Common PC Video Games Used To Treat Phobias

NoData writes "Treating phobias with exposure therapy--gradually putting patients in fear-inducing situations, is a well-established method, even using virtual means, like VR simulators. However, now CNN is reporting on research that shows off-the-shelf PC video games can effectively treat phobias as well. Games like "Half-Life" were used to treat arachnophobia, and "Unreal Tournament" to treat acrophobia and claustrophobia."

Comments

Curing?!

[DrEldarion]

What are they talking about? Half-life GAVE me arachnophobia. Now whenever I go through a dark narrow space, I start imagining huge spiders jumping up at me and gnawing at my head.

-- Dr. Eldarion --

Duh!

[neostorm]

Japanese Dating Sims have been helping adolescent men combat their fear of approaching the opposite sex for years now!

Re:Duh!

[Lord_Dweomer]

While your comment was obviously a joke, I wonder if there will one day be software that could do just that. Not every guy can go out to the mall and approach 10 girls to build his confidence. A virtual reality dating sim might be able to help him do just that. And before someone makes a crack about my comment, realize that it is increasingly common in this day and age for boys to not feel confident enough to approach girls, so this is a real problem that needs some solutions.

It works!

[RecoveredMarketroid]

Grand Theft Auto cured me of my phobia of going to prison for running over pedestrians...

Worked for me.

[Mr. Flibble]

Ok, this is a kind of a scary admission - especially for slashdot... Anyhow, here goes.

When I was about 6, my Dad got a pirated copy of Aliens (video stores did not exist at that time) and he sat down to watch it. I wanted to watch it with him (mistake!!!)

I had nightmares of the Alien, for years, and I always found it creepy - I hated even looking at H. R. Gigers Alien's. More recently, I picked up a copy of Alien vs. Predator - and I played through the entire game. It was difficult at first, but after getting used to killing Aliens (and being killed...) My fear went away. Irrational fear? Yes, but it was a fear I had none the less.

On a separate note, my friend saw The Exorcist when he was about 6 too, and he had nightmares about it. Recently he got the DVD extended version, and forced himself to watch it about 20 times. The movie no longer bothers him either.