely sure what the odds are of having a seizure from the coil zapping you somewhere other than your prefrontal cortex, but it has to be a factor. I'm also dying to get the Neurologist to weigh in on that.

Meanwhile I really can't say if TMS helped me at all. The seizure really threw a huge wrench into my life and I haven't been feeling very good because of it. Truly not the outcome I wanted from this, and obviously I never would have done TMS if I had known this was going to happen. I'm considering doing Spravato, but definitely not at the same clinic that was giving me TMS. I also can't drive until January, so that doesn't help the situation.

I’m about a month since my last treatment (Brainwave, deep TMS, 36 sessions, 5 times a week then tapered). I came into this tentatively hopeful, but honestly, just willing to try just about anything because I react so strongly and weirdly to every little ssri med shift (and my current meds stopped working).

Unlike a lot of people I had a positive impact almost immediately. I was really tired after my first session and on and off after a lot of sessions, but otherwise didn’t really have any side effects. I was gentle with myself and gave myself permission to just rest and vibe whenever I could and felt I needed to (which for someone with anxiety and an overachieving complex, is quite hard it turns out…)

I had some headaches and migraines but not any more than I normally do. No way to really know if they were related. One really bad one but again, I get about one bad one a year anyway.

When I started, I was more depressed than I have ever been. I basically hadn’t left my house or talked to anyone for months beyond very short spurts. I’d lost interest in everything and even stopped caring about work and whether I would get into trouble if I stopped doing work (again, basically unheard of for me. My anxiety is normally strong enough to convince me to work, and I genuinely love what I do.)

By the first week, I was doing some work again. By the third, I was doing some hobbies. By the end of treatments, I was less depressed than I had been in 10 years.

I felt so good I asked to go off my ssri and my psych agreed. I am still tapering that (I had 150 mg of Zoloft and have to taper slowly since I react so much). I have had more weird side effects during this period by far, but not much depression. More loss of appetite and occasional anxiety spurts. No idea if I will end up off them or not but I start my 50 mg dose next week so I am cautiously hopeful!

I know I came here a lot to decide if I should try TMS, so I am posting in case it helps someone else. I can’t emphasize enough how much this has helped me. I had to pay the whole thing out of pocket because US insurance is a dystopian nightmare, but it was 100% worth it for me. (Though to be clear, I could go this while paying essential bills still because of savings. I am not saying it would have been worth missing rent.)

I feel more like me than I have since college. It’s WILD but in the very best way.

No idea if my depression is “cured” or in temporary remission or if it’s just on holiday but I am so thankful I have this weird ass treatment a shot.

Happy to answer anything I can!

Hi everyone.

My wife is sufering with FND and now its becoming a major issue.

Her seizures started last year again after not having them for some time and they went to one a day to two and more.

She cant walk now as her legs are weak.

She also have pcos

She was on different medications for depresion and anxiety and now the doctor put her on lithium.

I am trying my best to cope with situation and to give support but i am becoming desperate.

Can people who are going tru same situation have any advice?

I told her many times that OT,Emdr, and psyhytrhrist are must thing to do but for now she is only talking with her psyhytrist.

Im trying everything in my power to lift her and help her in any way possible but sometimes i do not see the light of end of the tunnel.

Have anyone tried the tms therapy with fnd?

Did it help if you did?

Any reccomndation that help you in your recovery would be helpful for me to know.

Thank you

Hello Internet friends (:

I am seeking reassurance and advice for managing symptoms from TMS treatment while managing a chronic illness

A year ago I suddenly became disabled. My doctors accused me of lying and abandoned me. I got diagnosed with POTS and hypermobility in February, and after months of experimentation I started making real strides in my improvement with Propranolol 60 mg ER. Before TMS, I could bike every day, walk a mile, and even do mentally taxing work. Yay!! I even beat my depression — while I dealt with bouts of shame and negative thinking overall I was pretty happy.

