For those that don't know me closely, I have been struggling with treatment-resistant depression for years. I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder 25 years ago, and in that time, I have been on close to 20 medications in the hope that I won't always want to feel like attempting suicide or crying constantly. I finally found a psychiatrist, Dr. Reddy with Beacon Behavioral Health, who does more intense interventional therapies. The therapy he has prescribed is called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, or TMS for short.

TMS has been found to be super effective for drug-resistant depression like mine. The short explanation of the treatment is this: strong magnets are placed on my scalp, and the induced magnetic pulses will target specific portions of my brain that are involved in mood stabilization. These pulses recalibrate these centers, alleviating the most debilitating portions of my depression and possibly even removing the need for any antidepressants.

The great thing about this is that one full course of therapy should last me the rest of my life. The bad thing is one full course is 6 weeks of treatment with 5 sessions a week, followed by 3 weeks of treatment with tapered sessions. My insurance will cover the treatments, but the copay for each day is $40. That is a total of $1,440 over the course of 9 weeks.

Currently, my husband and I are struggling financially while I am waiting for my disability claim from the severe effects of long Covid to be approved by the state (I am 15 months and still waiting), but I can't turn down the treatment that could help with my depression.

My treatments start August 26th.

If you can help at all, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dawn