Muriel Schmidt* will never forget her first electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT for short. She was taken to a dark basement room and restrained there; no one spoke to her and she did not understand what was happening. That was in 2003, when the then 23-year-old was in a serious mental crisis for months after attempting suicide. After all medications failed to bring any improvement, she was given ECT treatment. She agreed, and she also agreed with the restraint. “Still, it was terrible,” she says. But the ECT worked, the thoughts of self-harm disappeared, and a few weeks later she was able to go home again.