That is, until I started TMS 2 weeks ago. Now …
* I am exhausted. I can’t wake up on time. It takes hours to crawl at a bed. I can’t sit upright in a chair. I can’t leave my apartment. I feel awful
* My mood has tanked. I cry randomly. My thoughts are 100x more negative. I hate myself. I want to give up. I was so happy before TMS started. I’m miserable now.

This is brutal.

1. Is this normal?
2. I stick it out. Right? I just keep going.

It seems that after 17 sessions, my moods have worsen. I am dealing with constant rumination, irritability, anger, snapping a minor things, cursing constantly. Doctor remapped the protocol to less frequencies and intensities. I was doing 3 times a week and next week I will be at 2 sessions. I need a lot of resting between sessions. I am taking life too dam serious and I am not feeling any improvement. My doctor, however, believed I am more calmer and relaxed by the way I communicate. He went on to say that if feels the treatment is working based on my emotions are behaving. I understand there is a dip, but I feel this treatment is unsafe and dangerous someway. I live alone, 57 yrs old, anhedonic, and don't have anyone near to me to report feedback or changes.

I’m at the end of my robe. Does anybody here is familiar with this Spravato provider?

They won’t file an appeal for more treatments. It is now 3 weeks of only one treatment per week and I feel more depressed than I ever was in my whole life.

This week I told them I want to see Psychiatrist who signed me up cause I’m not doing well. They told me he is not my Psychiatrist even though in first session guy claimed he is going to take me off my psych meds in 6 months.That confused me even more cause I was convinced he was my Psych. Than they told me all other patients in there have their own Psychiatrists. What is going on?!

Than on their company page I found out this Psych does not take ANY insurance only CASH. Also they filed ALL my Medicare claims for Spravato sessions with his name. Mind you they are allowed to file claims under any company name. I feel like they don’t care.

What can I do in this situation? I don’t have luxury on Medicare and LA Care Medi-Cal to hop providers. Also frankly I am almost suicidal right now considering I was doing so well on 2 treatments.

Clinic said it would take 10-15 days for insurance to approve but it was done in 3. First appointment in a month from now to get a current reading of my brain.

It's primarily for depression and residual OCD symptoms. But I also made sure to give my full ass psychiatric history, specific goals I wish to achieve, and what my concerns are. Clinic I'm with was even recommended by my psychiatrist so I know I'm in good hands.

I want my life back and hopefully this is the first step towards that.

I’m sharing my experience, maybe it will give someone some hope.

I have been depressed since I was 14 years old, I couldn’t even remember ever feeling different. I’ve tried over 20 different medications, including ketamine, to no avail. I decided to try TMS as a last ditch effort, but I didn’t really think it would work, and had originally had plans to end it once the 36 sessions were done.

In weeks 1 and 2, I only noticed some strange rage episodes and a few headaches. In weeks 3 and 4, I noticed nothing at all. Next thing I know, we’re at session 30 and I ask the sweet woman (I don’t actually know her title, I just now realized that) how my score has changed since the beginning. She told me it had gone down (from 23 to 10) and I said “really, that much?” But then it clicked, I’ve been feeling so much better, I haven’t missed work. I can get out of bed and it’s not the most difficult thing ever. I’m engaging in hobbies again. I got caught up with the semester. I would even say I’ve been more social.

I have 3 sessions left now, and I’ve read a lot of people saying it can continue to improve symptoms after you’re done. I don’t know if that will be true in my case but I am looking forward to finding out. If I have to come back in a year, in 6 months, whatever it takes, I absolutely will.

28 yo w/ ADHD-PI, PTSD, OCD, Social Anxiety, Panic Disorder, and MDD.

I've tried many, many medications without much success. SSRI's tend to simply make me feel flat w/o helping anything, while adrenergic compounds like Bupropion, ADHD stimulants, and even SNRI's tend to worsen my panic/somatic symptoms. A2A's somewhat help my anxiety, but worsen my mood/depression.

