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Military Uses Virtual Iraq To Treat PTSD

Posted by samzenpus on from the virtually-fixed dept.

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."

4 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Boo-Hoo... by morari · · Score: 0, Troll

    I'd be more sympathetic if these morons weren't voluntarily signing their lives away to an uncaring government.

    --
    "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    1. Re:Boo-Hoo... by morari · · Score: 0, Troll

      Bzz--wrong!

      The soldiers need to "think harder" before singing up.

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
  2. i)nformwative dolldoll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    ASSOCIATION OF

  3. Re:Other PTSD programs by ShieldW0lf · · Score: -1, Troll

    Repeated exposure to the horror can desensitize individuals and help them stay calm enough to reprocess what happened and get beyond it.

    Great... so they desensitize individuals to horrific things, then chuck them back amongst the population like piles of dogshit under the snow. Why don't they just call the program Making Monsters?

    In all seriousness, they need to give these men NurseWhores to reconnect them with other people, not help them kill whatever humanity remains with vividly brutal video games. If this is how they're fixing them, they should just call them casualties of war and kill them quickly and painlessly.

    --
    -1 Uncomfortable Truth