Rehab counselor + ECT survivor (116 Tx) + co-author 8 peer-reviewed ECT experience articles | Enforce FDA 2018 ECT order + mandate post-ECT rehab | #AuditECT
San Diego, CA, USA
Joined February 2013
- Tweets30.5K
- Following3.8K
- Followers4.3K
- Likes73.7K
Pinned Tweet
Family is the basic unit of society. But what happens when a promised "safe and effective" medical procedure acts like a hardrive wipe of all experiences? Relationships rooted in shared experiences are destroyed. 275+ family members shared their experiences with #ECT and how it impacted their loved ones. This peer-reviewed article (published today) in Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.
My dad, a gentle, soft-spoken, hero-of-a-man, had never previously been candid with me about his thoughts witnessing my ECT experience.
When I asked him if he'd be willing to share a statement for the media about the article giving family members a voice, he sent me the following:
“The immediate effects of my daughter’s ECT were startling: memory loss. We are, after all, the sum of our memories. She knew I was her father, but she did not remember anything about our relationship. I was told this would be short-term. They lied. Even worse was the long-term effect on her physical health. It was a prescribed massive electrical injury, again, and again, and again. Typical long-term results of multiple electrical injuries include neurological damage, depression, anxiety, PTSD, migraines, hearing loss, reduced cognitive abilities, and/or attention difficulties, along with chronic pain. She got most of those, plus some extra.”
I wish our ECT experience was an anomaly. I wish that raw pain had been isolated to a single family to protect the others. Sadly, these survey results indicate more families were harmed in ways far worse than I was.
This is why the @FDA must enforce their 2018 ruling adulterating ECT devices and @CMSGov must cut off funding until doctors have training in how to chose an electrical dose that can reliably replicate research findings on their individual patient with a unique head size and shape.
The last survey response highlighted in the article is a devastating example of what can happen when a doctor isn't trained in how to choose a correct dose, the clinic isn't prepared for manufacturer identified treatment consequences, and the hospital's lawyers bury it.
My dad's heartbreaking explanation of his witnessing my ECT experience could have been so much worse in this medically sanctioned Russian Roulette. #AuditECT
@Chris_E_Harrop @LisaTMSA @ReadReadj @BasedMikeLee @MakeAmericaHA
bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wil…
Sarah Price Hancock, MS, CRC ♿ Vent #LDSx retweeted
𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐍 𝐁𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐓: 𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐌 𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐒𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐀 𝐃𝐑𝐔𝐆 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘.
Lauren Bennett, the 36-year-old singer whose voice featured on LMFAO's global hit Party Rock Anthem, has been the subject of an inquest following her death in May 2026.
Her father, Richard Bennett, previously revealed that Lauren had suffered a severe reaction to prescribed medication months before her death. The family had rallied around her, trying to support her through an incredibly difficult period.
At the recent inquest, it was heard that Lauren had continued to report distress about the effects of prescribed medication. She had been receiving specialist mental health care and had met with mental health services just days before her death.
Reports also indicate that she had stopped taking some medication weeks before she died.
And this brings us to an issue that Stephen's Voice has repeatedly challenged.
We are deeply frustrated by the way medication-related harm can be overlooked when toxicology results are presented as though they tell the whole story.
“A toxicology report prepared after her death found 'nothing of toxicological significance’”. Yet she was on numerous prescribed drugs before her death, with noted reactions.
The fact that nothing of significance was found in Lauren's system does not answer the questions about what she had been prescribed, what adverse reactions she experienced, what happened when treatment was changed or stopped, and what she continued to suffer in the weeks and months that followed.
A drug does not have to be detectable in someone's bloodstream for its effects to continue.
We know that prescribed medication can cause prolonged and sometimes devastating effects, including protracted withdrawal, akathisia and persistent sexual dysfunction (PSSD). For some people, the consequences can continue for weeks, months and even years after medication has been discontinued.
This is precisely why medication history matters. We cannot keep reducing complex cases to a toxicology result and overlooking the lived experience of the person who was harmed.
