Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Therapy: What's your experience?

May I ask how many weeks, time per session, and any side effects during treatment?
Also when did you first notice difference of feeling better?
Appreciate your time!
Thank you!!

8 weeks, 5 days week, 20 minutes
Gradually
No side effects.
100 % covered by insurance
Requires no drinking - 2-3,weeks before starting and during the 8 week treatment

Thank you greatly!!

When did you first notice improvement ?

After first 2 weeks. They do recommend the full 8 weeks.
Stanford has an accelerated 10 consecutive day program but would need to travel there.

in reply to @brandysparks Thank you for the nice response. So far my near year is working out fairly well. I would like to share some very good news I received yesterday, simply because my zombie sister and my demented friend had no clue what I was so excited about.
I subscribe to the Immunodeficiency Foundation and a few months ago they sent me some information about a conference they are having in Chicago in June. For those who wanted to attend but did not have the funds to do so they could apply for a "scholarship" to help them with the cost of the trip. In my email yesterday I received a "congratulations" about being awarded a scholarship which will pay for the airfare and hotel accommodations for the conference. I did have to write about why I wanted to attend and why I needed financial assistance. In terms of the financial assistance I only told them that my former partner absconded with my retirement account and that I rely upon Social Security Disability as my sole source of income. I did not stretch the truth by any means, just gave them some basic facts. I was so astonished when I opened my email yesterday because I had totally forgotten about my application. Naturally my sister did not believe me and downplayed the whole thing, although she did say she could drive me to the airport if I choose to go. I have until March 30 to decide.
It's about time something good has happened to me, and just to be sure I will call the Foundation on Monday to make sure their message to me is "real" because I still cannot believe I got this scholarship! I also mentioned I wanted to attend so I could learn more about this aspect of my health problem and meet others with the same issues. I am very familiar with Chicago, and once thought about moving there after making several trips to visit a college friend. However, once I learned that all the women wore fur coats because of the cold, I knew I would never survive, even though I was offered a very good job. Why am I so "nervous" when in fact, I should be totally excited?
Also, I will soon be fostering a dog and hopefully be paired with another pitbull that I can adopt. I decided that since it has been nearly 2 years since my dog died, I was ready for a new companion, despite the fact that my neighbors tell me, "you are too sick to have a dog." What is wrong with people?

For what it is worth, now I am crying because very few of my "friends" or "family" seem to understand what is wrong with me and why this opportunity means so much to me. I am sorry.
Yesterday I went out shopping, nearly got hit by a car while in the crosswalk, arrived home and broke out in tears. I tried to chase down the idiot who ran the red light, but he saw me coming and sped off. I wanted to scream at him!

So sorry to hear about the near-miss - it sometimes seems like every public outing is fraught with a feeling of a potential "near-miss"...just navigating parking lots, for example, with people wandering around seemingly clueless of walking behind cars with rear brake lights on, cars going the wrong way, etc etc.

As for your scholarship award to the conference - I think this is really exciting! I happen to love conferences (though NOT travel by plane these days), and you are very comfortable with the locale, and invested in this group and subject, so I say "You Go, Girl!", and let us know how it went when you return!

Seems like a very positive venture, with lots of long-term - and short-term - benefits!

Anyone else try Transcranial magnetic stimulation ?

I realize this is an old post, but I wanted to add a bit in case someone comes here in the future.

For me, the physical sensation of the magnets is like a tapping on my head, or like someone tugging one hair out. Depending on the placement of the coils, sometimes my jaw twitches. Some people get headaches, but I don't have that problem. There's also a tapping sound and some people put in ear plugs, but it doesn't bother me much. Maybe I should use them anyway.

I like the prep before the magnets - they use a stylus and basically give you a good head scratch to line up the computer with the 3D model of a head so they can aim at the right area in your brain. They do use the stylus on 5 or 6 points on your head first. Some people might find that part anxiety provoking - two of those are at the outer corner of each eye. If you have some trouble with that, you might be able to ask your technician to rest their hand on your head before the use the stylus on those points. It can give you a better sense of where they are and what's going on. Some people don't like that kind of physical contact either, though, so maybe another option is to ask them to count to 3 to let you know when the stylus will touch.

I think that's about what I can think of as far as physical sensations go.

My TMS treatments are 36 days with just a couple minutes for each "dose" (not sure what they're called) each of those days. When I had my first TMS treatment, at about day 30, I gave up the idea that it would work. I wasn't feeling any changes. I decided to see it through till the end. On day 34, very suddenly and dramatically, I started experiencing emotions I hadn't felt in decades. I didn't even know how to feel or describe the emotions I was having. It lasted for 2 or 3 months. It was hard for me to tell what was going on as it faded because it didn't follow the usual pattern of my depression. Emotional changes jumped around and it was hard to tell if I was just having a couple bad days or if the effects were wearing off more long-term. It did eventually completely fade, though. I couldn't have another treatment till several months after that because of insurance.

My second treatment wasn't so successful. I felt a little relief, but nothing like the first treatment. My third technician said that this second technician put the coil in a different place trying to get a better result. I still don't quite understand why a couple mm difference is significant, especially considering the placement of the coil doesn't seem that precise. The pattern of my depression stayed irregular. I still had to wait the full amount of time till my next treatment, and they added a bunch more paperwork.

My third and latest treatment was somewhere in between. On the last two days I had some actual depression-free positive emotions, but nothing as impressive as the first treatment. I'm still seeing how that will go.

I hate the weekends because, with no actual basis in fact or anything else, I feel like I might be losing ground. I don't feel worse emotionally or anything, so there's no reason to think that's actually true. I probably just don't know enough about the science, so my anxiety has free reign.

I'm not a doctor. I wonder if there are some people that need more than 36 sessions to feel an effect. I wonder if there are ways to get better coil positioning. The software could definitely use some work. I'm trying to live my life in between these islands of possible relief. So far, it's still better than trying to live my life without possible relief.