I'm at a crossroads and don't know what to do. I found an outside provider (out of network) that is open to prescribing an MAOI (Nardil/Parnate), but I also have the option of trying to get TMS/Spravato covered by my insurance (Kaiser).

Obviously, each have their drawback. It may be difficult to get TMS/Spravato covered right away, and MAOI's come with dietary and medication interactions/adjustments.

Thing is, I can't really have two psychiatrists at once (Kaiser vs out-of-network).

Thoughts?

Thank you so much 🙏 🙏

I ended up doing just 3 3-minute sessions of TMS on the left side of my head for MDD but I’m worried that it could’ve already done some permanent damage to me. The pulses would hurt inside the left part my brain. My last session was 2 days ago and I still have an ache on that side of my head and my tinnitus is worse. Each session would make me feel very irritable and even more depressed than before for at least the rest of that day. Friday a week ago was my mapping and first session. The technician that was there said she was filling in for the usual technician. Despite the papers I signed saying I needed ear plugs, she said I didn’t and that they didn’t even have any there. The machine was not loud at all so I thought it wouldn’t be a problem. But I guess the magnetic pulses, not the noise, made my tinnitus worse. The NP who did my initial consultation mapped my brain with her and then left. The technician started my first session and the first few pulses just felt like tapping on my scalp. She then turned it up, saying it works better the stronger it is, but those pulses really hurt bad. So she turned it down but it still hurt, just not as bad. She said that’s ok as long as I can bear it, and since it would only be 3 minutes, I decided to bear the pain because I really needed this to work. I had a headache on that side of my head for the rest of that day and all of Saturday even though their papers said that if I do get a headache, it shouldn’t last longer than 30 minutes. By Sunday it would come and go, but even when it stopped hurting, I would just feel something on the left side of my head. I have had a lot of headaches and migraine headaches for the last 10 weeks and whenever it’s a migraine, it’s a pounding pain in the left side of my head like it has to do with a blood vessel. They had gotten a lot less severe and frequent in the days leading up to the TMS. I told them all of these things. But this headache from the TMS felt different from those. It was just on the left side of my head but not pounding, just constant.

On Monday, the usual technician was there and she confidently said it’s not supposed to hurt. She seemed impatient and cold like she hated her job or hated me. She turned the strength down until it didn’t hurt and said that’s a very low power that would need to go up in subsequent sessions for the TMS to work. She scheduled me for a remapping on Wednesday with nothing on Tuesday. The NP was back to remap me on Wednesday and said it’s ok if it feels uncomfortable but not painful. This time he also mapped the right side of my head. They were supposed to also do TMS for OCD a couple weeks later. He left and the technician did my third session. She turned the power down until the pain was bearable. I told her it still hurt a little but this time she said that’s ok. Once again I felt very irritable and even more depressed afterwards. The teeth on the right side of my head were sensitive for a few hours after this session. My tinnitus is still worse and the left side of my head still hurts.

I’m sorry this was so long but is it normal for the TMS pulses to be painful? They sent me a lot of mixed messages about this.

Edit: I forgot to mention my body felt very tense and my arms and legs kept twitching when I tried to sleep the night after the first session.

I am on session 33/36 of TMS, and it’s been a roller coaster. I started feeling better basically after the first two sessions, then about 15 sessions in I had a dip in mood. Things got better after and since then it has felt like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. A weight I didn’t even know I was carrying. My anxiety hasn’t decreased as much as the depression but my task paralysis and worry about the future is much less prominent. I had been in such a bad place prior to starting TMS and so scared it wouldn’t work. That being said I think I am experiencing a dip again? It came out of nowhere it seems, and all the physical sensations of anxiety and the heaviness of depression seem to be back again. With only 3 TMS sessions left, I am terrified that it didn’t work and things will get bad again. Did anyone experience this “dip” at the end of their treatment?