Electromagnetic Therapy: A Personal Perspective on Battling Depression

Free archives and answering your reader questions

A large, black magnetic coil is pressed against the form-fitting cotton cap in a spot specifically measured with a tape measure and pen marks.

The right side will have 37 continuous seconds of stimulating pulses, which is my least favorite side. For whatever reason, my dosage of pulsation needs to be higher on the right and it causes my temple muscles to twitch more than the left.

The coil is moved and has about 4.5 minutes of interval pulses on my left side. Within ten minutes I had completed my daily ritual of coming into the clinic for treatment and usually say goodbye until the next time, but Friday marked my last day of TMS.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to improve symptoms of major depression.

(Source: Mayo Clinic)

Before I began searching through insurance-approved providers that dealt with matters of mental health, I had never heard of TMS.

This is deeply surprising because I have been struggling with depression for two decades (since I was 11 years old) and have spent the better part of ten years looking for ways to treat it. It’s even more disturbing to me that a treatment, that has helped change my life, was covered with insurance and had minimal side effects, has somehow evaded my attention.

I have tried therapy throughout the past decade and have taken SSRI medications. I spent my twenties self-medicating with alcohol and drugs because I couldn’t handle the darkness within me and was hospitalized for suicidal ideation at age 21. I have seen psychologists and psychiatrists as a patient and spent a brief time working in that field to gain “insider” knowledge.

In fact, I’ve written a lot about mental health and you can see all those writings here anytime.

There is a lot to cover here and I feel like the best way to navigate my experience is through answering questions asked by friends, family, and readers online. I encourage you to answer anything regarding this treatment in the comments or through email hello@chanelriggle.com

If you are new here, please know most of my newsletters stay under 6 minutes of reading time but today it a big one. I’m also making all my archives temporarily free to view for anyone who would like to look around! This ends Jan 2, 2024 at which time free subscribers only see things less than a month old. It is free to read here forever but you can get a preregistration ticket and sponsor mention by becoming a Founding member ($50 USD) for the 2024 Mental Health and Motherhood Virtual Conference for a limited time.

A photo I took crying with joy that I did this for me, that I fought for myself despite being in bed and in survival mode, and in gratitude that God helped me find help.

Did it work?

In short, yes!

OK now for the longer answer: let me talk numbers.

I went into this treatment, not skeptical, but very open-minded and unsure. From November 1st to December 29, I went in for treatment Monday-Fridays (with a few days off because of a sick child). Every Tuesday before treatment, I would take an assessment for Depression and Generalized Anxiety. When I began, my depression scores were at 23. When I took this evaluation after two months, my depression score was down to 10.

Revision update: As of April 1, 2024 my score is now a 2 in both the depression and anxiety categories. I have continued to work with a therapist that specializes in trauma.

This is incredible. For the past decade since I have taken these evaluations whenever I saw a therapist or spoke with a doctor, my score was always between 15-20. For the past decade, I have never been below a 15. Depressing, eh?

I started at 23 on the evaluation for depression. Pictured: A series of depression evaluations to show the last month of TMS treatment.

What did it feel like?

As previously mentioned, the stimulation of the magnets to the brain causes my facial muscles to twitch with the pulse. With the right side, I had a higher dosage of stimulation needed than average and it tended to cause more discomfort for me. I would describe it to be similar to a rubber band snapping on my skull. We spent the first week slowly working up to the full dosage. The left side never bothered me.

In the first session, we figured out my dosage. This looked like me sitting in a chair with one arm raised like I was going to arm wrestle a ghost. Behind me, a technician worked with the provider while they hovered a magnetic coil above my temples and called out numbers. Ultimately, their goal was to find a pulse that wouldn’t cause my fingers to twitch. They also gave me a white cotton cap to wear that had different measurements marked on it, which allowed the techs to know exactly where my skull needed to have the coil located.

It seems sketchy/dangerous. Why that instead of talk therapy?

I have tried talk therapy with different providers in the past 13 years. Three of those were great experiences that lasted 6-12 months and two other providers were a terrible fit. I currently have been seeing a fantastic trauma-informed counselor for the past two months.

When I decided to look at the research and reflect on the numerous side effects of medications that were in my body on this journey, placing giant magnets on my head didn’t seem all that sketchy. Dangerous is not trying this treatment and ending back in a psychiatric ward like I did in 2013.

I think this question (even if it was not intended) also reminds me of the stigma of depression as something lazy. There is still a prevalent school of thought in our culture that medications might be an easier way out instead of diving deep into the roots of depression. To consider this is to disregard the biochemical factors of mental health.

How does the treatment compare to the medications for depression?

The medications I have had to take have had a two-part effect on my life. Although I have been grateful for the balance they’ve given me when I’d sunk too low for “natural” measures to help, they’ve also given me numerous side effects, such as nausea, headaches, stomach problems, and many more I won’t mention.

If you need to take medication for your depression, then you need to take it. Everyone is different and there is no shame coming from me. Zoloft helped me through. Prozac got me out of bed after my daughter was born. Many more have gotten me to a better place but nothing has helped me feel as good as this treatment.

The side effects I had during this treatment were short but included some tension headaches and sometimes clenching of the jaw while sleeping. I didn’t feel any different physically.

Do you have to go back? (Is it a forever solution?)

I told myself at the start of this fall that I’d like to find a trauma-informed therapist (it’s beyond talk therapy), go through two months of TMS treatment, and if I somehow felt better (which I doubted), I wanted to begin the process of getting off Effexor. Since this treatment has helped me better than I expected, I’ve got an appointment with my provider about getting off my depression medication and using my therapist as a weekly guide through that process of emotions. I would then like to use my last insurance-approved sessions of TMS as a tool when the medication is out of my system.

Everyone is different but what I’ve been told from the providers at NeuroStim is that most people don’t return. Others decide to come back if their depression feels too difficult to handle after a couple of years and they end up feeling signification improvement again. The providers also said there are about 25% of people who they never hear from again so we can’t assume anything positive or negative.

Update for April 2024: I went back for ten more sessions in February to help me as I stopped taking Effexor. My doctor created a reduction plan for the dosage and now I am 100% off medications for depression and for fibromyalgia (which is being treated with a MITO food plan and it’s working).

Thank you for allowing me the space to be vulnerable and honest about my battles with depression. I hope you can grant me time to keep writing about it and also be encouraged to read about the joy! I have burst into laughter at my desk and then tears of joy in my car after finishing treatment. The wave of gratitude I feel is a miracle.

Now, I must learn how to heal the parts of me that have been released by the fog of depression. I see the ADHD that was masked and the insecurities of my childhood. Now, I must learn to trust my emotional journey and pray for God to keep leading me out of the mud and mire. I have faith that He can redeem all things.

~ Chanel Riggle