In 1982, a young nurse was suffering from severe, unrelenting depression.
She couldn't work, socialize, or even concentrate well enough to read the newspaper.
One treatment changed everything.
After two courses of electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, her symptoms lifted.
She went back to work, then on to graduate school, where she earned high grades.
At first, she talked openly about her life changing treatment.
But as she realized many people had an extremely negative impression of ECT, she stopped sharing her experience.
ECT carried a deep stigma, leftover from a history that bears little resemblance to the modern procedure.
The therapy was first used in medicine in 1938.
In its early years, doctors administered a strong electrical current to the brain, causing a whole-body seizure during which patients might bite their tongues or even break bones.
