Paris Jackson underwent ‘painful’ electroconvulsive therapy after suicide attempts

Paris Jackson revealed she underwent “painful” ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) while battling depression — but insists it wasn’t a “barbaric” experience.

The 28-year-old explained on Monday’s episode of Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast that her “Happiest Day of My Life” album cover was inspired by her real-world treatment.

In the photo, a hand holds Jackson’s chin as she stares straight into the camera with a bite guard in her mouth.

“I did nine sessions in three weeks,” the singer said of “getting electrocuted” after being “very, very close” to attempting suicide.

“[I was], like, centimeters away,” Michael Jackson’s daughter, who made multiple unsuccessful attempts prior to this, explained.

Paris recalled her doctor telling her, “It’s not as barbaric as it used to be. They use general anesthetic. You’re knocked out when they shock you.”

She detailed the experience, remembering, “I have a lot of metal [piercings], so I had to replace all the metal in my face with plastic earrings. You go in, you get your hospital gown, they knock you out, strap you down, put a bite guard on your mouth [and] electrocute you.”

“It helps with the neuroplasticity in your brain,” Paris continued. “If I’m not mistaken, it’s still the leading most effective form of depression treatment.”

The first couple of sessions were “painful,” she confirmed before describing the “gnarly side effects.”

Paris said, “The first time I woke up, and it was the most sharp pain I have ever experienced inside of my head. It’s soreness from getting electrocuted. … I definitely had days completely not in my head at all.”

Noting that amnesia is one of the side effects, she added, “Friends visited me and I don’t remember even seeing them [even though] I have evidence. … I don’t remember the conversations.”

While Paris was “responding to the treatment” and “it was working” — she said getting “shocked once a month for the rest of [her] life” was “not gonna f–king work” for her.

Instead, she has taken “little bits and pieces of everything along the way” to “flip [her] life on its ass” since “integration is [her] No. 1 thing.”

She explained, “If I’m not integrating the things I learn from these places and these experiences, I’m gonna resort back to how I was feeling before. Without integration, I just kept getting worse and worse.”

Prior to ECT, Paris had tried “everything,” from a “conveyor belt [of] of medication” and “five different institutions” to CBD, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and eye movement desensitization (EMDR.)

She quipped, “I had talked to the empty chair, held the pillow, beat the things with bats while screaming.”

Paris got “relief for a week” from shots of lidocaine into nerves in her neck, as well as “a couple months of relief” after another treatment — her “longest stint.”

Once Paris tried transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) — which “helped a little bit with [her] OCD but had no effect on [her] depression” — her psychiatrist brought up ECT.

Paris now focuses on using “holistic health” to keep her healing “sustainable” and sees a behavioral specialist for her OCD.

She talked about her experiences in talk therapy as well but said she recently “plateaued” after “looking under every stone.”

Paris previously opened up about her suicide attempts in a 2017 Rolling Stone interview.

“It was just self-hatred, low self-esteem, thinking that I couldn’t do anything right, not thinking I was worthy of living anymore,” she said at the time. “I was doing a lot of things that 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds shouldn’t do. I tried to grow up too fast, and I wasn’t really that kind of a person.”

Paris, who has been doing a press tour promoting her album this month, told “Call Her Daddy” listeners last week about “reach[ing] for things outside of [her]self” to help her “manage” all her life, from drugs to self-harm.

“It’s kind of always been present, this idea that … I need something,” Paris, who has been sober for six years, said.

Elsewhere in the emotional sitdown, Paris pulled back the curtain on her childhood with Michael, the moment she met mom Debbie Rowe and more.

If you or someone you know needs help in the US, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.