We cannot keep treating the absence of a drug in the body at the time of death as though it somehow excludes the possibility of medication-related suffering beforehand.
And we cannot continue to ignore the accounts of people and families who have witnessed profound changes following prescribed medication.
We are not claiming to know what caused Lauren's death. That is not our place. But we believe the questions surrounding her medication history, reported adverse reactions and subsequent suffering deserve serious attention.
Lauren was a daughter, a wife, a mother and a talented musician. She deserved to be heard, believed and properly supported. Her family deserved answers. Our thoughts are with everyone who loved Lauren 💜
At Stephen's Voice, we will continue to speak for those whose lives have been devastated by prescribed medication, and for the families left trying to make sense of what happened.
#StephensVoice #PrescribedHarm
Sarah Price Hancock, MS, CRC ♿ Vent #LDSx retweeted
psychrecoveryandrehab.com/1-…
VERY HELPFUL PODCAST!
“Write out what went well & Why?”
way better than any gratitude list.
When this kid came to my door trick or treating, I asked him whether he'd make a noise if I hugged ! 🤣 #Halloween
Maybe he was inspired by @RelativeRace on @BYUtv. I feel a future challenge in the works 🤣
ALT Sarah stands smiling, while hooked up to her ventilator, wearing a t shirt that says "Nevertheless she persisted." She's standing next to a trick or treater in a yellow, plastic, inflatable chicken costume that is more than 6 feet tall.
For those of you unfamiliar with #RelativeRace and the running rubber chicken gag across multiple seasons here's a glimpse
youtu.be/F0YH7bdRA8k?si=-Vec…
I watched Season 9, Episode 4 on a particularly challenging day. When the challenge came up at 14:48, I got to laughing so hard my day just melted into laughter. And the best part? Meeting Family!
byutv.org/d9aa6fd3-fda5-4d91…
Sarah Price Hancock, MS, CRC ♿ Vent #LDSx retweeted
Having worked in a clinic that supported patients coming off taking psych meds as prescribed, we had several patients who confided that withdrawing from Benzos, or withdrawing from antidepressants, (or both), was excruciating compared to their kicking Heroin or Cocaine in the 80's and 90's.
Our clinical director would always respond, "Who do you think is more capable of creating a harmful substanc and speaking of it in a way that convinces people it's really safe: A high school dropout making drugs in their garage or a PhD holding biochemist in a fully functional lab?"
Having taken 17 years of prescriptions precisely as ordered, I assure you it's not the garage entrepreneur.
Sarah Price Hancock, MS, CRC ♿ Vent #LDSx retweeted
pressreader.com/article/2820…
Compulsory shock therapy in Scotland.
@PsychRecovery @MITUKteam @LisaTMSA @JDaviesPhD @joannamoncrieff @PGtzsche1 @BentallProf @UELPsychLondon
Hey @drkojosarfo & @LaurenTaylor05, I did an interview for Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners interested in learning about #ECT and how to support patients after the procedure! music.youtube.com/watch?v=RG… #AuditECT
If you feel people injured by a medical device deserve access to appropriate comprehensive assessments and rehab interventions as indicated, please consider adding your signature to more than 15K people who have signed my petition to #AuditECT Change.org/PatientSafetyECT @choo_ek @EricTopol
Sarah Price Hancock, MS, CRC ♿ Vent #LDSx retweeted
A top academic psychiatrist just wrote in JAMA Psychiatry that it's time to be "more transparent" about antipsychotics.
His points: these dopamine blockers can make people depressed and withdrawn, sap motivation, and lead to lives "diminished by a decreased experience of rewards."
We've been saying this for years.
So why now? The author consults for the company behind a new antipsychotic that doesn't block dopamine.
In my field, drug harms rarely get openly discussed until there's an incentive.
If you're on one, don't stop suddenly. Taper slowly with your prescriber.
Comment TAPER and I'll send you my free safe tapering guide.
