Hello All, I started my third week of treatment today and wanted to give you all an update. When I first started my treatment my scores for the patient questionnaires were; PHQ-9 mine was 16 and for the GAD-7 mine was also 16. Today my scores were 2 for the PHQ-9 and 0 for the GAD-7, I obviously think it is going quite well for me and very glad i'm doing it.
Overall i find I am becoming the best version of myself that I knew was possible for me. I am much calmer, I have minimal anxiety and my ruminating has greatly decreased. I find my sense of joy and engagement with life has increased and reminds me of when I was a young kid in love with life and the world. I'm making plans and doing things which is great. I have more energy and am able to be present much more in my life. It's also easier to redirect my thoughts and not get stuck dwelling on the past or the negative things going on and bring myself back to the present. I have no social anxiety anymore and have no trouble going out and being in public with people. My quality of sleep has also improved as has my ability to focus and concentrate. My brain just seems to have calmed down and is less negatively active and reactive which is fabulous.
I also haven't had any headaches or any side affects other than my teeth kind of mildly aching when doing the treatment but it goes away almost immediately. I'm amazed at how quickly the treatment goes by too. After my fitting and first treatment I thought I can do this but I wonder if I will actually look forward to doing it like some people had said who did it and I now do look forward to it and the people at the clinic are great.
One of the things I had read about regarding how to make the most out of the treatment was to be prepared and focus on positive constructive affirmations or meditations while doing the treatment or even just do four square breathing for calming meditative breathing, because you are essentially rewiring your brain so I am doing this. I also focus on what I want to feel like and the person I want to be after my treatment is finished.
I'm also grateful that my insurance is covering the majority of my cost although I have a copay. I had tried 6 different meds in two different categories of meds over the years so I qualified by my insurance companies criteria. Some only require you having tried 2 different meds in 2 different categories and some even require more, it varies by insurer and currently there is no standard criteria. I'm in the US and this is based on US insurers. Part of my insurance is through Medicare which I thought would be stricter but apparently it is not. I've read that the out of pocket costs for treatment can run anywhere from 8 thousand to 12 thousand for a full treatment session and hopefully that will come down as it is more widely available and more accepted.
I'm looking forward to updating you all next week and I'm enjoying the ride.
TMS Therapy
