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What Can Virtual Reality Therapy Cure?

Virtual reality therapy or VRT is not a good way to experience depression cognitive therapy. It is difficult to simulate the events or situations that trigger depression in a virtual reality environment. VRT does work well in treating phobias, or extreme fears, because the fearful situations can be accurately duplicated.

Common treatment scenarios simulate conditions that induce, for instance, a fear of heights, a fear of spiders, or a fear of public speaking.

Panic disorders can also be effectively treated using VRT because panic triggers like crowded situations, excessive noise, flying in an airplane, and other situations that lead to attacks can be easily replicated. The same is true of social anxiety disorder, a potentially debilitating disease that isolates individuals and creates severe loneliness.

Pros and Cons of Virtual Reality Therapy

Beyond the fact that VRT is limited to specific disorders, there are far more "pros" than "cons" to opting for this line of treatment. Certainly the method offers a number of advantages over traditional "exposure" therapy for the treatment of phobias and anxiety disorders.

Cost

Virtual reality therapy is much less expensive than exposing yourself to real life situations in the company of a therapist. This so-called "exposure therapy" has proven to be the most successful avenue for curing phobias and is much more affordable when conducted in a virtual reality environment.

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Control

Therapists using virtual reality can control the level of exposure the patient receives so there are far fewer surprises and if the patient begins to feel overwhelmed they can ask to end the session immediately. When you face real world situations, there is little control. VRT offers complete control.

Repetition

Repetition is another advantage of the VRT approach. A patient who is having difficulty overcoming a situation can repeat the treatment as many times as necessary to gain control of their reactions.

Safety

Because VRT takes place in a controlled environment under the supervision of a professional, there is no risk of the patient being harmed physically. While the individual's body may respond as if they were standing on the edge of a cliff experiencing vertigo from a fear of heights, there is no real cliff for them to fall over.

Privacy

When a patient undergoes VRT, they do not risk being embarrassed by having a panic attack in a public place. They can build confidence in a safe, private environment. Many individuals who have not responded to traditional exposure therapy find success with VRT for this reason.

While the research surrounding this type of cognitive therapy is promising, many therapists do not use simply because the necessary equipment is expensive. Also, skeptics claim that a virtual reality environment cannot be as successful as real world treatment. But with the positive research surrounding virtual reality therapy, many patients would prefer to take the time to find a therapist with VRT equipment than to face their fears in public.