The Treatment That Took My Anxiety From 8 to 1
In a Nutshell
Accelerated TMS, especially the Stanford-developed SAINT protocol, delivers 3-5 months of conventional depression/OCD/anxiety treatment in 5 intensive days, achieving 70-80% remission rates. Speaker's first 5-day course dropped severe OCD ruminations and 8/10 anxiety to zero for 3-4 months, with even better sustained results (to 1/10) from a recent one-day session enhanced by D-cycloserine for neuroplasticity. Combine with intermittent ketosis and metabolic psychiatry basics like exercise/diet for transformative quality-of-life gains unresponsive to meds.
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Accelerated TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) is a type of brain stimulation that has existed for decades, with dramatic improvements in hardware and software over the last 5-10 years, especially the last 5 years, thanks to researchers like Nolan Williams at Stanford, who passed away in the last 6 months.
Conventional TMS involves placing a paddle against the head to produce a magnetic field that excites or inhibits specific brain circuitry. It can treat depression, neurodegenerative diseases, anxiety, OCD, depending on coil placement. Accelerated TMS compresses 3-5 months of conventional TMS into one week: 10 hours a day, every hour on the hour, with 3-9 minutes of pulses followed by 50 minutes off.
The SAINT protocol (developed at Stanford) produces 70-80% remission of depression in many patients, which is durable. Typically a 5-day sequence, followed by 1-3 day boosters at 3 and 6 months.
Speaker has experimented with accelerated TMS over the last few years. First treatment had near-miraculous results: officially diagnosed moderate-severe OCD with ruminative loops (not compulsions like flipping switches, but inescapable thought loops on grudges, fears, planning, conversations), causing insomnia, fatigue, depression. Sequence starts with anxiety. Symptoms at 7-8/10 (severely affecting all life aspects) before 5-day treatment.
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