Sarah Price Hancock, MS, CRC ♿ Vent #LDSx retweeted
High-voltage power lines create a strong oscillating electric field. A fluorescent tube near them acts like an antenna, capacitive coupling induces a small current through the gas inside, exciting the mercury vapor and phosphor so it glows, even without wires. Ground contact =💡
Sarah Price Hancock, MS, CRC ♿ Vent #LDSx retweeted
Before I was started on psychiatric drugs as a teen, I never had a chance to really unpack what was happening in my environment, and how that was shaping the anger and despair I felt. The conclusion, in next to no time, was that I was sick– something was wrong with my brain.
That’s a fundamental part of the medicalization of human suffering — that it ultimately stems from abnormal brain chemistry.
The framing is “something’s wrong with you,” instead of “something’s happened to you.”
Deep inside me, I already had the answers. I just didn’t have the opportunity to be asked the right questions.
@BlakeMycoskie
When considering treatment options for making informed treatment decisions based on raw data, be sure to understand that organizations like UK’s NICE and the US FDA were only using partial data to make their recommendations in the first place.
Yes. NICE set a 3-point difference on the Hamilton scale as the threshold for clinical significance. Kirsch’s FOI analysis of FDA trials found an average drug-placebo gap of 1.8 points. A 2022 FDA patient-level review of 73,000+ participants confirmed roughly 1.75 points overall. That remains below the clinical significance bar for most patients.
Sarah Price Hancock, MS, CRC ♿ Vent #LDSx retweeted
Irving Kirsch obtained the full antidepressant trial data through Freedom of Information requests, including the trials the companies never published. The drugs beat placebo by an average of 1.8 points on the Hamilton scale. The UK's own threshold for clinical significance is three. The published literature had not lied. It had been curated.
Sarah Price Hancock, MS, CRC ♿ Vent #LDSx retweeted
A treatment is not evidence-based if there is nothing in place to reliably replicate positive outcomes outside research settings. ECT providers should tell their patients they have no idea how to reliably give ECT optimizing therapeutic benefits while simultaneously minimizing cognitive side effects. The ECT providers should be telling families and policy makers this, too. They have literally never tested modern ECT devices in Placebo controlled trials--though these devices are 4-6x more current than the old ones. Let that sink in.
In other words, my doctors gave me and my family information to make an "informed treatment choice" based on trial data from a medical device 4-6x weaker than the Thymatron System IV.
Worse, doctors cannot guarantee that what they did to me, won't happen to someone else without dosing protocols based on safety testing using modern devices specs.
To all the psychiatrists saying "it's unethical to withhold treatment" I only have one thing to say...
It's only unethical to withhold treatment when the risks are known and the ability to reliably replicate positive outcomes is in place. The ethics of opperating a medical device which generates either 800 or 900 mA bipolar current for 8 seconds without formal subspecialty training in biophysics of electrical field disbursement or histopathology of electrical injury is far more unethical than withholding a "Treatment" that results in brainstem injury, progressive respiratory ataxia, and dysautonomia. My psychiatrist reassured my parents that ECT was the "safe and effective" "gold standard" for my catatonia without disclosing "the best way to administer ECT with regard to optimizing therapeutic benefit and simultaneously minimizing cognitive side-effects is not known." Nor did they disclose that they had no idea how to help if I was injured and that it would be our responsibility to find medical care for injury.
Perhaps we should talk about medical ethics surrounding Patient abandonment when serious adverse events require rehabilitation and ongoing medical care for injuries caused by treatment? (Before ECT, I didn't use a wheelchair, speech generating device, or ventilator. But ECT's injuries can be continuing and progressive--depending on the type of injury. Turns out microvascular ruptures leave iron deposits which rust, causing secondary injuries that just keep spreading. #AuditECT
Sarah Price Hancock, MS, CRC ♿ Vent #LDSx retweeted
We don't perfect ourselves and then come to Christ.
We come to Christ to be perfected.
President Dallin H. Oaks said to get closer, one step at a time.
A soft amen isn't the assignment.
Act.
Keep covenants.
Share Him.
