Using Augmented Reality To Treat Cockroach Phobia

RichDiesal writes "In this blog post, I describe a new use for augmented reality — treating people for cockroach phobia. A recent paper in the academic journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking discusses a system where people suffering from cockroach phobia sit at a desk with a virtual reality headset. The headset has a camera on the front so that patients see the desk they're sitting at — but covered in cockroaches. In the study, researchers managed to elicit a fear response to virtual cockroaches similar to what would be experienced with real cockroaches. Sounds like a little slice of hell to me."

Re:Peril Sensitive sunglasses may be a better opti

[raving griff]

The idea behind this sort of therapy is to confront your fears in a controlled setting. The simulation induces more and more anxiety until you tell the psychiatrist that you are anxious. It is then toned down until you are relaxed again. These therapies are typically used in conjunction with relaxation techniques in an attempt to empower the patient to relax irrational fears away.

Re:Is This A Bad Phobia To Have?

[T Murphy]

It may depend on the degree of the fear. It can be understandable to be frightened of a cockroach enough to back away a few feet and search for a way to dispose of it. It would be irrational to flee the room and refuse to return without coaxing. It would be unhealthy if you then start hyperventilating and turn it into a traumatic event, complete with keeping you up at nights. It would at least be useful to tame a person's fear to a milder form if their fear takes on such an extreme case. I agree it wouldn't be necessary to try to remove the fear altogether.

Re:I thought we already had LSD

[mmaniaci]

LSD won't give you that kind of hallucination. Tree bark will move up and down a tree, grass will swirl into a sort of whirlpool, and lights will become spectral and dance like a thousand tiny ballerinas, but you won't manifest insects on your desk. Psychedelics tend to meddle with your senses to where you hear parts of what you see, and see part of what you hear. The baseline to "All Tomorrow's Parties" becomes everyone's visible heartbeat. The sunset produces a low, comforting drone that pulses with shadows cast by breezy trees. Sex becomes... well, sex on LSD is how I believe we humans came up with God.

I know your post was a joke, but misinformation about LSD is bad, m'kay. Its an absolutely beautiful drug, and if used responsibly and in good company, it can lead to some truly amazing insights and lasting happiness. I don't mean that if you take LSD you'll become Jimi Hendrix, but in the 8 hours of tripping, you will find out more about yourself than you ever thought possible. Oh, and its literally impossible to overdose, but don't take my word for it. If you must do drugs, do them responsibly!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Dangers [wikipedia.org]
Don't take any drug without visiting this site: http://www.erowid.org/ [erowid.org]

Re:How about clowns?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

So, I have to ask if this augmented reality system might work for other fears such as this?

Yes. The military has been using something much like a first person shooter to treat soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. [telegraph.co.uk]

phobia? really?

[strack]

the hell its a phobia. there horrid skittering insects, usually dirty, maybe poisionous, and getting as far away from them as possible or squashing them is a entirely sane way to deal with them. theres no time to distinguish between cockroaches and other more dangerous types before stomping your foot down.

Re:I thought we already had LSD

[Kilrah_il]

Too bad you didn't read your own link:

Psychosis
There are some cases of LSD inducing a psychosis in people who appeared to be healthy prior to taking LSD. In most cases, the psychosis-like reaction is of short duration, but in other cases it may be chronic.

and:

HPPD differs from flashbacks in that it is persistent and apparently entirely visual (although mood and anxiety disorders are sometimes diagnosed in the same individuals). A recent review suggests that HPPD (as defined in the DSM-IV) is rare and affects only a distinctly vulnerable subpopulation of users. However, it is possible that the prevalence of HPPD is underestimated because most of the diagnoses are applied to people who are willing to admit to their health care practitioner that they have previously used psychotropics, and presumably many people are reluctant to admit this.

And those side-effects are not dose-dependents and cannot be prevented by being "responsible".
LSD may not be as bad as other drugs, but it is not good.