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Military Uses Virtual Iraq To Treat PTSD
Hugh Pickens writes "Traditionally the best treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] — being raped, narrowly escaping the collapse of the Twin Towers, or witnessing a buddy die on the battlefield — is to have the person relive the trauma using his or her imagination. Repeated exposure to the horror can desensitize individuals and help them stay calm enough to reprocess what happened and get beyond it. Now Clinical Psychologist Albert "Skip" Rizzo has developed a program that has had great success in treating returning troops from Iraq. A soldier with PTSD recounts what happened, and a therapist seated before a computer then creates an environment in the program Virtual Iraq that captures the essential elements of the episode. By donning special goggles, the soldier can see a reenactment and while the simulation starts off relatively tame over the course of several weeks, the therapist monitors the patient 's response and more elements of the episode are introduced until the individual can finally go through an intensely vivid recreation of it without being overpowered by terror. Other programs offered to treat PTSD include Virtual Airplane, Virtual Audiences, Virtual Heights, Virtual Storm, and Virtual Vietnam."
Doesn't any of the 100 million war themed FPS work?
You do know that exposure therapy is the most effective (and sadly, just about the only) treatment for PTSD? It really is amazingly effective, and has been backed up by a large number of peer-reviewed studies as being an excellent tool.
This seems to be the next generation of exposure therapy. I say bravo to the VA for pushing lead-edge therapies (that have significant literature backing their efficacy) that may help save a number of our individuals form lifetimes of hurt. One of the tragedies of this war is that many of our promising youth are being lost not only to death, but to serious mental illness. If we can help them overcome their problems, we may not lose the significant talent that many of these young soldiers have.
The problem is that the individual is likely to suffer from flashbacks whenever similar simple events happen in the real world. If they are walking down the street, and hear a loud noise such as a car backfiring, a container door being slammed, or some construction work, it would trigger those memories causing them to freeze-up, get angry or be unhappy.
The idea of this treatment is to desensitize them to these events so that those memories aren't triggered.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I couldn't imagine being a rape victim and being subject to this.... "Welcome to Virtual Rape 1.0 - Simulated Rape to help enable you to conquer your fears"
Your evaluation period for Productivity 1.0 has ended. Please purchase more coffee to continue using this product.
Thank you for both of your posts. My sentiments exactly. I've actually had an American acquaintance of mine die of complications from undiagnosed diabetes because he couldn't get healthcare coverage in that lovely capitalist paradise. He was in his twenties and his death is frankly unnecessary and tragic.
I sure see a viable market for it though...
I was doing research on PTSD a few years back for personal reasons. The studies I found were quite shocking to say the least. PTSD isn't just caused by being on the battle field or having one major traumatic event happen. Most of the things people go to therapists for; depression, anxiety, trust issues, etc. are all symptoms of milder forms of trauma. It's all PTSD. Dr. Amen, one of the leading psychiatrists in the world on brain scanning technology has scanned thousands of people. The scans he does sense chemical-electric activity in the brain. What he's found is very, very few people actually have healthy brain activity; most people have suffered from trauma. The general populace seems to see it though as "that's life" rather than seeing mental illness as the plague of humanity. Mental illness is truly a disease as it's contagious; people tend to reenact their trauma and in doing so traumatize others. And most treatment is laughable to say the least. Different types of treatment were tested on Viet Nam vets. The combination of talk or cognitive therapy with pharmacolatherapy and relaxation exercises only had a 15% recovery rate.Then I discovered a fairly new therapy called EMDR (Eye Movement, Desensitization & Reprocessing). It was developed and has been tested since the mid-80's. The recovery rate was far higher; 85% of all patience diligently engaged in weekly sessions recovered. So the question is, why isn't there more media coverage of this? Why aren't more therapists trained in something that actually works?
Before i prattle on...
I wonder how many other people have been fucked by their recruiters, only to end up demoralized, deserting, and getting into constant trouble all to their detriment. All in all, i came out OK, but some people do NOT. Just back in 2007, some 3 to 5 US soldiers a DAY were attempting suicide in Iraq, and some 2,000 + attempts were documented. Many more than that might have and not be diagnosed as having PTSD and other issues on return to the US.
