Anxiety treatment using Virtual Reality
Updated: 2 days ago
VR therapy can be a very helpful treatment for anxiety. It creates a simulation of real-world environments that people can work on their fears in the form of exposure therapy.
Additionally, VR can teach mindful skills to patients, helping them to deal with a generalized anxiety disorder. What to do when it happens? How to deal with it? How do they prevent a crisis? Monitored by a therapist, VR Experiences can provide very real situations and could help on how to react to these.
There are very other cases that VR can be helpful to treatment, such as phobias, anxiety (including pre-surgical anxiety), stress, and chronic pain. Conditions treated include specific phobias such as fear of flying, fear of driving, fear of heights, fear of public speaking, claustrophobia, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder due to motor vehicle accidents. A VR simulation, monitored by a therapist at a safe place, where at every step the therapist can see and hear what the patient is experiencing in the virtual world, is invaluable.
Exposure therapy is a type of behavior therapy that treats anxiety disorders and gradually puts the person in real-world situations that trigger anxiety. Over time, one is able to face the threatening condition with less anxiety over time.
Therapists also can provide through VR some programs to relax patients by making a safer environment, relaxed to make patients talk, and deal with their anxiety and fears.
Based by Virtual Reality Medical Center Website