Dr. Jack Feldman

You can envision depression as activity sort of going around in a circuit.

And because it's continuous in the nervous system, as signals keep repeating, they tend to get stronger.

And they can get so strong, you can't break them.

And I mean, all of us get depressed at some point.

But if it's not continuous, it's not long-lasting, we're able to break it.

Well, there are extreme measures to break it.

We could do electroconvulsive shock.

We shock the whole brain.

That's disrupting activity in the whole brain.

And when the circuit starts to get back together again, it's been disruptive.

And we know that the brain, when signals get disrupted a little bit, we can weaken the connections.

And weakening the connections, if it's that in the circuit involved in depression, we may get some relief.

An electroconvulsive shock does work for relieving many kinds of depression.

Focal deep brain stimulation does the same thing, but more localized or transcranial stimulation.

You're disrupting a network, and while it's getting back together, it may weaken some of the connections.

If breathing is playing some role in this circuit...

And now, instead of doing like a one-second shock, I do 30 minutes of disruption by doing slow breathing or other breathing practice.

Those circuits begin to break down a little bit.

and I get some relief.

And if I continue to do it before the circuit can then build back up again, I gradually can wear that circuit down.