For an interesting story of one soldier who had PTSD after serving in Iraq around 2007, listen to NPR (I think it was "This American Life" or another program about a US Solider who returned to the US and ended up joining his campus' Muslim group in order to deal with his trauma and personal issues that the US military could not directly help him cope with.
"How about if Virtual Rape 1.0" applied to lazy recruiters and unsympathetic R&O (Receiving & Outfitting)/Indoc personnel's victims? My story is not NEARLY as painful as that of those who were shot at or had to kill because of being under orders to be where a fight was going to take place, but...
In my 10th grade year (81-82:
-- I was a member of the Henry Nichols Detachment of the Young Marines in Galveston
-- I was a member of the Ball High Army Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps and in one year was promoted to Cadet Staff Sgt, was a member of the match rifle team, shot expert, and earned some 8 or 12 ribbons, made squad leader, and then moved on the San Jose
From 11th through 12th grades (82-83, 83-84), i:
-- was a member of the Milpitas High Navy JROTC unit, earning several more ribbons, and was on the color guard. We didn't have a match rifle team. Before being allowed to join the unit, I was forced to give up my rank attained in AJROTC, despite national rules stating that cadets could transfer to other branches' units and retain rank if military aptitude and other things were demonstrable. I was already intent on joining the USN (and did later). But, unit/teenager politics prevailed, and some cadets who outranked me and whom i don't recall actually joining the military didn't want me to appear from nowhere and outrank THEM. They even conspired to have the unit commander request me to remove my ribbons and not wear more than a few of them if they couldn't find a corresponding NJROTC ribbon or medal.
After putting up with that bullshit for 2 years, I only made it to cadet Ensign, and had I stayed at Ball High, I would have been in line for battalion commander, from what I was told by one of my best friends who remained in the unit until we graduated (same ages/grades, but i left Galveston). I was Mr. A-Jay Squared Away, and the YM detachment commander and the JROTC commander were both squabbling over who had me first and which of their unit events took precedence over the other.
When i signed up for the Delayed Entry program at the recruiting station at McKee Road in San Jose, the US Army, USMC AND the US Air Force recruiters were *begging* my recruiter (i had two of them, as one transitioned out) to let THEM have me, in trade for two or three of their own. They'd all seen or heard of me, and sometimes saw me in full uniform, with medals and ribbons, Corfam/Patent Leather shoes, sharp-crease ironed uniforms and so on.
I filled out ALL the required paperwork my recruiter presented to me. I was eligible for early advancement to E-3 upon successful graduation of boot camp. But, ahhh, while I was placed in Drill Company because I was a member of the aforementioned military-affiliated units, my recruiter dicked up and did NOT process nor fill out any paperwork recognizing my service in the various units, and being stupid, i just *accepted* that the USN would do the right thing. It was painful, watching my fellow booters/shipmates with their paperwork all filled out properly getting their 3 stripes, yet i had to excel and outperform dozens of peers for over a YEAR after arriving at USS Flint (AE-32).
After leaving San Diego aft
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
What would they do, simulate an attack and then throw on a porn video with your face crudely pasted over the others. This sounds like either a sick video/video game or a bad reference. Lets hope at least.
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* profit
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
Morale is high because Iraq seems to be turning around. I know, I know, it's been said before.
But if "body counts" is your best metric then you have no choice but to rejoice, because they're nowhere near what they were in 2006. Iraqis have finally turned against the insurgency and started cooperating with US troops. The result has been a dramatic decrease in violence in Iraq, and now most of the country - including the former strongholds of the insurgency - is actually voluntarily under Iraqi control. The difference between the Iraq in the throws of insurgency and the Iraq of 2008 is enormous.
If you're a Marine who passed up college or came out of retirement to go to there, seeing it turn around is about the best thing in your whole world. It means you get to go home (or at least on to Afghanistan); perhaps with some shame, but ALSO with some pride. That's what's got your morale high.
The simple techniques of EFT (http://www.emofree.com/) seem to have a very positive affect on all types of emotionally charged internal problems. In the cases of treating PTSD, it has been extremely affective. My son is in the army and will be deployed next spring - I've talked with him about this and shown him how it works - I hope that it will help when he encounters the problems of being "on" 24/7 for months at a time.