Mental illness is a widespread issue (with 25% of adults in developed countries dealing with some kind of mental condition). Unfortunately, nearly 60% of people didn’t look for treatment to manage it last year.
Many mental illnesses are still frequently dismissed and stigmatized by society, and to make matters worse, many people that seek help find themselves with a lack of options.
Psychotherapy and medications are available to help treat symptoms, but studies have found that between 30-40% of people only get partial remission of symptoms, and up to 15% of people get no relief from these treatments.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy is often used when these other treatments fail, but you might be fearful that it won’t help either. You may be concerned that it might make things worse and be less inclined to give it a chance.
Let’s try to put your concerns to rest and explore how TMS therapy works, how it affects the brain, and look at a phenomenon known as “the dip” that you may experience in treatment.
If you are in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area and need help for mental illness and have questions about TMS, the team at Vital TMS Therapy is here to ease your concerns and get you the help you need.
How TMS therapy works
With this noninvasive, outpatient process (also referred to as repetitive TMS or rTMS because it uses repeating magnetic pulses) we use magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in your brain to improve numerous conditions. That involves placing a device with a magnetic coil on your head, which releases magnetic pulses. The treatment lasts about 20 minutes and is done five days a week for seven weeks.
Since this method of treatment is noninvasive and doesn’t require medications, you don’t have many issues with side effects. The procedure stimulates specific nerve cells in targeted areas of your brain. By treating nerve cells in a part of the frontal lobe of the brain, we can treat depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Understanding the “dip”
A small percentage of people experience what is known as a TMS dip, which happens when depression or anxiety symptoms return for a short period (about two to three weeks) into treatment. That is likely a result of your brain adjusting to the changes the treatment is making and will pass. It is important to stay with the treatment, as you will improve.
Getting help for mental illnesses is essential, and TMS therapy can help. If you’re looking for help or have concerns about treatment for mental illness, contact Vital TMS Therapy today.
