shrink said my depression was too severe to bother with TMS... so, there's that. apparently you can be too sick for this medicine? :/
Your shrink may be right but I think it's slightly unprofessional for him to dismiss it on your behalf: even in 2019 and for a few more years, we won't know
exactly antidepressants/psychotics work. They just do (for those who it works on; obviously some people are unfortunate that none of the ones on the market do).
Same with this.
You might be too depressed but if your insurance covers it, try it anyway. In a very insignificant way, you can at least say you tried virtually everything and nothing worked so the toxic, pro-life deniers have less "ammo" to use against you.
@NotForThisWorld
Try it if it's affordable: I was fortunate to get this pricey procedure covered.
I wasn't a panacea/miracle cure for me but it was temporarily effective in making me feel a little better.
The doc where I did TMS, of course, gave me anecdotal evidence of 1 patient who responded super positively after 1 session ( if approved, you go though 35-40 sessions intensively: 5-6x a week until you hit 35-40): she couldn't explain the why but she had a gut feeling of "everything is going to be fine" after years of horrible anxiety and depression.
I have heard similar anecdotes online.
That's at the very best outcome.
The worst outcome is the side affects which is nothing like ECT where the worst is sizable memory loss: with TMS you may be unlikely to get a mild seizure. The literature out there states that, as of as of 2019, >90 times/100 that happens when it's a combination of the intensity starting too high and bad placement.
If the TMS is reputable, they would take it very slowly so that they eliminate seizure occurrence 99% of the time ie you have to really bad luck and genetics to get TMS induced seizure.
I'm middle of the road. I didn't feel as if life was sunshine, peaches, and puppies after the treatment (that's actually rarely reported: it's not like TMS suddenly opens the floodgates and dopamine/endorphins are constant abundance) but I did get that same sense of "everything is alright" like that anecdote I mentioned earlier.
That lasted strong for 3-4 months after 36 sessions for me. The next 3-4 it wasn't as noticeable but still there. After that I went to get a "maintained" but doing a session 5x for 1 week so that it goes back up (many do this; it's just a question of when. Some don't need one until years later, some sooner, some like me).
I "should" have went after 4 months because I think it would have kept it (near) perpetually strong. Going back 8-10 months to get maintenance didn't help much so I just gave up on that.
ANYHOW,
If only because there's a decent chance (unlike medication) there are some semi-permanent gains, please try. With how miserable this reality is, if a decent option exists out there (TMS, ketamine, psychedelics, etc), I always recommend. Life is too miserable to stay miserable
The disclaimer was that TMS did was that they highly recommended you do TMS while also doing intensive CBT/DBT/whatever therapy. Combined, TMS and therapy has a very high efficacy even for treatment resistant individuals like me.
Good luck