Depression symptoms can vary from person to person. But those living with the condition know how it can interfere with daily life and disrupt relationships. And most people who have gone through one episode of depression will likely have another one.

Many turn to medication to treat their symptoms, but others are taking treatment a step further with something many might view as a step back. Some clinically depressed patients are finding light at the end of a dark tunnel, thanks to electricity.

Looking at Amy Lou Hauge, you would never see the darkness she's been battling.

"I don't think anything brought it on. There was no tragedy or anything.  It just gradually crept up on me. But it got bad," Amy Lou said.

So bad, she says, she couldn't find purpose in life.

"Sometimes it got so bad that I did actually consider doing away with myself. It never got to that point where I would do it, but it went through my mind," Amy Lou said.

"That always scared me. I've tried to watch her and I've caught her in different situations that were very serious," Hauge's husband, Richard, said.

Richard says it got so serious that while visiting family in South Dakota from their home in Florida, she was rushed to Avera Behavioral Health Center.

"It came to the point where there were times she entertained suicide," Richard said.

"I didn't have anything to be depressed about. I've got four fine children, a good husband, no problems to speak of but I was depressed," Amy Lou said.

After an 11-day stay, doctors tried one last thing to bring her relief.

"It had come to the point where we had nothing to lose and everything to gain," Richard said.

She began what doctors now call Electroconvulsive Therapy, also known as ECT, a therapy used in psychiatric treatment for more than 70 years.

"When you say shock treatments everybody thinks 'Oh shock treatments!' And I did too," Amy Lou said.

The stigma attached to the therapy is based on early treatments, which were administered without anesthesia. But Dr. Matt Stanley, Avera Behavioral Health Medical Director, says ECT is quite different today.

"Over the last 20 or 30 years, all the advanced in ECT have been to reduce the side effects and to make the treatment more comfortable and more acceptable to people," Stanley said.

Electric currents are passed through the brain, deliberately triggering a brief seizure.

"Once the patient is asleep and their muscles are blocked, we then go ahead and administer the very brief pulse of electricity and that will stimulate the seizure in the patient," Stanley said.

This seems to cause changes in brain chemistry that can alleviate symptoms of mood disorders, or as Amy Lou calls them, her bad thoughts.

"It's wonderful, really, really wonderful," Amy Lou said.

Over the last two years, She has received treatment nine times and it's changed her life.

"I haven't taken any medication, anti-depressants, since I've had this. I don't know whether I'll need to or not but I haven't so far," Amy Lou said.

"Her quality of life changed completely, back to her old self where she enjoyed things. She loves birds, she loves flowers, and she was happy," Richard said. 

He calls the treatment and this facility their family's second chance.

"If we can relate our experience to someone else, they may find some good there and some hope and realize that there is something that be be done," Richard said.

"That is the reason we do ECT, that is the reason we do everything here. To see people recover like that and regain their life and not just their life, but all other people it touches," Stanley said.

Stanley says there are very few people who are not a candidate for ECT but often patients that are treated haven't responded well to common treatments like anti-depressants. Of course, the treatment may not work as well for every patient. If you would like more information on the treatment click on the link below:

Electroconvulsive Therapy