USING VIRTUAL REALITY THERAPY TO TREAT PHOBIAS
Phobias:
Virtually reality therapy is commonly utilized for the treatment of phobias. The patient is progressively exposed to their fear, whether it pertains to a specific phobia, social phobia, or agoraphobia. Eventually, the patient is gradually desensitized to their fear and can experience it in the real world.
*The photo refers to the use of VRT in treating a specific phobia -- a fear of spiders.
Using the spider phobia as an example, a therapist would expose the patient to a hierarchy of phobic situations pertaining to spiders. For example, a patient may stand across the room from a contained spider, then stand next to a closed jar of a spider, then stand next to an open jar of a spider, then touch a spider, and finally hold a spider in their hand. Everything is customized for the patient, so the hierarchy of events depends entirely on the individual's condition and preferences (Virtual Reality Medical Center).
- A type of anxiety disorder
- According to the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), phobias can be divided into three different types:
- Specific phobia- a fear of a specific object or situation, such as spiders or flying
- Social phobia- a fear of public, social situations or other people. There are two types of social phobia: generalized social phobia (social anxiety disorder), which occurs in all social situations or specific social phobia, which pertains to a specific social event
- Agoraphobia- a fear of crowded or open spaces
- These fears bring about excessive anxiety in anticipation of the object or situation and in the presence of them
Virtually reality therapy is commonly utilized for the treatment of phobias. The patient is progressively exposed to their fear, whether it pertains to a specific phobia, social phobia, or agoraphobia. Eventually, the patient is gradually desensitized to their fear and can experience it in the real world.
*The photo refers to the use of VRT in treating a specific phobia -- a fear of spiders.
Using the spider phobia as an example, a therapist would expose the patient to a hierarchy of phobic situations pertaining to spiders. For example, a patient may stand across the room from a contained spider, then stand next to a closed jar of a spider, then stand next to an open jar of a spider, then touch a spider, and finally hold a spider in their hand. Everything is customized for the patient, so the hierarchy of events depends entirely on the individual's condition and preferences (Virtual Reality Medical Center).